|
|
Featured Stories
What’s your troop been up to lately? Girl Scouts of Colorado wants to hear your stories! E-mail your stories and photos to Kristin H. You can read more Girl Scout news in Troop Tidbits.
Follow the latest news from Girl Scouts of Colorado on 
, 
and 
. Never miss a beat!
Beauty redefined: GSUSA to release girl poll results
FEB. 4, 2010 -- Girl Scouts of the USA is releasing the results of a recent poll on girls, body image, fashion and media. The survey taken in November 2009 revealed some interesting findings on the conflicted relationship between girls and fashion, and how they feel about the images portrayed to them. GSUSA is hosting a panel discussion on Feb. 10 to address the role of fashion and media in building positive self-esteem for girls. You can watch it live by logging onto www.ustream.tv/channel/beauty-redefined at 4 p.m. MST.
The event, held on the eve of Fashion Week in New York City’s Bryant Park, will include the following guest panelists:
· Crystal Renn, ‘Plus-Size’ Supermodel & Author
· Jess Weiner, Author & Global Ambassador for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund
· Jill Herzig, Executive Editor, Glamour Magazine
· Kimberlee Salmond, Girl Scout Research Institute
From diets to celebrities, diversity to fashion, the event will be an open platform for the much-needed discussion on self-esteem and girls, with a focus on what role we can all play to help them define real beauty.
Some key findings in the research include:
Girls attribute media and fashion to the pressure to be thin.
• Nine in ten girls say the fashion industry (89%) and/or the media (88%) place a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin.
Girls say they would prefer to see more “natural”/“real” images in the media.
• Eighty-one percent of girls would rather see “real” or “natural” photos of models than touched-up, airbrushed versions.
• Seventy-five percent would be more likely to buy clothes they see on “real-size models” than on super-skinny ones.
Girls have a love/hate relationship with the fashion industry.
• Three in four girls (75%) say that fashion is really important to them.
• Forty-eight percent wish they were as skinny as the models in fashion magazines.
• Forty-seven percent say fashion magazines give them a body image to strive for.
• Forty-one percent say they prefer to see the latest fashions on skinny models rather than on fuller-sized women.
However:
• Sixty-five percent of girls think that the body image represented by the fashion industry is too skinny; 63% think it is unrealistic; and 47% think it is unhealthy. More than a quarter (28%) say the fashion industry body image looks sick.
• Sixty percent say that they compare their bodies to fashion models.
• Only 46% think the fashion industry does a good job of representing people of all races and ethnicities, with Caucasian girls the most likely to say this (52%, compared to only 42% of Hispanics and 32% of African Americans).
• Thirty-one percent of girls admit to starving themselves or refusing to eat as a strategy to lose weight.
African American and Hispanic girls have a more positive body image.
• A higher percentage of Hispanic girls (79%) say they are satisfied with their bodies compared to their African American (76%) and Caucasian (72%) counterparts.
• Seventeen percent of African American girls are completely satisfied with the way their body looks, compared to 14% of Hispanic and 10% of Caucasian girls.