by Carmen Rios If you told me five years ago when I signed up for Facebook that the site would eventually come to lock me out of my own account for speaking at a protest, I wouldn’t have believed you. But that’s what happened last Thursday, August 16. In August of 2011, I spoke at…
by Georgia Luckhurst When it comes to bullying, you’d be hard pressed to find a girl who isn’t familiar with it. Girls get picked on for their blooming bodies and teased because of their choice in friends and clothes. However, when it comes to bullying, girls have one advantage: society acknowledges this kind of conduct…
by Alice Wilder You probably already love Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, and Anne Hathaway. They’re smart, talented, funny ladies who are damn good at what they do: acting and promoting their work. But my admiration doubled once they started discussing sexism in interviews. I didn’t realize that girls are always being asked about the diets…
by Julia Bluhm We all know that the media’s messages are having more and more of an effect on kids. Whether you’re reading a book, watching a movie, or just taking a walk down the toy aisle, everything marketed towards girls is pink, has to do with beauty, or ends with a prince charming sweeping…
by Maya Brown In a world where we are constantly bombarded with images of women on stripper poles, girls on diets, and babies in heels, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all the bad stuff and forget about who we’re doing all of this for. After watching TV or looking through magazines, it can…
by YingYing Shang I am not white. Yeah, I know, stating the obvious, but in fact, even for someone of Chinese ethnicity, I am decidedly not on the pale end of the spectrum. And every time I flip open a fashion magazine here in America or visit my home city of Beijing, decked out with…
by Shavon McKinstry For children in Western countries and other places where the toy market flourishes, the rift is met early on in life: girls can play with “boys’ toys,” but boys cannot play with “girls’ toys.” Similarly, girls can wear boy clothes, but boys can’t wear girl clothes. Tomboys are charming, feminine boys are…
[Ed. note: this post is cross-posted from our partners at Powered By Girl.] By Katherine Connolly The setting is a Willy Wonka-esqe imaginative factory, straight out of a child’s fantasy. An adorable little boy, dressed up in his own little suit, runs his own candy factory, issuing orders and marching around like a grown-up. Two…