Today is International Girls Day.
Information from the Just for Girls website explains that the event was created on behalf of the Confidence Coalition by Kappa Delta Sorority in 2010. It celebrates girls and the spirit which lies uniquely within them. The intention is to encourage them to make their dreams a reality, to inspire them and to build confidence.
The blame that this was deemed necessary is put soundly on the media messages and cultural stereotypes that have instilled in young females a need to try to act and look a certain way. That pressure is certainly unfair as there is no perfect one-size-fits-all reality.
If there are any words that I think should be part of every young (and older too for that matter) girl’s mantra it is the chorus from Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful:
I am beautiful no matter what they say.
Words can’t bring me down.
I am beautiful in every single way.
Yes, words can’t bring me down… Oh no,
So don’t you bring me down today.
The reason? According to statistics from Just for Girls, 74 per cent of girls say they are under pressure to please everyone . Thirty-one per cent of the girls between the ages of 13-17 have starved themselves as a strategy to lose weight.Three out of four girls feel pressure to be “super girls”. Sixty per cent of female teenagers make comparisons between their bodies and those of models.
Those are just a few of the sad realities. It’s imperative, therefore to help empower them to love themselves and each other. We need to let them know that they are each and every one of them wonderfully and uniquely beautiful, no matter how they look, no matter what they like, no matter how they think.
These photos collections are intended therefore to pay tribute to all the great girls, and wonderful women, who are part of a very special sisterhood.
