9 July 2008
Uniquely Me! If you’re a Girl Scout
Posted by admin under: Community Partners; Program Updates .
I happened upon a Girl Scout program I hadn’t heard about before and then I saw an ad for it on television last night. The program is called “Uniquely Me!” and is made for girls 8 to 17 years old, which is almost all ages in Girl Scouts. The program seeks to develop self-esteem in girls and also to give them a way to evaluate the way they look at themselves and the influences around them. The spokesperson for this program is former MTV host SuChin Pak who has publicly talked about her own struggle with self-confidence and image. She has a welcome page for the Girl Scout program and even lists an e-mail for girls to send her messages.
The TV ad I saw was from Dove, the soap people, who have a “real beauty” campaign that promotes their products with women who are all sizes and shapes to illustrate that beauty is not only the actresses and models presented in the media. They have a fund they contribute to that supports the Girl Scout Uniquely Me! program (although they’ve got the age only to 14. I wonder why).
I guess that fund is what keeps the cost of the booklets down to $6 or $7 each. There are different books for different age groups and an adult book on how to administer the program.
My troop tends to handle these types of issues during meetings and on campouts when we talk while relaxing at the end of the day. It’s awkward for an adult male leader (me) to be part of these discussions when things like puberty, menstruation, and the drama of which boys like which girls comes up, but hey look at that, I just remembered I’ve got to go get something out of my backpack far away in my tent. No, really, I just let the moms and girls handle that stuff and keep my ears perked to try to learn their approach. It can be disconcertingly direct.
In any event, the Girl Scouts knows that girls will be dealing with the issues of self-image and how to handle the relationships that seem so much a part of the growing-up experience. And once again, they’ve chosen a good partner to help get their message out.
- Dove Continues To Measure Self-Esteem in Girls
- WAGGGS Wants to Talk About Sex
- Late to the Party, Again
- It’s Time and It’s Expensive
- GL Magazine. Kinda Depressing.
One Comment so far...
» Dove Continues To Measure Self-Esteem in Girls Says:
14 October 2008 at 3:20 pm.
[...] Dove soap company has been working with Girl Scouts of the USA to build self-esteem in girls as we talked about in July. The company has now done an extensive research test to measure self-esteem in girls as reported in [...]
