Killing Us Softly

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

October 2, 2015 by Amy Jussel Leave a Comment

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Nutrition & Wellness Tagged With: #JeffWeCan, alcohol targeting kids, Amy-Jussel, Blast Colt 45, Jean Kilbourne, Jean Kilbourne TED talk, John Oliver tobacco, Killing Us Softly, media mindfulness, Merchants of Doubt, Preteen-Behavior, smoking in video games, So Sexy So Soon, The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women, The Illusionists, Tobacco, Tobacco and alcohol advertising, tobacco targeting kids, Tobacco-Free Kids, Women of the Hall, Women's Hall of Fame

Hidden in Plain Sight: Kelly Parks Snider, Project Girl

September 23, 2015 by Amy Jussel Leave a Comment

Sept. 23, 2015 Can't think of a better "Wordless Wednesday" than this powerful art exhibition "Hidden in Plain Sight" which speaks volumes in its visual insight. Creator and artist Kelly Parks … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sexualization & Body Image Tagged With: adolescent body image, Advertising, art activism, brand brainwashing, brandwashed, dangerous ways ads see women, Elena Rossini, Hidden in Plain Sight, Jean Kilbourne, Kelly Parks Snider, Killing Us Softly, media influence on kids, media influence on teens, media-literacy, project girl, Sexualization, teen depression, The Illusionists, women and girls in the media, Women Hall of Fame, Wordless Wednesday, You've Come a Long Way Baby

2014: The Year Of Redefining Girly

January 10, 2014 by Amy Jussel Leave a Comment

Jan. 10, 2014 Even in just the last 5 years or so since the American Psychological Association Task Force reported about the harm of early sexualization and its impact on children (full 72pp APA study … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sexualization & Body Image Tagged With: #BraveGirlsWant, adolescent body image, Amy-Jussel, APA task force sexualization girls, beauty myth, BGW, brain plasticity, Bratzillaz, Brave, Brave Girls Alliance, Brave Girls Invade Times Square, Brave Girls Want, change the channel of influence, child development, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, commercialized childhood, commodification, Consumerism, consumption, corporate social responsibility, CSR, damaging body image, Disney-Princesses, diversity, gender equity, girls leadership, harm of early sexualization, hypersexualized, Jean Kilbourne, Killing Us Softly, Let Toys Be Toys, media-literacy, Melissa Atkins Wardy, Melissa Wardy, merchandising, Merida makeover, Monster High, objectification, Packaging-Girlhood, parenting, PigTail Pals, Pigtail Pals Ballcap Buddies, pink blue stereotypes, Pink culture, preteen body image, Reality Bites Back, redefining girly, Sexualization, sexualized dolls, SheHeroes, So Sexy So Soon, stereotypes, The Illusionists Documentary, The Lolita Effect, The Real Tooth Fairies, Toward the Stars, toy industry, what sells

Shaping Youth Is Backing The Illusionists Film About Media’s Body Blitz

July 19, 2011 by Amy Jussel 7 Comments

Update Nov. 2, 2014 Talk about a greenlight! Excited to attend Elena's "PopUp Party" today screening her important 2015 documentary film (preview here). She'll be speaking at the 3PercentConference in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Counter-marketing, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Nutrition & Wellness, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: 12 billboards, Adonis-Complex, Amy-Jussel, beauty myth, Beauty Redefined, Body Blitz, body dissatisfaction, Body-Dysmorphia, Body-Fixation, CCFC, commodification, Dove Evolution, Dr.-Robyn-Silverman, Early-Sexualization, Elena Rossini, Fat Hatred in Preschoolers, Fat talking tots, girls-self-worth, Good Girls Don't Get Fat, healthy media, indie films, IndieGoGo, IndieWire, influence of media, Jean Kilbourne, Kickstarter, Killing Us Softly, Lexie and Lindsay, massive media mindshift, Media Education, Media-Influence-Kids, media-literacy, objectification, Packaging-Boyhood, Packaging-Girlhood, poor body image, Positive Body Image, Project Raceway, Promoting Healthy Media Images, promoting positive body image, redefining beauty, rejecting media beauty ideals, self-funding, So Sexy So Soon, socioemotional health, Take Back Beauty, The Illusionists, The Illusionists Documentary, the perfect body, unattainable ideal, young filmmakers

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 … [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

So Sexy So Soon: Shaping Youth Chats With Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D.

August 17, 2009 by Amy Jussel 30 Comments

August 17, 2009 Last month So Sexy So Soon hit the market in paperback, though my hand-signed hardback by academic rockstars Diane Levin, Ph.D. and Jean Kilbourne Ed.D is frayed, highlighted, and worn … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Sexualization & Body Image, Stereotypes & Diversity, Vapid Values Tagged With: age compression, APA, APA report early sexualization, Beauty, Body-Dysmorphia, Bratz, buffed boy, CCFC, children, commercialism, commodification, compassion deficit disorder, controversy, Diane Levin, gender equity, girls, Girls Gone Wild, girls-self-worth, hooking up, ideals, impersonal sex, Isis-Inc, Jean Kilbourne, Kids, Killing Us Softly, MEF, Miley Cyrus, numbing, objectification, Packaging-Girlhood, pole dancing, Pornification, provocative clothes, Pussycat Dolls, self-worth, Sesame Streetwalkers, sex objects, Sexual Media, Sexual Teens, sexuality, Sexualization, sexualized childhood, Slim Hopes, slut-ho, So Sexy So Soon, strippers, Teen Choice Awards, teens, thong, tweens, Vanity Fair, violence, War Play, youth

Sexed Up M&Ms Sell Fashionably Decadent Premium Sleaze

September 26, 2008 by Amy Jussel 8 Comments

Mars candies have reached a new low... Anthropomorphizing cartoon critters is one thing, giving chocolate candy classics the Jessica Rabbit treatment is another. Do we REALLY need more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Damaging Drek, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Product Placement, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Vapid Values, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: America the Beautiful, Beauty at any cost, body ideals, Celebrity worship, Dove Onslaught, Eva Longoria, fashion models, Fashionistas, feminism, Feministing, Geena Davis Institute, Gender Portrayal, girls, Killing Us Softly, M&Ms, M&Ms Premium Chocolate, M&Ms Triple Chocolate Ads, MMs.com, Packaging-Girlhood, Pop culture impact on kids, Pornification, sex in media, Sexualization, sexy so soon, Tasteless Ads, teen self worth, thin, YWCA

America the Beautiful: An “R” Rated Movie You WANT Kids To See

September 3, 2008 by Amy Jussel 23 Comments

Teens and tweens have heard more raw verbiage on school grounds in any given day than Eve Ensler's little snippet in America the Beautiful that garnered the documentary an ‘R’ rating. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: access to media, America the Beautiful, America the Beautiful documentary, America the Beautiful movie, Amy-Jussel, BABIB, Beauty products, Bigger Stronger Faster, bleaching agents, body loathing, body shame, body-positive, boys, Cancer, Congressman Jim Ramstad, Cosmetics, Darryl Roberts, Dove, Eating Disorders Coalition, eating-disorders, EDC, EWG, Fast Food Nation, Gerren Taylor, girls in Fiji, HR1424, Indie film, Interview with Darryl Roberts, Jackson Katz, Jean Kilbourne, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Killing Us Softly, NEDA, packaging boyhod, Packaging-Girlhood, preteens, pthalates, Reign-of-the-Girl-Child, Revlon, S558, self-esteem, self-worth, So Sexy So Soon, teen girls, Teens for Safe Cosmetics, Tough Guise, Toxic ingredients, tween girls, Tyra Banks