Eye On Education: Program Teaches Girls How To Control Media And Message
BOSTON (CBS) - Every day we are bombarded with images in magazines, on TV, and online. And those images can shape a young girl's self-esteem before she even understands what she's looking at.
"Everybody's always really skinny."
"Most of the girls are white."
"It makes me feel unattractive, like a I can never look like that."
"Everybody looks perfect and it kind of lowered my self-esteem."
That's just a sampling of sixth grade girls describing how those glossy, photoshopped pictures can make them feel.
But now there is a new program teaching girls how to take control of media and the message.
Read: More Eye on Education stories
"What media is teaching girls, overall, in mainstream media is that they're not enough. They are not sexy enough, not hot enough, they're not enough," Michelle Cove told WBZ-TV.
That's why she started the non-profit organization "Media Girls."
"With middle school girls it's the exact age when we know from research and experience that their confidence just nose-dives. So, there is a real danger of just watching their self-worth just go down the tubes, which is not acceptable," she said.
The filmmaker, journalist, mother, and now teacher wants girls to feel empowered by media instead of smaller.
"The point is to really teach middle school girls how to critique the way they are portrayed in pop culture which is pretty bad. If they are consuming 8-to-10 hours of media a day they are not aware of how much they are taking in, it's their life," Cove said.
Cove is teaching a group of sixth graders at the Irving Middle School in Roslindale thanks to a partnership with "Citizen Schools."
Citizen Schools helps to bring unique curriculum into low-income communities.
Cove is teaching the girls how to look at images of women in advertising with a more critical eye. And the girls are all proving to be a quick study.
"Now I realize that nobody can ever obtain that and the people in the ads don't even look like that. It's all Photoshop," one student said.
Learning the inside story on what goes into making these ads can help young girls navigate a world full of stereotypes and Cove loves seeing these young girls catch on.
"The girls say. 'Oh! I'm onto this. I know what's going on. And that's powerful."
Some estimate a teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure every day, compared to ten minutes of interaction with a parent.
If you've heard of an innovative development in a school let us know about it. Send an email to: EyeonEducation@cbs.com.
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