Dove’s “Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable” Initiative

A few weeks back I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit at The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel.  The setting was amazing with the ocean views and salt-watered breeze, but what impressed me the most about the event was the Dove’s “Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable” campaign.   You might have seen the Dove commercials showcasing women of all sizes to stress the importance of women accepting themselves as they are.  Well, their Dove Self-Esteem Project aims to start teaching this important message to our young girls and will focus on self-esteem programming with the support of Lisa Ling and Jess Weiner.

Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable Initiative: 

Dove® is committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety and recently launched a new initiative, “Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable”, as part of its commitment to reach 15 million girls by 2015 with self-esteem programming.   Dove wants to shine a light on the girls who never stop doing what they love and provide tools to moms and mentors to help them inspire the next generation.

 

“Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable” launched at the fifth annual Mom 2.0 Summit to leading mom influencers with a special keynote conversation with acclaimed Journalist and Writer Lisa Ling and Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador, Jess Weiner, who share the brand’s commitment to build self-esteem in girls everywhere.  Together with Dove, they will encourage moms and mentors to share photos, videos and stories of girls in their lives enjoying favorite activities to inspire girls across the country to keep going, to be confident and always be unstoppable.  They had requested those who were attending the event to send in pictures of their unstoppable girls and I had sent in a picture of my daughter in her favorite costume – a Batman cape!

You can send in pictures of your unstoppable girl to:

Photo’s, videos and stories can be shared on:

·        Dove.com/girlsunstoppable

·        Twitter.com/Dove, using #GirlsUnstoppable

·        Facebook.com/Dove.

 

The Real Beauty Sketches Film:

Dove believes that everyone can make a difference in a young girl’s life, but it is important that women first see the beauty in themselves so that they can inspire the next generation.  In the recent Real Beauty Sketches film, https://realbeautysketches.dove.us, Dove explores how women are their own worst beauty critic.  If you haven’t seen these video’s yet – take a moment to check them out.  It was heartbreaking in a way to see how hard women can be on themselves. One of the reasons I feel so passionately about this initiative is because I have a daughter and I want her to feel confident in who she is.  Girls look up to their mothers as role models and I want her to see that mom is okay with how she looks.   Self-confidence is one of the most important attributes I would want my daughter to have as it is the foundation for most everything.  It affects how she feels about herself as well as how she treats others.

“Girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful, and as mothers, aunts, teachers or coaches we all have the opportunity to make a difference in a girl’s self-esteem,” said Lisa Ling.  “I am honored to partner with Dove to help build positive self-esteem in the next generation of girls.  I will always be grateful to the women in my life who inspired me to reach my full potential and I hope to do the same for my daughter.” (Source: Dove Press Release).

“Dove knows that beauty anxiety and beauty pressure is felt by girls as young as eight years old,” said Rob Candelino, Vice President, Unilever Skincare. “We are giving women the tools and resources they need to start a conversation with the girl in their life, one of the most important women will ever have.”  I know that just this year my six year old is wanting to “fit in more” and wear certain clothes and hair accessories to be part of the group.  In a way it breaks my heart to see this start so early, but at the same time, it opened up the door to talk to her about how true friends will like you for who you are – not for how you look.

 

Inspiring the Next Generation

The Dove Self-Esteem Project, formerly known as the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem, educates young people to feel confident about their appearance and build their self-esteem.  Dove has reached over 11 million girls so far with self-esteem programming and, to continue helping women impact the next generation, they are unveiling new, free self-esteem education tools and activities specifically designed for moms, mentors and teachers. They are now available at Dove.com/girlsunstoppable and explore six important conversation themes:

·        Family Relationships & Role Models

·        The Media & Celebrity Culture

·        Self-Care & Respect

·        Teasing & Bullying

·        Competing & Comparing Looks

·        Body Talk

 

 

Jess Weiner, Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador:

I had a chance to speak to Jess Weiner at the Mom 2.0 Summit about her role in the Dove “Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable” initiative.  She told me that empowering girls and women to be more self-accepting stems in part to being raised by a mother who was critical of her own appearance.  She watched her mother criticize herself often which set Jess on her own journey of being unhappy with her appearance while growing up.  She has since made peace with these negative images of herself and she says they have now been “lessened to a whisper.”  I told her that I too, had negative thoughts that start up sometimes that I envision are like an old record player – playing the same song (message) over and over again.   But now, more often than not,  I will mentally stop the records.  I think most women have this happen from time to time and it really does not do any good for anyone – especially yourself!  Her role as the Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador continues all year long and she helps to run workshops for young girls as well as provide insight into Dove’s new, free self-esteem education tools and activities specifically designed for moms, mentors and teachers that are featured on their website.

 

Dove Self-Esteem Weekend

Dove will continue its efforts to make girls unstoppable, hosting its fourth annual Dove Self-Esteem Weekend (October 4-6) to celebrate unstoppable girls across the country with a series of self-esteem workshops, hosted by Dove and the brand’s national partner organizations (Girl Scouts of the US, The Boys & Girls Club of America and Girls, Inc.).  Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador, Jess Weiner, will kick off the weekend with a special event in New York City.   

 

I love how Dove, Jess, and Lisa Ling are working hard to help create a positive attitude in our girls by providing tools for busy moms to use and start or continue this very important conversation with our daughters.

References:  Dove Press Release May 3,2013.

Interview:  Jess Weiner, May 3, 2013

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