Responsible Advertising to Teen Girls in the Media

Target:

U.S. Congress

Sponsored by:

Help get Congress to implement stricter guidelines for magazines, television and the internet and how they advertise to teen girls and young women. They need to show more realistic advertisements and messages when it comes to beauty and self-esteem. Too many teen girls and young women do not realize that what they are seeing on these forms of the media represents an unrealistic standard of beauty. These women in these advertisements are not real. They have been altered to look perfect. They see these women and want to be like them, look like them, and become them. This is why so many of them begin dieting at such young ages and begin to suffer from anorexia and bulimia. They begin to have a poor self-esteem and low self-confidence in themselves. There are other ways to help teen girls and young women become confident in themselves and how they look and lose weight safely, if they really need to lose weight. They should not have to turn to such drastic measures that could in the end cost them their own lives!

Everyday teen girls and young women are exposed to several media advertisements. Many of these advertisements show unrealistic standards of beauty with the models used in these media advertisements are thin, look unhealthy, and have a flawless appearance.    The teen girls and young women who are viewing these advertisements see these women as perfect and want to be like them, look like them, and become them. As a result of these advertisements, these young girls are losing their self-esteem and self-confidence in themselves. Due to this these girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way including their looks, performance in school, and relationships with family and friends. Because of this they are likely to engage in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, and drinking when feeling bad about themselves.
Congress can do something to support this cause. You can implement stricter guidelines for the media when it comes to advertising messages concerning beauty and self-esteem.   As a legislator, it is your duty to protect our children from harm and these advertisements are giving them the wrong impression about whom those women are and who they should be when they are viewing these advertisements.  It is important to make changes now before it is too late. Teen girls and young women should not have to turn to such drastic measures to see themselves as beautiful that could in the end cost them their own lives.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

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We signed the "Responsible Advertising to Teen Girls in the Media" petition!

# 67:

3:45 pm PST, Nov 22, Samantha Morgan, Texas

# 66:

5:19 pm PST, Nov 8, Tonya Butts, New York

# 65:

3:58 pm PST, Nov 7, Rosemary Buccellato, Minnesota
When I was seven years old I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. I am now eighteen and am still fighting this horrible disease. The images displayed by the media have only worsened my body image and made my recovery more difficult. If we are more responsible about how we advertise to girls, we could prevent cases like mine.

# 64:

8:49 am PDT, Oct 28, Marc Cournoyer, Connecticut
Having worked with young people for 20 years and having two daughters of my own, one of which is almost 13, I can understand and appreciate the importance of this issue.

# 63:

9:24 pm PDT, Oct 23, Christina Anderson, Canada

# 62:

4:27 pm PDT, Oct 19, Name not displayed, Connecticut
I also think that that there should be guidelines because in today's society these girls think that they are "fat" when in reality they are not. They get this information from the media, pictures, magazines, etc...

# 61:

3:22 pm PDT, Oct 19, Sharon Stoller, Connecticut

# 60:

2:28 pm PDT, Oct 19, Kim Newlin, Indiana
I see this every day in my job as a school nurse in a middle school. Girls need real role models not ones that are airbrushed and altered!!

# 59:

1:15 pm PDT, Oct 19, Krista Buser, Iowa
Lets work together to increase our girls self esteem by having real and genuine role models.

# 58:

11:56 am PDT, Oct 19, Name not displayed, Connecticut

# 57:

11:16 am PDT, Oct 19, Terry Blakenship, Ohio

# 56:

8:37 am PDT, Oct 19, Rosemary Hall, Connecticut
I have 3 granddaughters. (9,6, and 3)! The older 2 are talking about who's fat and who has nice clothes and who does their nails and hair! They are way too young to even be aware of these things.

I wish they would do something about it but I'm not holding my breath as everyone will start screaming "freedom of speach"

# 55:

7:05 am PDT, Oct 19, Katie Vaughan, Montana

# 54:

6:30 am PDT, Oct 19, Melissa Cumberland, Ohio
This issue impacts my family because we have a 16 year old and a 9 year old daughters...and its important to us that they are more concerned with what they can do in and for the world than how big or small their waistline is. I hope to teach them that by judging people by their looks ... you lose out on meeting some very special and important people.

Its just puts another difficulty on parenting...kids believe what they see/read...

# 53:

5:50 am PDT, Oct 19, Brenda Trogdon, Illinois

# 52:

11:41 pm PDT, Oct 18, C McCorkle, California
With the current trends, it wont be long before we will have to do this for the boys too.

# 51:

8:58 pm PDT, Oct 18, Kathy Finley, California

# 49:

6:46 pm PDT, Oct 18, Dawn Toppen, Indiana
There is to much pressure on girls to look perfect. Girls need to be happy with themselves for who they are.

I think more needs to be done to encourage young girls and women to be happy with who they are.

# 48:

6:36 pm PDT, Oct 18, Traci Donathan, Indiana

# 47:

6:24 pm PDT, Oct 18, Barbara Meeks, Texas

# 46:

6:22 pm PDT, Oct 18, Andrea Nichols, Washington
I too believe that media is distorting the truth, and thereby support this cause in showing more realistic views of beauty. Dove is doing a great job in promoting true beauty and should be an example to other advertisers.

# 45:

4:34 pm PDT, Oct 18, Bonita Kurtz, Pennsylvania

# 44:

2:42 pm PDT, Oct 18, Rachael Roach, Connecticut

# 43:

1:29 pm PDT, Oct 18, Yvonne Crocetta, New York

# 42:

10:09 am PDT, Oct 18, Lawrence Roach, Connecticut

# 41:

9:13 pm PDT, Oct 14, Shawnese Cook, Connecticut

# 40:

10:36 am PDT, Oct 14, Dwyer Erika, Connecticut

# 39:

6:44 am PDT, Oct 11, Dawn Senesac, Connecticut

# 38:

6:48 am PDT, Oct 10, Robin Wood, Indiana

# 37:

5:28 pm PDT, Oct 8, Name not displayed, Virginia
People need to be happy with who they are and they should not try to satisfy public opinion

# 36:

1:47 pm PDT, Oct 8, Shelley Lopez, Indiana

# 35:

1:12 pm PDT, Oct 8, Jolene Pickett, Pennsylvania

# 34:

5:03 pm PDT, Oct 7, Allison Roach, Connecticut

# 33:

11:44 am PDT, Oct 7, Penny Shifrin, Florida

# 32:

8:45 am PDT, Oct 7, Katie Najder, Florida

# 30:

8:56 am PDT, Oct 6, Sarah Cole, Arkansas

# 29:

9:21 pm PDT, Oct 5, Pam Boland, Georgia

# 28:

9:09 pm PDT, Oct 5, Diane Roach, Ohio

# 27:

6:41 pm PDT, Oct 5, Christine Grieco, Connecticut
My 11 year old daughter doesn't fit the "slim" category and I don't ever want her to think that she's not beautiful because she doesn't look like the models that she sees on t.v. or in magazines.

# 26:

3:29 pm PDT, Oct 5, Name not displayed, Connecticut
I have daughters, and a granddaughter. I am amazed at what passes as art form these days. Any misrepresentation of the true form is a dis-service to all women, especially growing girls.Beauty is way deeper then skin.Look to the real world for true beauty..... definetly not a barbie.

I think it is an important issue, and should be in the fore-front of every publisher, movie maker, and magazine article. Is this the way your daughters, granddaughters, aunts, cousins, or your own mother looks? Then and only then will you truely sell it to the majority.

# 22:

4:58 am PDT, Oct 5, Carrie Wolf, Pennsylvania

# 21:

2:27 am PDT, Oct 5, Steve Klein, Virginia

# 20:

11:29 pm PDT, Oct 4, Amy Allen, California

# 18:

6:54 pm PDT, Oct 4, Victoria Stolzman, Connecticut
This is important to me because in my profession, I see how early young girls are being affected by advertisements and it is truely a travesty.

I believe that our media is constantly bombarding our young women with explicit and distorted images of what is beautiful. Where's the focus on intelligence and self worth?

# 17:

5:10 pm PDT, Oct 4, Elizabeth Tetlow, Connecticut

# 16:

5:04 pm PDT, Oct 4, Kris Dudley, Connecticut

# 15:

4:09 pm PDT, Oct 4, Carol White, Massachusetts

# 14:

3:49 pm PDT, Oct 4, Scott Jason Miller, New York
And place a bill preventing parents from exploiting their babies as "miniature models". Clearly, living the life they wish to have through their children. Our Society needs to recognize a simple fact. Safety, in general, is not the responsibility of the Police, Military, and our Government alone. It is also our responsibility.

# 13:

3:47 pm PDT, Oct 4, Donna Wydra, Connecticut

# 12:

3:09 pm PDT, Oct 4, Jennifer Roach, Connecticut

# 11:

2:49 pm PDT, Oct 4, Name not displayed, Minnesota

# 10:

1:37 pm PDT, Oct 4, Melissa Ambrose, California

# 9:

1:36 pm PDT, Oct 4, Keri Willey, Maryland

# 7:

1:21 pm PDT, Oct 4, Melody Villwock, Florida

# 6:

1:08 pm PDT, Oct 4, JAN FLANDERS, Utah
I worked in a secondary school and the girls are so impacted by the skinny models and all of the advertising by perfect models. They try so hard to imitate which is so sad. Teenage girls do not realize and do not want to believe that most pictures of models and movie stars are touched up.

# 5:

11:02 am PDT, Oct 4, Susie Wolfe, Indiana

# 4:

10:40 am PDT, Oct 4, Name not displayed, Idaho
Our First Lady is a ..real...woman

# 3:

10:33 am PDT, Oct 4, Ruth Rupp, Indiana
This is important to me because I have two teenage daughters.

# 2:

10:25 am PDT, Oct 4, Barbara Brown, Florida
These advertises have never been real. But I believe it all started with the Barbie Doll. Very unfortuate for all girls and women. Very few of us have hour glass figures and the real women of today, have meat on their bones. time to get real here. And you can bet your sweet azz, that most of thses anvertising places are run by men. Just like most of the grocery stores are designed and built by men. If a woman designed a grocery store, we definitely would makw a world of difference.

I think this issue sucks big time. If you wanna be with me, then be with me. Not some glorified Barbie Doll Fantasy!!!

# 1:

10:11 am PDT, Oct 4, Name not displayed, Pennsylvania

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