Dove

Have you seen those Dove campaigns on TV?  They are amazing!! Dove is paving the way for change in the advertisement industry.  Dove is trying to help women of all ages build a positive self image.  It's their thought that a positive self image is passed down through generations and that it is up to mothers, in particular, to exute a positive self image so their daughters will follow in suit.  The Dove website is an amazing place for young women, like yourself, to learn new and fun ways to have a positive and healthy life.  For the past few years, Dove has launched an amazing campaign called "The Campaign for Real Beauty".  Instead of showing petite young women who every girl wishes they could be, they show REAL women of all shapes and sizes.  According to the Dove website:

"In 2011, Dove^® released the findings of its largest global study to date on women’s relationship with beauty—The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited. The study revealed that only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful, and that anxiety about looks begins at an early age. In a study of over 1,200 10-to-17-year-olds, a majority of girls, 72%, said they felt tremendous pressure to be beautiful. The study also found that only 11% of girls around the world feel comfortable using the word beautiful to describe their looks, showing that there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls' confidence as they grow older."(http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx)

These figures are very sad.  Although Dove is moving in the right directions and changing the way women are being viewed and portrayed in the media, there is still alot of work left to help educate and help girls around the world feel comfortable and confident in their own skin.