SPARK! summit

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

September 19, 2016 by Amy Jussel 1 Comment

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...]

Filed Under: Pro-Social & Positive Picks Tagged With: #1000BlackGirlBooks, Actionists, adolescent body image, Amy-Jussel, applied science, Body Peace Treaty, Brave Girls Alliance, campus activism, Ccks Not Glocks, Day of the Girl, defiance, defiance as applied science, diversity in kidlit, empowering teens, girls leadership, Google Doodles diversity, intergenerational leadership, Lyn Mikel-Brown, Open carry campus protests, PeerSpring, persuasion, Powered By Girl, Seventeen Magazine, Spark Movement, SPARK! summit, student empowerment, student voice, Teen Girls against Photoshop, teen voices, youth activism, youth leadership

Boys, Body Image and Sexualization: An Equal Opportunity Destroyer

June 5, 2012 by Amy Jussel 9 Comments

Aug. 8, 2016 Update More new research shows marketing is responsible for creating body image issues with boys, which I've written about here, and certainly here devoted to the impact of 'bigorexia' on children's health for a decade, so no surprise there. BBC News reports the survey was conducted by advertising think tank Credos...Ironically, this excellent NYT think piece … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Nutrition & Wellness, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: Achilles Effect, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, Bigorexia, body dissatisfaction, boys and body image, boys steroid use, Buffed-Boys, Credos Think Tank, D'Angelo objectification, male eating disorders, manorexic, Media Smarts, Mens Health, Muscle dysmorphia, NEDA, obsessive workouts, Packaging-Boyhood, Proud2BMe.org, pursuit of perfection, race and class stereotypes, Sexualization, SPARK, spark a movement, SPARK! summit, summer abs, swimsuit ready, Taylor Lautner abs, teen boys, Twilight, what happens when men get treated like women

Miss Travel: Misrepresentation Way Beyond Arm Candy

April 26, 2012 by Amy Jussel 5 Comments

April 26, 2012 “If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck”… It doesn’t take much inductive reasoning to see Miss Travel is afoul. That said, using critical thinking skills to see why this new ‘dating site’ offering ‘free travel for attractive people’ (ahem, cough, prosti-travel) doesn’t pass the sniff test is a useful mini-lesson. Miss Travel is a teachable … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Vapid Values, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Am I Ugly videos, Amy-Jussel, APA sexualization study, appearance cues, arm candy, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, beautiful people fly free, beauty myth, Beauty Redefined, commodification, dating sites, degradation, escort service, generous and attractive people, girl caught, girls-self-worth, golddiggers, hotties fly free, human trafficking, Media Education, Media Literacy Clearinghouse, Media-Influence-Kids, media-literacy, Miss Bimbo, Miss Travel, objectification, outrage baiting, profiteering, prosti-travel, self-objectification, self-worth, Sexualization, SPARK! summit, stop disrespecting women, Sugar daddy, Take Back Beauty, teen depression, The Illusionists

Miss Representation Sparks Change As a Film, As a Movement

February 4, 2012 by Amy Jussel 4 Comments

Ready for Feb 3, 2013? Miss Rep will be at it again. Here is the new list of 2013 Twitter handles for advertisers, just use the #NotBuyingIt hashtag on Twitter to make a social media statement and pushback against sexism in advertising. And this year, 2013, they have a free TOOLKIT to download created with Girls For A Change, complete with whys/hows for newbie … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Product Placement, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: APA, APA task force sexualization girls, Aspiration gap, Christiane Amanpour, dads and daughters, Danica Patrick, depiction of females in media, Fantasy Football, females, football violence, Geena Davis Institute, gender equity, Gender Portrayal, girl-empowerment, girls-self-worth, hypersexual, Jackson Katz, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Joe Kelly, Karen Dahl, Lego Friends, Media Education, media mindfulness, media visibility, Media-Influence-Kids, media-literacy, misrepresentation, Miss Representation, not buying it, objectification, Paley Center, Pan Am TV show, Reality Bites Back, role models kids, School Library Journal, sex objects, sexism, Sexualization, So Sexy So Soon, SPARK, spark change, SPARK! summit, Super Bowl, Super Bowl as Learning Opportunity, Superbowl 2012, Superbowl Sunday, toxic cues to kids, women's media center, You can't be what you can't see

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