Recently I posted about Dove's latest ad ("Onslaught") and Seventeen's Body Peace Campaign. The gist of my posts was that while any effort to encourage media literacy around the images girls' consume and help girls feel better about their appearance is GOOD, I questioned the emphasis on fixing girls' self esteem vs. fixing the ad industry that is pumping these images out (including images for Axe, which has the same corporate parent as Dove). I also challenged Seventeen on its choice of Ashlee Simpson as one of the celebrity spokeswomen for the Body Peace Campaign given how much cosmetic surgery she has had. Wouldn't teen girls see through this? Jessica Weiner is working with both of these campaigns and wanted to share her perspective with Ypulse readers. "Jess" is an author, speaker and writer whose work is focused on girls' self esteem and body image. Let her know what you think of what she had to say in the comments!

Ypulse: What inspired you to become an "expert" on girls' self esteem?

Jessica Weiner: You know, I've always felt weird about that "expert" title because I don't have all the answers about self-esteem by any stretch - but I do have a personal wisdom and inspirational philosophy that I use when speaking and working with girls and their moms. I have lived through a lot in my life - eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem -- so I feel like I have a lot to offer those who are going through similar things. And my career over the past 15 years has been about always using self-disclosure with my audience - admitting to being perfectly IMPERFECT - and creating more dialogue around the issues we are afraid to talk about. I am inspired to be a conduit for discussion, a voice out there in the mainstream doing what I can do bring the voices from the sidelines into the picture. Helping transform the issue of self-esteem for women and girls is imperative for me because these are our future leaders, future mothers, future visionaries - and I am committed to helping girls grow into confident women. I guess in the end, I speak up now because I didn't when I was a girl and I know what it feels like. I want to change that.

YP: In your experiences working with girls, what is impacting on their self esteem the most?

JW: Today's girls are dealing with the same issues that our mothers were dealing with it is just that we live in a world right now where technology and media create a blurry haze of interfering messages that can sometimes impact how we view and see ourselves. I have the opportunity to work with girls all over the world and I can tell you that whether they wear Birkas or Birkenstocks, every girl struggles with body image. Every girl wonders if she is "too fat." It's amazing. From Sri Lanka to Sacramento - these worries don't change. And that's because it has become a universal hobby for girls to hate their bodies. To measure them against limiting western media views of beauty. And no one is asking why are our girls more knowledgeable about carbs and calories than world affairs. Why aren't we asking this question? This blows my mind.

Ypulse newsletter readers: Visit Ypulse.com for the rest of the interview.

YP: What made you decide to lend your voice and credibility to both the Dove Campaign and Seventeen's Body Peace campaign?

JW: As I mentioned, I am committed to transforming the issue of self-esteem for women and girls. One of the ways I choose to do this is by working within mainstream media as a TV personality, author and expert. I appear on shows like Tyra, CNN, and the Today Show so that when the issues that are facing young girls and women are addressed - I can lend my voice and the experiences of real girls I work with to the conversation at hand. So if I get a chance to impact the stories that are being spun in the media - I do it! Because as we all know the media is far reaching and quite powerful - so my choice as an Actionist is to work within to create change without. I believe in small steps of change to create big results.

I remember watching the Dove commercials back in 2004 and 2005 featuring real women, and I felt so inspired that they were attempting to shift the way we looked at beauty and ourselves. I became an instant fan of the Campaign For Real Beauty with Dove because if nothing else, here was a giant beauty brand at least attempting to put a spin on "real beauty." Earlier this year, they asked me to become their Global Ambassador for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund which is committed to helping women and girls feel beautiful in their everyday lives. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund is not product related. Its entire mission is to create programs and tools to help establish an outreach to girls and their moms - encouraging them to discuss how the entertainment industry impacts their self-esteem and how the media impacts body image and beauty standards.

I can tell you that after a full of year of conversations with Dove, their commitment to wanting to help women feel more beautiful is real. It is a risk for me as a grass roots girl to align with any brand or mainstream outlet, but I truly believe that the workshops and online tools and programs we are creating together to reach girls will really help. And I believe that one of the most powerful ways to make change in our current culture is to educate the media and corporations as to how to be better citizens to their audience. Sometimes we forget that not everyone out there understands the nuances of advertising messages (even the ones creating the ads). We have to remember that human beings make up the media - and I want to work on a personal level to make change. Partnering with the Dove Self-Esteem Fund is one way I am choosing to align my efforts because their outreach is massive and as I said, their intention in the right place.

As for Seventeen, I know that teen magazines get a bad rap for sending mixed messages - one day they have a story on eating disorders and on the next page is an emaciated model. I wanted to better understand how to craft powerful messages of empowerment within the teen magazine world so I began writing for teen magazines. When Seventeen said that they wanted to do a 12 month campaign to get girls to make peace with their body image, I was impressed. Most magazines run 2 or 3 pages tops. And maybe they do something once or twice a year. I wanted to help Seventeen ground their initiative with online resources and make sure the information that girls get was more about tips and tools to use in their everyday lives not just the message of "love your body!". So Seventeen asked me to write a column addressing all of the factors in girls' self-esteem like boys, friendships, family dynamics and of course the media. Again, I saw this as an opportunity to work with a mainstream magazine with millions of girl readers - to help enhance the conversation. You have to start somewhere and I believe that by signing the peace treaty with their bodies, girls can begin to realize that body image and self-esteem are an evolutionary process and that they don't have to keep assigning their worth to their pants size.

I know you've challenged some of the celebrities that have signed the Body Peace Treaty on Seventeen.com but I think we can't ever understand fully another person's relationship to their body especially by what we've only read about in the media. Unless we know them personally we don't really know how they feel or what informs their choices. I'd like to see us stop vilifying and praising celebs and look at them as more people who make mistakes and are learning just like the rest of us. I want to put the focus on the peace treaty at Seventeen less on the celebs who've signed it and more on the million girls we want to have sign it by next year. Everybody has their favorite celebrity and if they are inspired to sign it because of them - great - but my hope is that girls will soon learn THEY are the SUPERSTARS in their everyday lives!

YP: What is your take on the accusations leveled at Unilever about the sexually provocative ads for one of its other leading youth brands Axe? Can one company have different brands with different social marketing messages?

JW: I think it's a harsh reality that one company contain different brands is going to have different social marketing messages because each brand is going after a different audience. I think we have to put this in perspective. First of all, Dove is a brand and not a company. It's not Dove's responsibility to police the ads of another brand owned by their parent company. And if we take a look today at the corporate structure out there - many conglomerates have conflicting advertising and messaging. It is the unfortunate nature of business in the world today. So I think it's a complicated relationship between media, corporations, advertising and social messaging. We have to look at each brand and then assess how to take action. I certainly can't stand any advertisements that paint women in a damaging, limiting, and over sexualized light. And that is the majority of ads out there in my opinion. So instead of focusing on what I know to be harmful - I chose to put my energy behind a brand that was attempting to shine light on women's diverse beauty. I think it's important for anyone on the grass roots front who supports social change for women in the media - to support those corporations and brands who are attempting to make change, educate them on how to make greater change, and continue the conversation keeping a critical eye on the hypocrisy that exists in business. We have to invite everyone to the table for these conversations. I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet.

YP: I've written on Ypulse that I feel like the industry should do more than just focus on repairing the damage brought on by the "onslaught" of unrealistic beauty and fashion advertising. What do you think the industry can do to self police?

JW: I don't know if it's realistic to expect the first level of change to come from within the very industry that is doing the damage. I am not certain that left to their own devices that the industry will police itself. We can't forget that the media's main focus is to make money - not to raise our self-esteem. Thy will do what they think they must to sell advertisements and the like. As educators and Actionists, we have to find ways to create constructive conversations and education for those who hold power in the media. We also need to raise our voices and protest if we aren't seeing the proper action taken. And we need to strike a balance between those two worlds. We are all fighting for the same thing - a more liberated view of women and girls and men and boys for that matter. Because men and boys are just as impacted as girls and women from negative messaging. So this is really not a gender issue as much as it is a human being issue and we must appeal to those people in these industries on that level. Instead of always pointing the finger - we should construct our best practices and suggestions for how to change and shift these messages and then encourage companies to adopt them.

One of the dynamics that people don't like to address is that - these industries turn out these messages and images because there is an audience buying them! This relationship is mutual. We as consumers have to vote with our check card. We have to show them through abstaining from purchasing that we don't approve of their message. Money can speak louder than any protest can. So when the buying or viewing audience changes then the kinds of messages and products will too. Until then there is an audiences for these mainstream industries, and I think we have to work within that structure to make change as best we can while educating people on their power as consumers and audience members. We are in a dysfunctional relationship, and we all need to play our part in healing this dynamic. I do think there is a way to combine strong activism with media outreach. And it will be achieved through trial and error. We shouldn't get soft at all on being media watch dogs and monitoring messaging coming from those groups who say they care about self-esteem. AND we should find ways to continue to integrate responsible messaging in marketing by educating those who create the advertising.

YP: Anything else you want to ad?

JW: Yes, I want to also share that in November, I am going to be creating a really cool online social event with the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that will explore the lives of four real teenage girls going through four real self-esteem issues. And with my help as their coach and the help of girls across the country online, we will follow their ups and downs and work to better understand how the media influences their issues whether it's boys, bling, body image or beauty. I am excited about this because it is going to take a risk and be raw and honest.

All we can do is what we can do - whether it's writing a letter, protesting a product or like me, crawling into the belly of the beast of the media and trying to change the world from the inside out! These programs are taking a stab at opening up dialogue. I am hoping people will participate and create thoughtful and powerful conversations about self-esteem. I guess in the end, I can sleep at night because I know I haven't joined forces with some lingerie company selling thongs to kids pretending it is self-esteem. I am taking a big risk - trusting brands that I think have their heart in the right place - and hoping that I remember to speak my mind and honor my truth when I work with the snakes and sharks of Hollywood. Good thing I brought my repellent and I know how to swim!

Posted by anastasia