Mother’s Day Improv With the Mother of ‘The Rugrats!’

April 10, 2009 Feel like you’re interacting with your family via text message? Facing screens more than each other? Using drive time as quality time and packing parental fun into cellular size? Kids and parents, come see yourselves and each other in a whole new way! One month from today on Mother's Day, Actress Melanie Chartoff, screen voice for The Rugrats mom, Didi Pickles … [Read more...]

The Oprah Factor: Stop the Yo-Yo Dieting Messages

April 8, 2009 Young women and their moms have been "under the influence" of Oprah longer than you can say “she’s gotta have it.” From cuddly bathrobes to kids' book club picks, when the grand dame of daytime speaks, people listen. Precisely the point that Director Darryl Roberts of America the Beautiful is making in his recent “open letter to Oprah” plea to curb the weight … [Read more...]

Shaping Youth Co-Sponsors “Consuming Kids” Movie Premiere!

April 2, 2009 Academic rockstars are descending upon U.C. Berkeley April 24th, as CCFC leaders speak in person on the commercialization of childhood and the impact on our culture!Shaping Youth is proud to be a media sponsor of the S.F. Bay Area Premiere of the movie Consuming Kids, and co-sponsor of this all-star panel in time for 'spring cleaning' 2009 to get rid of all this … [Read more...]

Get Out of Your Own Life! Environmental Influence on Kids

Mar. 30, 2009 Mea culpa for the unannounced vanishing act, but I’ve been out of town interviewing teens in a different ‘pocket’ of the greater Bay Area, exploring how environmental influences (peers, nature, geography) shift the volume and decibel level of media intake among kids and where we might learn some 'best practices' to leapfrog into a healthier place for the … [Read more...]

First Day of Spring! See It Through A Child’s Eyes

Mar. 20, 2009 It’s overcast here on the water today, which shifts my annual spring ritual into a different lens of wonder. Whenever things get too wacky in my world (and lately, that’s been hourly) I instinctively start removing clutter of the mind, media, and heart to time travel back into childhood, and just stop ALL stimulation. These days I worry that kids never fully … [Read more...]