Sept. 3, 2009 Lots of chatter on Twitter about yesterday's Jezebel piece and the WSJ article about dieting 4th graders. It leads off, "In 1986, 80% of fourth-grade girls were dieting. Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow interviewed 100 of them back then, and recently followed up with a few, asking if they think things are getting better for girls. The verdict: It's … [Read more...]
Are We Making Matters Worse By All The Body Image Chatter?
Shaping Youth is in the Philadelphia Inquirer Today
Sept. 2, 2009 For a media shy writer wonk who likes to fly under the radar, you might say I’m a ‘glutton’ for punishment each time I agree to making a comment to the press. The Bebé Glotón toy story originated at Thingamababy about the Spanish breastfeeding doll with slurpy sounds and strap-on-bib; human not included. Since then, it's taken off into controversy land and … [Read more...]
Playnormous Health-Edu Games Offer FREE Monster iMacs!
Sept. 1, 2009 How do you improve K-12 student’s health knowledge, inspire creative writing, support eco-values of refurbished technology, and use whimsical hand-painted art of animated monsters to reach and teach? Launch a Playnormous custom-contest of amped up art that looks like it crawled out of a Pixar flick! Our friends at Playnormous (makers of the award-winning … [Read more...]
Curse of the Good Girl: Interview with Rachel Simmons
August 29, 2009 “Aw, mom, it sounds boring, why do I have to hear some ‘expert’ talk about stuff I already know…Are any of MY friends going to be there?” Those were my ten year old daughter’s words back in 2005 when Rachel Simmons author of “Odd Girl Out” spoke to a sold-out crowd giving us insights on girl culture, relational aggression, and coping tips for navigating … [Read more...]
One Teen’s View on Going Green: Use Eco as an Equalizer
August 27, 2009 One of my Title I school students said, "We recycle in my house...it's called hand-me-downs." Hmn. Since then, I've been attuned to the "green is for those who HAVE green" eco-mindset and kept track of echoes in our cross-cultural moshpit of a neighborhood. In part two of our Teens Turning Green piece, I’d asked Shaping Youth 16-year old writing intern … [Read more...]