Youth Taking Action? Here’s How to Best Support Them

Sept. 19, 2016 When media pundits paint with a large brush focusing on "youth narcissism and selfie culture" amidst passionistas and purposeful prosocial projects that amplify student voice, it's beyond irksome, it's glaringly inaccurate. Our friends at PeerSpring host an entire platform brimming with youth change agents making their mark with projects important to them, from … [Read more...]

Gender Stereotypes: Part 2 with Dr. Elizabeth Sweet

April 28, 2016 The dismissive wails from the Twittersphere and social media mavens were almost audible: "Oh please, not another pink and blue gender in the toy aisle post..." To coin a phrase from Part One of the White House convening on Breaking Gender Stereotypes in Media and Toys, "Yes, And..." I’ve been writing about media and marketing’s impact on kids for ten years … [Read more...]

Jean Kilbourne Enters 2015 Women’s Hall of Fame (Pt 1)

Oct. 2, 2015 Long before self-proclaimed experts flooded social media with newly minted personas and punditry, women like filmmaker Jean Kilbourne spent decades of devotion upending toxic media narratives. In an era of sound bite journalism and ‘look at me’ talking heads, culture critics like Jean Kilbourne are "the real deal" with a lifetime spent shining glaring high beams … [Read more...]

A Social Media Helpline for Schools: I Can Helpline

May 19, 2015 Once upon a time, call-in centers were helpful first responders to direct levels of care, staffed with human specialists not robots, touch tone prompts, and layered redirected voicemails entangled like spaghetti.In a throwback to an era of personal, customized approaches to dilemmas, the newly proposed social media hotline  for schools, called I Can Helpline.org, … [Read more...]

I Am Elemental: Superheroes Strike A Pitch Perfect Toy Tenor

May 11, 2015 With superheroes crushing box office numbers with Hulk style force and toy merchandisers frantically scrambling to address market demand for sheroes deleted from mass media like an invisibly evil comic book spell, hashtags like #IncludeTheGirls are trumpeting a Herculean reminder that the new era of girls dubbed “Generation K” for Katniss will NOT be dissed and … [Read more...]