Case for Make Believe

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building Through The Power of Play

November 29, 2012 by Amy Jussel 2 Comments

Nov. 29, 2012 Kuala Lumpur’s famous Petronas twin towers will now always look like ‘stacking cups’ to me, the Guggenheim Museum in New York upside down stacking rings, and Tokyo’s Yoyogi National Stadium a cozy fort “blankets flung, stretched chair to chair”…As I close the picture book “Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building,” brought to life by author and illustrator Christy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Media Literacy, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: A Celebration of Building, A+ schools, Art and architecture, award-winning kids books, building kids, building minds, Caine's Arcade, can't be unseen, Case for Make Believe, children's books, Christy Hale, creative thinking, defending pretending, Dreaming Up, early childhood education, ECE, eco art, Edweek arts as essentials, encouraging STEM, engineering, Environment-Kids, Forgiveness Garden, illustrations, imagination, Imagination Foundation, Institute of Play, Lee and Low, Lego, maker faire, multicultural kids books, National Institute for Play, nature of art, once you see it can't be unseen, open ended play, Our School Garden, play, positive kids media, reach and teach, recycled art projects, school gardens, ScrapKins, STEM building toys, Stuart Brown, teaching resources, The Power of Play, unstructured play

Lego Friends: Please Build on Possibility, Brain Plasticity

January 1, 2012 by Amy Jussel 37 Comments

April 28, 2016 "37 year old son of Lego billionaire takes the helm as Vice Chairman" Congrats, Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, now that you've inherited the Lego legacy, and named your daughter and five female cousins as 'most active owners' in the young generation family mix, I have high hopes we'll see some gender stereotypes disappear and brain plasticity triumph! Here's to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: 2012 Lego, beauty industry, brick box, Buildables, Case for Make Believe, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Cordelia Fine, corporate blunders, Delusions of gender, Does stripping gender from toys really make sense?, early child development, Empowering girls, gender equity, Gender Portrayal, girls-self-worth, Kids health, LadyFigs, Lego femininity, Lego Friends, Lego masculinity, Lise Eliot, media analysis, media mindfulness, media-literacy, nature vs nurture, neuroscience, neurosexism, New Moon Girls, Peggy Orenstein, pink brain blue brain, Play-Patterns-Kids, Pop-Culture, role play, science behind sex differences, sexism, Sexualization, spark change, SPARK! summit, stealth STEM, STEM for girls, stereotypes-girls, Stuart Brown, Tetris, Think Different, toy choice, toy marketing

Amy Jussel On Changing the Channel of Media Influence

October 28, 2010 by Amy Jussel 4 Comments

Oct. 28, 2010 Tonight I’ll be speaking on Changing the Channel of Influence in media, at The Third Place.org. I need to reiterate to ALL that Shaping Youth is a nonpartisan, non-religious-based, nonprofit, non-tethered, organization. The media literacy opinions shared are my own and NOT aligned with any other organization, affiliation, or agenda. Clear? Reason I’m … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Counter-marketing, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Amy-Jussel, Annie Leonard, brandwashing, Case for Make Believe, CCFC, changing the channel of influence, childhood, commodification, Critical-thinking-skills, deconstructing media, don't buy it, family, Girl Effect, LoopScoop, Los Altos, media-literacy, non-faith based, nonpartisan, nonprofit, Packaging-Boyhood, parenting, Parents for Ethical Marketing, PBS Kids, positive media, reclaiming childhood, Sexualization, spark change, Spark Summit Blog Tour, SPARK! summit, Story of Stuff, take back sexy, teaching tools, The Third Place, youth

Babies Movie: Through The Lens of a Young Teen

May 11, 2010 by Amy Jussel 15 Comments

May 11, 2010 I tried to warn her, “This isn’t some wham- bam fast-paced action thriller or rom-com dramedy, but Babies IS my movie choice for Mother’s Day, ok?” In preparation, I showed her the Babies trailer (after the jump) and the short little ‘featurette’ so she’d know there wouldn’t be ‘much of a plot line’ but more of an editorial commentary as seen through the eyes … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: 4 continents, 4 cultures, Africa, America the Beautiful movie, Babies, Babies iphone app, Babies trailer, Baby Mugs!, Bayar, Case for Make Believe, circle of life, commercialism, consumption, cultural cues, cultural literacy, Dare the Movie, defending pretending, Disney Nature, ethnography, first breath, first steps, Girls-Rock, Going on 13, Hattie, Heartland, humanity, indigenous culture, Kids, Killing Us Softly, Kodak, Mari, Media Unplugged, moms, MTV Model Makers, National Institute of Play, natural environs, nature, nurture, one year, outdoors, outside, play, Ponijao, pregnancy, San Francisco, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Susan Linn, Tapestries-of-Hope, teens, The Babies movie, Thomas Balmes, TOH, Tokyo, Toys, Truly moving pictures, tweens, unstructured play, youth

“Bring Your Baby to Life With Your Wii Remote?”

November 2, 2009 by Amy Jussel 4 Comments

Nov. 2, 2009 Not sure which part of this creeps me out more, the fact that 21st century baby dolls have a Wiimote crammed up the wazoo to ‘bring the baby to life’ as a Wii system accessory, the passive pink gender cues for girls and total absence of boys as video parenting poppas, or the product picture being a dead-ringer look alike of my own offspring at that age. Ewww all … [Read more...]

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