We all remember how hard it was being young. Along with all the other trials of growing up (fighting with siblings, being forced to eat broccoli, maths), the pressure to look beautiful and fit in seemed more important than ever. Today 71 percent of girls around the world feel pressure to be beautiful,* at a time when they should be at their most carefree.
But caring about the way we look is not something we are born with: we often learn it from the women around us. And chances are, you’re a role model even if you haven’t realised it. Though more than half of girls say their mum is their number one role model, a young girl has an average of three female role models in her life.** So whether you’re a mum, an aunt, a neighbour, coach or family friend, you have the opportunity to make a difference to her self-esteem. All it takes is some positivity.
So this is a call to arms for women everywhere: see the beauty in yourself, express it with confidence, and the girls watching you are likely to emulate it. Empowering the women of tomorrow is down to us - and the positive beauty legacy we leave them.
To help inspire women everywhere, we created Dove: Legacy, a new Dove video that reveals the opportunity all women have to make their beauty legacy a positive one for the next generation. We asked mums and their young daughters (7-10 years old) to individually write two lists: what they like about their bodies and what they don’t. What did we discover? Well we won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say that the two lists were remarkably similar…
We hope our film Dove: Legacy will show that all women have a role to play in inspiring the next generation to be confident and feel beautiful, by making sure their own beauty legacy is a positive one. After all, the way she feels about her beauty often starts with how you feel about yours. Will you share who you #FeelBeautifulFor?
Empowering the next generation - the Dove Self-Esteem Project
Dove is committed to helping girls everywhere improve their body confidence and self-esteem. Through the Dove Self-Esteem Project we’ve developed a self-esteem website for parents of girls aged 7-17 who want to help their daughters through the turbulent teen years, when feelings about beauty are developing.
We’ve also created self-esteem teaching resources that tackle these issues in a classroom setting, and a youth leaders guide, packed full of activities any mentor can do with a group. Through our global partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts we’ve created a special badge program called ‘Free Being Me’ that is now available across the world.
It’s our aim to reach 15 million young people with self-esteem building education by the end of 2015. We’ve reached over 13 million girls so far – together we can reach even more. Will you help us?
*Dove Girls’ Self Esteem Research 2010 and 2013
**Dove Global Research: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited
