Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

September 1, 2010 It’s the first of September, as the first day of school angst bubbles up throughout the nation on either side of this ‘premiere’ week. (many have started school already, some are about to)

A welcoming ‘first day?’ Hardly. This is classic online product placement meets mean girl drek in “First Day: The Series,” an abysmal branding collaboration between  K-Mart and Alloy Media. “A new series from the executive producers of Pretty Little Liars” made me wince,  knowing full well that Alloy isn’t exactly on my BFF list (per my piece about their Gossip Girl show) And that they’d be bringing their behavioral blights on the trashy media landscape to relentlessly push their vapid values via digital engagement to kids.

I suppose I should be relieved this horrid absurdity is limited to a ‘merchantainment’ digital ditty rather than a full blown TV series, but they’ve hit a new low by giving us a snapshot of “what’s wrong with our culture” in a handy compressed 8-series, 8+minutes each episodic, which enables them to skirt the FTC rules of product integration by taking it online to target kids with snark, sneers and oh, yes, LOTS of sales pitches. Careful retailing industry, branding backlash could cost you even more in this recession.

Lest you think I’m exaggerating the teencentric crud and cues, here’s a transcript of some of the opening dialog, as the bonafide mean girl upends her older sibling in her own “pathetic” home: “First day of school determines who you’re gonna be friends with, which determines if a guy is gonna like you which determines if you’ll ever be kissed, because after awhile you build it up and you get all nervous, until you’re 25 and totally unkissable…and…” Yadayada. Trust me it gets even worse. (more…)

August 31, 2010 “Be you!” Riiiiight.

In a media environment that cynically exploits how to act, what to wear, why to buy and who to be, girls are repeatedly told to “be themselves.”

GirlsHealth has a perky “Be healthy. Be happy. Be You. Be Beautiful” site.

Girls Inc is “inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold.”

Jess Weiner is “Creating A Nation of Confident Women and Girls.” Courtney Macavinta’s holding RespectRx rallies. Rosalind Wiseman is “creating cultures of dignity,” pairing mother/daughters in a Dove Go Fresh sponsored “Girl World Tour” tackling girls’ relational aggression…

…AND in two weeks,  Curse of the Good Girl author Rachel Simmons is coming to the Bay Area with “Be You! The Real Girl Tour.” (here’s my prior interview with Rachel when Curse of the Good Girl launched. Sounds like a heckuvalotta girlpower eh?

It’s actually just a teeny weeny course correction in a rip-roaring, ever-changing sea, as these leaders help girls navigate away from pop culture icebergs running them aground in today’s media messaging and marketing environment. In fact, my first reaction to hearing the phrase “Be You” was “fergawdsakes they’re TRYING, but it’s easier said than done!” (more…)

July 21, 2010 Can you hear the drumbeat, Hollywood? It’s getting louder.

Girl advocates like Jessica Lawrence head to Capitol Hill to discuss H.R. 4925 tomorrow to share firsthand data about how depictions of women and girls in the media affect youth health and are landing sideways.

Small business entities like Melissa Wardy of  Wisconsin based PigtailPals has devoted an entire product line to “Redefining Girly” hoping to accentuate a fresh, girl-positive reality for our children. (WI is legislative home-state for HR 4925)

Today we’ll hear from both of these advocates for girls in part two of our Healthy Media Youth Act coverage, asking some tough questions about whether this bipartisan legislation has sharp teeth to be actionable and chomp down on worst offenders profiting on the backsides of kids, or whether it’s more of a nibble, nosh and nudge to stop devouring childhood and raise awareness for consumer action. (more…)

July 12-16, 2010: Healthy Media for Youth week!

Fed up with “boy chasin’ bed swappin’ lip-lickin’ hottie-hoochie booty-bouncin’ appearance-is-everything” cues comin’ at your girls?

Yah, so are we. It’s damaging, destructive, and fouling up a healthy sense of sexuality and self-worth as girls are objectified and ‘sold’ a bill of goods about behaviors, bodies, and what society values with a narrowcasted fixation that’s head-spinningly unhealthy.

This week, HR 4925 is coming to the forefront of the national dialog to raise awareness for a three-pronged approach to healthier media messages about girls and women via a legislative bill that:

a.)    creates competitive grant programs that encourage media literacy and youth empowerment

b.)    facilitates research on depiction of females in media and the affect on youth

c.)    establishes a National Taskforce on Women & Girls in the Media to promote healthy, balanced, positive images for the benefit of all youth.

What can parents do about sexualization via media literacy?  How can YOU help with H.R. 4925? Read the summary. Read the full HR 4925 document. Read who else is advocating for the bill and why. Then urge your congressional representative to cosponsor/sign on to the bill. (call/write/click/send, lots of action steps after the jump) (more…)

July 9, 2010 “There’s an obsession among many teens today for all things vampire, and it looks like the craze is now leaving a mark…literally.”

So goes the opener for CBS News Early Morning Show this week titled “Teen Twilight Trend: Love Bites”…Coupla things here: First, in our media-hyped culture of ‘three makes a trend’ I’d like to lob the powerball question into the “who says so” media literacy 101 line of inquiry, and add that the only reason I’m even commenting about it is two people I respect were on the show: Dr. Michael Rich of CMCH Boston (aka The Mediatrician) and Radical Parenting’s youthful sage, Vanessa VanPetten.

To both their credits, they deflected whether or not this was indeed a ‘trend’ vs sensationalist seeding of a ‘TwiHard’ trilogy of love bite-themed stories (two more BEFORE the Early Show aired, here and here and scads thereafter) and instead, they both focused upon the unhealthy aspects of both the physical and mental degradation of teen dating cues when ‘ownership’ and ‘possession obsession’ comes into play.

Second thing I’d like to point out is the immediate inclination for copycat media influences to bubble over into a brouhaha blame game blurring the lines between cause and effect as we see so often in horror flicks and antisocial nutcases gone awry tying their personal responsibility on what pretty much amounts to a ‘Twinkie defense.’ (Read “Teen Bites 11 people, Blames it on Twilight” to catch my drift) (more…)

July 1, 2010 For those mumbling, “COPPA schmoppa, there goes Amy into policy wonk land, please translate media jargon into usable tidbits” I’ll offer a few primers…

What is COPPA? Why do we need it? (see DigitalAds.org for an interactive show-n-tell which all ages can grok for an ‘aha’ moment on food and beverage marketing targeting kids in the digital age) Who are some of the key advocates involved with COPPA?

And…for those who have been waiting on pins and needles to hear what new roles and rules are taking shape with mobile, video game and behavioral ad marketing to kids, the COPPA coalition has provided an update (summary here) to keep the FTC abreast of the ever-expanding spectrum of targeting kids as it pertains to privacy protections and digital (er, human) rights. This was a huge discussion at the Ypulse 2010 Mashup as marketers, academic researchers and tween moderators/online community leaders grappled with compliance, ethics, and ‘what ifs’ to try to get a handle on loopholes that need closed, as well as misinterpretations of age restrictions and residual fallout from a policy and practices standpoint.

Here’s the full release, the gist of the filing, and what the COPPA coalition specifically asks the FTC to do: (more…)

June 27, 2010 In Part Two of this HUGE conversation (premiering tomorrow on ABC Family, my Part One is here) we’ll try to unpack some of the core questions that SHOULD be top of mind to embrace the media literacy side of the body image, obesity, nutrition and kids’ health dialog.

I’ll start with the universal disclaimer that I am NOT a medico, eating disorder pro or body image specialist of any sort, just a media mama passionista eager to use the power of media for positive change, in any way, shape or form we can ‘get there.’

Aussie body image author Lisa Cox wrote this note in her promo for her new book “Does My Bum Look Big in This Ad?”

…“Poor media literacy amongst youth has been shown to distort body image and potentially lead to a number of serious physical and mental health concerns, including depression, bullying, eating disorders, self-harm and substance abuse…”

While I agree media literacy helps lift the veil of commercial messaging, it’s no panacea for the onslaught of 24/7 appearance-based focus in our distorted cultural fixation. I try to be circumspect about the whole issue and have even asked, “Are we making matters worse with all the body image chatter?” (more…)