"How can I think I'm good enough when I'm constantly being told on Instagram that I'm not"?
The question many tweens and teens ask themselves everyday and a dilemma many of them face. During Week Two with 20 tweens, we were able to explore several topics such as girl drama in the online world, girl cliques, taking a walk in my shoes, self harm/suicide, media advertisements, and social media expectations.
It's not easy. As 11, 12 and 13 year olds, middle school girls are feeling like they aren't worthy enough because they're constantly being told they're not pretty enough, skinny enough, tanned enough, tall enough, etc... Or they're constantly being put down because of what they wear, what they eat, how they stand, how they sit, are they hanging out mostly with boys because if they are then they're hoes or if they're hanging out with girls, then they're catty."It's never enough for society". With lessons plans from "Girls in Real Life Situations", and films like "Miss Representation", we were able to go in depth and have real conversations about what are we really being told when we're online.
As educators, we can drill it into the heads of our girls to believe in themselves, don't feed into the drama, be proud of the you that you are becoming, etc... but realistically, how can we compete with the media outlets who tell them otherwise?
We asked 20 girls to describe what they believe to be is the perfect woman: Below are the results.
The girls were given very little instruction. Simply, draw up the perfect woman. They focused on everything from body image all the way up to name and race. It simply goes to show how intuned they are with what they believe is the idea of "perfect". They then had to fill out a silhouette representing their own self and discuss how they relate to the perfect woman they drew and whether they are struggling to be the perfect woman they portrayed.
Taking the time to have conversations and going fully in depth with females about body image, social media expectations, and taking care of oneself is not a typical conversation they may have on the regular basis. Tweens and Teens will simply go with the flow and try to fit into the perfect ideal image which is UNREALISTIC. Encourage the conversations, provide the resources and allow all types of questions.
Be the educator you wish you had when you were growing up.
-SchoolCounselorJenna