Leah's+Sources

1. Gurian, Anita. "How to Raise Girls with Healthy Self-Esteem | AboutOurKids.org." //About Our Kids | AboutOurKids.org//. NYU Child Study Center. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. []

Studies, tests, and experience show that when girls reach 9 years old, their self-esteem soars, but then, almost immediately after, it plummets. Self-esteem is linked to how we feel about ourselves: how we look, talk, dress, perform in school and sports – who we are, or, who we think we are. This interesting article lists some disturbing statistics about girls and self-esteem, such as: · 20-40% of girls begin dieting at the age of ten · Eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression are the most common mental health problems in girls And, · One survey showed that 59% of 5-12 grade girls were dissatisfied with their body shape. An often-asked question is “When and why does girls self-esteem drop?” Beginning around the ages of 11 and 12, girls become very focused on body image and what they’re “supposed” to look like, act like, dress like, etc. When girls hit the pre-teen years, skimpy clothes and ditzy personalities are sexy, not being smart – At least, that’s what the media tries to make them believe. The Media, which includes television, magazines, the Internet, etc., often gives girls wrong ideas of “who they should be,” very commonly resulting in lower self-esteem. Though this summary might make the situation sound hopeless, there are lots of ways to help girls raise their self-esteem. (Because this article was written for mothers, these examples are geared towards helping ones daughter. but you could participate in these steps even if your not a mother to help boost the self esteem of your friends, and yourself.) Try to control comments on your own body image and your daughters. Watch your stereotypes: let your daughter know she can do anything a male can do. Encourage her to speak her mind. It’s simple steps like these that will help us eventually boost girls self-esteem all around!

2. Deak, JoAnn M., and Teresa Barker. "The Last Word on the S-Word:Self-Esteem." //Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters//. New York: Hyperion, 2002. Print.

JoAnn Deak, author of Girls Will Be Girls, a book focused on helping parents raise confident and courageous daughters, says that the 3 C’s, competence, confidence and connectedness, are the three most critical pieces to self-esteem. Deak writes that a girl has to earn these three things – one cant just give her self-esteem: the three C’s must be experienced. If any of these three key components of self-esteem is missing, it is impossible for a girl to have high self-esteem. Though it’s near impossible to shield a girl from the hardships and negative aspects of life, consciously creating learning opportunities that involve the 3 C’s can be fairly easy, and, in the long run, can be a major self-esteem booster.  Self-esteem. Deak writes that the term is thrown around carelessly now a days, often used as an excuse to ignore problems instead of unraveling and getting to the bottom of them. Deak says she has heard “self-esteem” be used to diagnose conditions such as eating disorders and speech problems – which aren’t even always related to self-esteem. But, as written in “Girls Will Be Girls”, self-esteem is just another hurtle leading us over the hump of adolescence and into adulthood.

3. "Body Image and Self-Esteem." //KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health//. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

This article from Teen Health is very interesting and good at explaining the connection between body image and self esteem. Self esteem has to do with how much someone values themselves: if someone feels worthless and stupid, they have low and unhealthy self esteem. But if someone feels pride in themselves and confident, they have healthy self esteem. A big factor of how you feel about yourself is how you feel about your appearance. If someone hates the way they look, there’s no way they can have a high self esteem. Self esteem is greatly influenced by puberty: the times when teenagers go through big changes, internally and externally. Many teens compare themselves to the celebrities they see on TV and in magazines, which often makes them think badly about the way they look, and ultimately lowers their self esteem. There are several ways to work on raising your own self esteem: try complimenting yourself three times a day and try to list the things you like about yourself and others like about you. Also, try to keep the negative thoughts away: they’re never healthy. By gaining higher self esteem, your also improving your attitude, confidence, and independence. That’s why it’s so important to not judge yourself or others, especially on looks.

4. // A Dove Film - Girl's Self-esteem //. Youtube, 09 Oct. 2006. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

This short film, produced by Dove, is really wonderful because it gives you personal accounts from teenage girls about self esteem and feeling as though they need to look a certain way. One girl talks about wanting to be thinner because the girls in her class are really skinny. Three other girls talk about being called anorexic when they were younger because they had very slim body types. One high schooler says that, as a ninth grader, no one ever talked to her. But over the summer she lost a lot of weight and in tenth grade she had lots of friends. Except her extensive weight loss caused her to be hospitalized. Two girl talk about being called ugly and how it makes them feel worthless. They said that they can’t fit in if they don’t look good. All of the teens talk about feeling judged solely on looks, and that their personalities are often forgotten about. I thought this short film was really powerful because it wasn’t people talking about girls and self esteem issues, but it was actual girls with actual problems concerning their body image. The film concluded with some of the females talking about how everyone is beautiful no matter how they look, they just need to accept themselves for who they are because you can’t change that.

5. Roan, Sharon L. "Body Image and Self Esteem: How Your Daughter Pictures Herself." //Our Daughters' Health: Practical and Invaluable Advice for Raising Confident Girls Ages 6 to 16//. New York: Hyperion, 2001. 49-55. Print.

In Sharon Roan’s book “Our Daughters’ Health” she writes about how girls look at themselves and the connection between self esteem and their body image. At the beginning of ‘Chapter 4 – Body Image and Self Esteem: How Your Daughter Pictures Herself’, Roan discusses seventeen magazine and a shoot they did in 1998 displaying women sizes 14 and 16. She writes that the shoot got nationwide praise and attention for finally showing normal sized women as opposed to “the perfect woman.” Though this is an example of our generation moving forward in allowing females (and males) to be comfortable in their bodies, we still have a long way to go. Girls still live in a world where they are constantly comparing themselves to the images they see in the media, and are still growing up with the same, confining beliefs about beauty that cause so much harm. As many as 75% of women think they are overweight and up to 80% diet: how have we managed to create a society where girls as young as 9 and 10 are concerned about body image? And dieting isnt the only outcome of low self esteem concerning body image: from 1992 to 1996, the number of 18 year old girls receiving cosmetic surgery has doubled! Girls are self conscious about their bodies much of the time, and it results in low self esteem, which results in low confidence and little independence. We need to start making a difference now, so that girls in the future wont have to live their lives worrying about how they look.