{"id":96950,"date":"2015-03-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.72point.com\/lack-female-role-models-girls-media\/"},"modified":"2015-03-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T00:00:00","slug":"lack-female-role-models-girls-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.72point.com\/us\/lack-female-role-models-girls-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of Female Role Models for Girls in the Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"poser\"<\/a>It\u2019s painful just how hugely teenage girls obsess over beautiful celebs, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Even more painful is remembering being exactly the same way.<\/p>\n

As an awkward pre-teen, the waist of my trousers still that bit too high, I directed all my adolescent envy towards two TV babes:\u00a0 Holly Valance (Neighbours <\/em>fan \u2013 weren\u2019t we all) and Frankie, of the highly-regarded eight-piece ensemble, the S Club Juniors. Pause for emphasis.<\/p>\n

They were older than me; I guess around 14 – slim, clear-skinned and so unbearably good-looking.<\/p>\n

Call me a shallow kid but if someone had said to me, \u2018What do you want in life?\u2019 I\u2019d have thought, \u2018Flick Scully\u2019s complexion\u2019 without pausing. I didn\u2019t know what else to put my energy towards. School?<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was a blessing then, that my only exposure to these girls was through music videos, CBBC and my monthly Sugar mag, so I was only mildly hateful of myself. Imagining what my life would have been like if I were 11 years old today\u2026.to endure the social media noise that teenagers have now\u2026 well that\u2019s too stressful to think about.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely I\u2019d be drip-fed a continuous stream of Holly and Frankie through their Twitter feeds; lapping it up as they churned out duck-faced selfies, holiday pics strewn with product placement, bikini mirror shots – at a Kardashian regularity. In a misplaced brainwave I\u2019d probably have uploaded a \u2018vlog\u2019 of myself re-enacting a Fast Show sketch with a toy panda or something, which, years later, I would almost kill myself trying to remove. I might have even\u2026 enjoyed <\/em>Zoella.\u00a0 It\u2019s frightening, what might have been.<\/p>\n

Imagining what my life would have been like if I were 11 years old today\u2026.to endure the social media noise that teenagers have now\u2026 well that\u2019s too stressful to think about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But the next generation \u2013 the millennials (apparently I might be a millennial, a fact I\u2019d rather hide away from)<\/em><\/em>– live each day in this media frenzy, which is barely being contained. We\u2019re only beginning to see the dark side developing from this parallel world – the Instagram culture, the trolling, cyber bullying, revenge porn \u2013 and what an obsession with narcissistic, selfie-addicted reality stars might do to a teenager\u2019s sense of self.<\/p>\n

The problem lies in the fact that the really cool women \u2013 the explorers, zoologists, scientists, entrepreneurs, are NOWHERE to be seen. And the Kardashians, the Jenners, the cast of Towie – who are solely famous for publicity and looks, are EVERYWHERE. They aren\u2019t particularly admirable, aren\u2019t representing a viable career move and are spreading their own message of \u2018you don\u2019t look good enough\u2019 to their young fans like a disease.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mostly \u2018the Kylie Jenner effect\u2019 (the influx of girls getting lip fillers due to her sudden enormous pout) that made me write this post, as it got me thinking about idols. Aside from their own family members, not to be downplayed, and a stock list of historical figures like Marie Curie that are churned out in school, there are just reams and reams of glitzy celebs. Throw in a Karen Brady, a Michelle Obama and a Mary Portas and that\u2019s it, really.<\/p>\n

A space-travelling woman going to Mars<\/a> may be mentioned in the news one day, or an athlete<\/a> on another day, or a CEO<\/a> on another\u00a0And then she fades into obscurity as a \u2018What has she done to her face?!\u2019 story dominates the air time for weeks.<\/p>\n

Put simply, there is no PR for the real idols girls need.\u00a0 No scientists, world explorers, chemists, psychologists. No web designers, charity workers, astronauts or business owners. And if we, as adults, don\u2019t know anything about the women making real changes in the world but constantly seeing Kim Kardashian\u2019s blonde mop gets a news headline, no wonder girls are chasing their goals right into the cosmetic surgeon\u2019s office instead.<\/p>\n

There is no PR for the real idols girls need<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I want to hear about women that are worth looking up to and emulating, who have made something of themselves based on more than their cheekbones. Who have seen a problem and looked to solve it, through hard graft and innovation.<\/p>\n

And we should research them, and talk about them, and share them, and give them the PR they deserve \u2013 but also (cue the Miss. World bit) because it\u2019s what young girls deserve. The scope of what women are achieving isn\u2019t bleak; they\u2019re just humble enough not to be yelling about it. It\u2019s up to everyone else to yell about them instead. It\u2019s up to us change the situation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0International Women’s Day is the 8th March. Don’t forget to join the conversation using #IWD2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s painful just how hugely teenage girls obsess over beautiful celebs, isn\u2019t it? 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