The Girl Scouts of America, Alliance for Women in Media (AWM), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), and several other national organizations are united in efforts to reconcile the images of girls and women they see in the media with their own bodies. Young women face many temptations growing up in a society where media leads the race in depicting what indicates beauty, intelligence, and success. A girl can easily become negatively influenced if she is unable to decipher the difference between fiction and reality, developing low self esteem, eating disorders, and even depression. To address these issues, the organizations held a unifying “Healthy Media for Youth Summit” at the US Capitol on October 6th.
Joining the other tools and resources available to combat this problem (such as media literacy education, youth empowerment groups, and Public Service Announcement programs like the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem), the Summit explored the impact of the media on youths’, and especially girls’, self image.
The event highlighted steps parents can take to minimize the chances of their daughters being affected by media images. Many girls dream of becoming a princess or a model because that is what the media and society has deemed as an ultimate dream job for a woman. In fact, a little girl can be whatever she puts her mind to, from an astronaut to a police officer.
During the ceremony, keynote speaker Academy Award winner Geena Davis spoke about her advocacy engagements geared toward urging the film and television creators to increase the percentage of female characters and reduce gender stereotyping in media targeting children 11 and under. Davis gave an example of how one day, while watching Harry Potter with her daughter, she asked her daughter which of the characters she would like to be when she grows older.
Out of all three lead actors, Davis’s daughter instantly chose Harry, instead of his female sidekick Hermione, because she thought his powers were the coolest. This mindset is what needs to be encouraged in our nation’s daughters – to be the best, rather than the prettiest. As Davis’s advocacy continues, she will devote herself to this cause and allow little girls of all ages to have more opportunities than she was afforded in her career.
Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Alfre Woodard closed the day with a powerful declaration, inspiring women to make a difference, emphasizing the roles each and everyone in the room must play in helping young women embrace who they are and how they can achieve their dreams.
The Girl Scouts, AWM, and NAB Youth Summit was truly an inspiring event. Everyone was challenged to speak out, mentor, and make a difference. Hopefully, the Summit’s messages will resonate among all women, and the wisdom it provided will reach a wide audience.
Lucette Pierre-Louis is an Attorney and graduate from FAMU College of Law who strives to serve the public good and represent the less fortunate. In law school, Lucette earned the title of Senior Editor of the Southern Region Black Law Journal and has authored articles ranging from Abortion to Rape in Third World Countries.
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Kurt Merriweather is the Director of Emerging Business Development at Discovery Communications. In this role, Merriweather is responsible for identifying and incubating opportunities that leverage new audiences, new products and new business models. Merriweather is currently forming a new organization within Discovery that will be dedicated to reaching the channel’s audiences across video, mobile and social media platforms. Prior to his current role, Merriweather worked as Discovery’s Director of Digital Media Business Development, as well as a business director for America Online and senior project manager for several companies.
Elijah Young is a serial entrepreneur who has had a hand in starting nearly twenty businesses since 2003. His most recent venture, 
Jose Mas (and his family) were our very first Multicultural Entrepreneurs of the Week when BBSJ was launched, and we believe he deserves the distinction again. Mas has been CEO of MasTec, a company that is building broadband and telecommunications infrastructure for the entire nation, since 2007. He is the latest in a line of Mas businessmen and women who have built the company from the ground-up into an employer over 10,000 people across the country. In the time since Mas has headed the company, its revenues have doubled and earnings have more than tripled. Last week, Mas was featured on the CBS reality show “Undercover Boss,” which follows senior executives as they work in disguise with lower levels of staff to learn about the inner workings of their companies and how they can improve upon them.
Apple computers and operating systems are widely considered safer and more secure than most other systems, an important factor for consumers in an age where hackers are running rampant online.
Unfortunately, Apple’s recent update to its latest operating system, the Mac OS X Lion, version 10.7.3,
included a security flaw that exposed passwords by storing them outside the encrypted area of users’ devices. When security researcher David Emery discovered the flaw last week, other experts provided tips for users to protect their data until Apple fixed the problem, including changing FileVault passwords and deleting the debug log file, named “/var/log/secure.log,” from the disk drive. Unfortunately, many consumers are simply not that tech-savvy, and they remained at risk until Apple released another update that addressed the problem.
