“You’re Beautiful, Pass it on”
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The Prowl Staff
February 10, 2011
Filed under News, Top Stories
Self-Esteem. Noun. a realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself; self-respect. Self-Esteem is an important characteristic that many students are lacking. In order to have self-esteem teens need to have respect for themselves. Why is it so hard to love yourself? The answer is the media.
In today’s teen culture, the media is dominated by false perceptions of beauty. In this generation the pressure put on girls and boys to be “perfect” is ruthless. Fashionable clothes, bigger muscles, current hairstyles, tanner bodies, “slim” bodies, and makeup trends all contribute to a teens self-esteem. On television, billboards, magazines, and flyers there are images of celebrities and models that are supposed to be ideal human beings. These images are influencing teenagers to grow into the mold of their icons. Juniors, Brianna Corsini and Amy Drazek, have taken an interest in this issue and have decided to take a stand against societal influences.
The inspiring Juniors’ first researched self-esteem issues so that they would be able to develop appropriate workshops that would raise self-esteem awareness in our schools and community. They wanted to focus on seventh graders because statistics show that 70% of girls between ages 12-15 begin to disengage themselves in activities such as going to school, speaking in class, or going to the doctor when they feel bad about themselves. Thus, they felt it was crucial to target girls before they developed low self-esteem.
To start the campaign, they contacted the principle of Plymouth South Middle School, Mr. John Siever, and notified him of their mission to help the students. They organized an event to complete activities with the girls and teach them the importance of self-esteem. The event was extremely successful. The girls, including the junior directors, had a lot of fun and were inspired to develop more self-esteem. The self-esteem awareness workshop they created for the seventh grade girls provided not only the students, but the community, with knowledge about having positive self-esteem.
Self-esteem is developed over experiences and time. One way to boost self-esteem is by giving and receiving a compliment. Brianna and Amy gave the 7th grade girls the challenge of giving compliments every day to themselves and someone else after their workshop. The junior directors are challenging the town of Plymouth to start a chain reaction of generous words.
To aware the town of Plymouth about the importance of self-esteem, Amy and Brianna were interviewed by the Old Colony Memorial newspaper; and they were guests on WATD AM radio. They have also created a Facebook group that anyone can join to ask questions or give opinions about self-esteem. The inspiring juniors will be premiering on Panther TV to spread their message to high school students. On their own they have started a self-esteem movement by sending out a text message that people should forward to others. The text message reads, “You’re Beautiful, Pass it on. Sent by someone who cares. Forward to ten friends or family to increase the self-esteem in those you love.”
The main message they want to get across is that everyone is “amazing just the way they are,” quoted by Bruno Mars. It’s one hundred percent true that everyone is unique and beautiful in their own way. It’s time to embrace your beauty and care about your own self-esteem as well as others.
-DOVE Self-Esteem Movement
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“Principal” — he/she’s your pal:)
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I love this article. Wish I had read something like that in my teen years!
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