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Tell Congress: Girls Deserve Better Role Models Than Supermodels
  1. Signatures
    413 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The U.S. Senate (+ 1 other)
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      • The U.S. Senate
      • The U.S. House of Representatives
  2. Created By
    Girl Scouts of the USA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Did you know nearly 90% of girls say the media places a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin? Only 46% of girls think that the fashion industry does a good job of representing people of all races and ethnicities. 55% of teenage girls admit they diet to lose weight and 37% know a girl with an eating disorder. 

Girl Scouts of the USA took action to fix these problems and to help girls and young women see themselves in a new and stronger light. They worked closely with Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to introduce the Healthy Media for Youth Act (H.R. 4925) in the US House of Representatives. Recently, Senator Kay Hagan inroduced (S. 3852) in the US Senate.

This bill supports media literacy programs and youth empowerment groups, like the Girl Scouts, and encourages healthy, balanced, and positive images of girls and women in media. Ask your Senators and Representatives to be a voice for girls and support the Healthy Media For Youth Act!

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Please Be A Voice For Girls In Washington D.C.

Dear Member of Congress,

As a proud supporter of Girl Scouts, I urge you to be a Voice for Girls in Washington by cosponsoring S. 3852 or H.R. 4925, the Healthy Media for Youth Act, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Kay Hagan and in the House by Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin and Shelley Moore Capito.

Media and technology are dramatically changing the way children communicate, receive information, and learn. While there are many positive benefits of increased media exposure, there are many challenges associated with new media, especially with regard to the portrayal of women and girls. For example, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media found that fewer than one out of three speaking roles in children's G-rated movies are female. It also found that the majority of female characters in children's movies are praised for their appearance or physical beauty rather than their personality, intelligence, or other talents, and narrowly fixated on romantic relationships that lack substantial connections or courtships.

While this issue affects all children, it disproportionately affects girls. A recent study by the Girl Scout Research Institute states that 60 percent of teenage girls compare their bodies to fashion models and almost 90 percent of girls say the fashion industry places a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin. According to the American Psychological Association, three of the most common mental health problems among girls -- eating disorders, depression or depressed mood, and low self-esteem -- are linked to sexualization of girls and women in media.

With children exposed to more than 10 hours of recreational media each day, we must ensure that they are empowered to make sense of the images they are seeing. The Healthy Media for Youth Act supports media literacy programming that provides youth with critical and analytical thinking skills, and leadership development to help them combat the negative images they see. The bill also supports research on the impact of media images, and creates a taskforce to adopt voluntary guidelines to promote healthier media images of women and girls. This legislation will empower children and encourage a better balance in the media images they see.

I encourage you to be a Voice for Girls. Please become a cosponsor of the Healthy Media for Youth Act today. Senators can contact Michelle Adams in Senator Kay Hagan's office at 202-224-6342 or Michelle_Adams@Hagan.Senate.gov.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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