Teens Talk Back-Hyperlinks

Did anyone know there was a petition online that asked the editors of Seventeen Magazine to publish one spread each month of an unaltered image of a real person?  You can click here to view the results of the petition!  This petition was started by a group of teen girls wanting the magazine to publish and print real photographs of diverse girls without the us of photo editing or enhancement.  The girls were victorious in their endeavors and got Seventeen to not only apply this to one spread, but they agreed to not make any changes to any of their models!  The same group of teenagers tried to get Teen Vogue to do the same and they refused.  So the teenagers took a different approach and started a protest to get products such as Neutrogena and Tampax to stop advertising in Teen Vogue Magazine.  The teenagers are relentless and are great role models not only for teen issues but amazing leaders. Click here to view the video about the Teen Vogue protest.  Below is a picture of the teens protesting, one of the signs reads, #keepitreal in reference to Teen Vogue.

"Let's Make Halloween About the Boo not the Boobs" is the catchy title to a blog on the Teen Voice Magazine.  This online magazine is composed of numerous blogs written by teens, for teens.  This blog post was about a teenager's resentment about how slutty Halloween costumes are.  She takes a Disney Snow White costume and describes how this costume evolves for every age bracket from girls to women.  First, she describes the costume for young girls as unaltered and still princess looking, for teens, the costume appears to become shorter and a little more fitted and for adult women, it is short, corseted and advertised as, "A Sexy Snow White" costume. I found this blog to relate to our discussions in class and our texts about the princess culture. We can see that the culture of the girly princess is promoting sexuality in females.  Little girls may get mixed messages at Halloween when they see their older sisters or even mothers dressed as their favorite Disney princess but in a much sexier outfit.  I copied and pasted this quote from the teen's blog.  I think she sums up her point about her rant on sexual consumes: 

"These overly sexual costumes imply that it’s only our physical appearance that matters –and we all know we have more to share than cleavage. We’re open-minded, individual girls who should be wearing creative, innovative costumes – and that doesn't mean giving the impression that our one goal in life is to become a stripper or Hugh Hefner hanger-on when we grow up."

Lastly, an Advocacy Committee lead by teen ambassadors Benjamin O'Keef and Cali Linstrom meet with Abercrombie and Fitch following a protest in Chicago by the Committee.  The protest was focused on getting Abercrombie's attention to reconsider its position on size limitations.  The teens met with Abercrombie and Fitch and expressed the following concerns:

• There are no sizes above size 10
• They need to eliminate size 0
• More individualization of teen body types
• Reduce blatant sexualization of its ads and expand choice of models
• Consider diversity training for its employees
• Support their organization (Proud2Bme) and become a leader for anti-bullying and diversity

Abercrombie listened and will take into consideration the concerns and suggestions of the teens.  Click here to watch a summer commercial by Abercrombie and Fitch and you will see the teenagers have an excellent argument!

Some thoughts for class, how can we get teens to use their voices to stand up for themselves and go against mainstream media?  Should schools have programs, clubs or classes offered to teach kids key leadership skills?  What gives these teens the drive to push and be bold like this?