Empowering Girls to Fly High

11 year old Ashlee is set to change the world

2012-01-21T03:26:00.002+11:00

Guest post by our friend Ashlee Nicole Baritugo.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Ashlee Nicole Baritugo. Call me Ash. I am 11 years old born on January 9, 2001. I'm homeschooled but I think I'm going back to school after about three years! :) I am from San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines. I am the founder of www.thepowerofgirls.yolasite.com and it's Facebook page 'The Power Of Girls'. I made 'The Power Of Girls' because I was inspired by 7Wonderlicious and Operation Beautiful... I was also inspired by the hardships of my life. The hardest is not having much friends...I only have a 13 year old friend and a 9 year old friend. They both rarely go out of their houses... So I am pretty much a loner, I guess.

I was especially inspired by 7Wonderlicious because of every encouraging things they post on their Facebook page. I'm so lucky I found it. :) My mission is to help get rid of lack of self confidence, bullying, beauty issues ["fat talk"] and Girl limits boy limits [I kinda invented that. Girl limits and boy limits is like boys are only allowed to play with sports stuff, science stuff, cars etc. And girls can only play with dolls, make up, doll houses, etc.].

Are we gonna let our children grow up with the rules that they can only play with the toys they're SUPPOSED to play with??? NO. We will NOT. We shouldn't limit our children's dreams! We should be helping them FULFILL it. No matter how hard it is, we should still keep trying.

I want everyone who is reading to help me with my mission. Is that okay? Can you help me?

Thank you!

-Ashlee Baritugo. Founder of The Power Of Girls

--
You are beautiful, the way you are. -Ashlee Baritugo

Walking amongst giants

2011-12-29T01:31:00.002+11:00

This year was without a doubt the best year of my life to date. I may not be able to bottle up all that I have experienced, all that I have learned, all that was accomplished but I want to share with you in the next few blog posts a few key events that are relevant to this wonderful community. I start today with a moment I will cherish for the rest of my life.

I am not one that is easily impressed, as you can probably imagine I would not have started this community if I did not have an irreverent side to me that likes to challenge the status quo and cringes at individuals, communities or corporations fueled by ego and self-serving interests. This year I had the privilege and absolute pleasure to meet a few individuals that touched me deeply, left me humbled for the amazing opportunity I had to connect with them and inspired me to do more, so much MORE.

I spend a lot of my time supporting the women around me to acknowledge and speak about their capabilities and their achievements and I am in truly in awe of those that showcase these strengths, but I have to recognize that the leaders I connect with, that inspire me the most, that align better with who I am as an individual are the humble, servant leaders that spend little time focusing on their own image and interests instead focusing on the interests of their cause and community.

Amy Goodman is one of the hosts of Democracy Now a fully independent news organisation run by small individual donations that is literally taking the media back and providing a space for common people to have a voice. A media outlet not run by corporations or fueled by the interests of the finance, insurance, drug or war industries.

In June this year I had the privileged of spending some time with Amy Goodman. Although I was totally star struck and humbled by this opportunity I was able to shake it off and ask her a few questions and later listen to her wonderful speech that left me teary eyed, emotional and so so impressed with her lifetime achievements.

It would have been easy to for me to miss the giant and super shero sitting beside me in a wonderful summer evening near Chicago, a soft-spoken unassuming woman with a tiny frame, silver hair and a very kind welcoming open smile. It would have been easy to miss that this lady of strength and courage reports from the middle of war zones, was beaten up by the Indonesian army when trying to avoid the massacre of the East Timorese people and is one of the most knowledgeable human beings one can ever meet.

Amy is a wonderful storyteller, she does not speak, she sings, she paints a multidimensional picture, she takes you to a moment in history and analyzes the scene from a point of view of true humanity, raising the universal standard of justice around the world.

It would take me days to relate to you all that I have learned from this short but decisive interaction so I will touch on two key points; one is a lesson, the second a validation of my own belief system.

1) The importance of a truly independent media, of a truly independent point of view, free from corporate interests, free from advertisers, from corporate sponsorship, from corporate ownership.

Open and honest spaces that allow people to discuss the current issues of the day, that provide information about all points of view, not just the point of view of the privileged, of the powerful. A media that is not afraid of asking difficult questions, that is not under the shadow of the handful of big corporations that control 90% of all media.

2) That we are all interconnected at a spiritual level, that everytime we hurt one another we are hurting ourselves. I will not share the details of this conversation because we were talking about another great giant and shehero. This was not a conversation about religion; it was a conversation about a shared deep understanding that body-mind-community-planet-universe are intrinsically connected.

Amy Goodman allowed me to experience the kind of woman I would like to become, and the fun exciting part about it, is that I have a long long way to go and have a lifetime to attempt to achieve it. Because it is really not about the destination, what I really enjoy is the journey, with all the ups and downs, with all the struggles that allow me to appreciate the special moments like that weekend near Chicago where I was literally walking amongst giants.

Thank you Amy,

Inês

The impact of “Want to kill your daughters' self worth” aka @hamleystoys campaign

2011-12-18T22:36:00.004+11:00

Back in May this year I traveled to the UK on business and decided to visit the Hamleys toy store, at the time I was so shocked with what I found that I wrote two blogs posts about it. The 7Wonderlicious crew has been sharing these two posts every 6 week with our 60k plus followers on social media across our 1 facebook account and many twitter accounts. Here are the blogs posts:

Want to kill your daughters' self worth? stop by at the nearest toy store

Part 1 - the girls' floor
Part 2 - the boys floor

This blog post is our most popular post and goes viral every time it is shared. Both twitter and facebook enabled our community to share this story, which they do in a very passionate way. Groups like Pinkstinks shared the original story as well as many others across the world.

This week I went back in the UK and again visited Hamleys, I was so happy that they changed the floors and also stopped selling Bratz Dolls that I posted it on Facebook here.

Two days later the UK press was all over it, and another blogger was claiming victory for the events. Anyone following this community will know where it all started and all that we did together to make this a reality. You will also see that we shared the good news first.

Now here is what really really matters :)

what we have started has gone viral in the press and is raising awareness everyday of the damage caused by gender stereotypes.
what we have started turned into a meme, an idea that went viral and is now being broadcast by the powerful media to the hearts and minds of parents and educators that don’t always have the chance and the time to think about what is being consumed.
what we have started is being passionately owned by many groups in the UK who have joined the fight together with their communities.

So although for about 2.5 seconds I was disappointed and hurt that the 2 or 3 bloggers/organizations failed to mention us, the reality is I don’t do what I do to get credit by the media, I do what I do to make an impact and add value, and that my friends, was achieved 1000%.

During the past week I have received many emails from our tribe members saying how upset and sad you are with the events and stating wrong doing by others claiming victory, I have to say that I don’t agree that there was any ill intent. Memes travel very fast, people pick up ideas from conversations with others, from blogs, tweets etc. It is only natural that as our story was shared other picked up the words without ever connecting the origin back to us. If this is not the case…well who cares really :) we will be celebrating and feeling really good about the outcome and we will use this result to drives to do more. Right?

I want to thank you all for your support, this would not have been possible without you, our posts had hundreds of thousands of hits due to your social media sharing and your passion for this subject.

Lets not sweat the small stuff!

I am currently traveling the world for my day job, I have been on the road from November and will only return to Sydney in February. My travels include(d) San Francisco, London, Lisbon, Chicago, New York, Hamburg. I am trying my absolute best to keep our community active during this time. Hopefully with your help we can continue to make a difference across many continents.

Muahh!

Inês

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Children See. Children Do.

2011-11-09T03:00:00.001+11:00

Make your influence Positive!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Enough is Enough! Our children deserve more!

2011-11-07T13:26:00.001+11:00

by Elin Waldal www.elinstebbinswaldal.com

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

I believe my ideas should be heard!

2011-11-04T22:43:00.002+11:00

The meaning of feminism Vlog from ReelGrrls Workshops on Vimeo.
Also check out www.feministfrequency.com/

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Miss Representation Extended Trailer

2011-11-03T19:08:00.002+11:00

http://missrepresentation.org/

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

Free To Be....Unbullied

2011-11-02T23:31:00.001+11:00

Free To Be....Unbullied
StopBullying.gov

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7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

I Loooveee my Hair, I Looveeee my Haaaiir...

2011-10-28T13:24:00.000+11:00

Muah!

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

Rise Dark Girls, Rise!

2011-10-28T06:47:00.001+11:00

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

Mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all? Who Freaking Cares!

2011-10-27T22:49:00.001+11:00

How can our amazing dark skinned girls ever feel good in their own skin while this madness is going on all around them?

1) The horrid ads for skin lightning products:

2) The lack of diversity in toy stores

Photos taken in Hamley, London's most popular toy store. I could not find one single doll that was not white and western looking.

3) The constant whitewashing in magazines and tv commercials

We Say...

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

STOP the Fat Talk!

2011-10-26T07:34:00.001+11:00

STOP the Fat Talk!

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

16 tips that will help your daughter overcome Gender Stereotypes #WonderliciousRevolution

2011-10-25T05:09:00.001+11:00

We are running a Wonderlicious Girl Revolution campaign this week, everyday we will focus on raising awareness and sharing information on a specific threat to girlhood. Today's theme is Gender Stereotypes and their effect on young girls.

Today we are rebelling against the pink and blue boxes. :) It is not a revolution against the colors themselves (we love all colors of the rainbow), it is a revolution against the limitations that the marketing departments of big corporations, the toy stores, the media and society in general are placing on the potential of each child.

If you want a detailed and very vivid illustration of this issue ensure you read our very popular blog posts: Want to kill your daughters' self worth stop by your nearest toy store – part 1 (the pink section), part 2 (the blue section).

Here are 16 tips that will help your daughter overcome gender stereotypes with your support:

1. Examine your own beliefs in regards to gender roles. Do you expect different behaviors from boys and girls? Do you threat them differently? Why?

2. Buy gender-neutral toys that stimulate creativity and help develop hand-eye coordination and motor skills, color recognition, patience and self-esteem;

3. Involve your daughter in sports and physical activity, as this is a very effective and essential strategy to build her confidence and self-esteem. It promotes better health, wellness and body awareness; it builds life skills and may create social networks. Ensure she knows you value strength and fitness in girls. It is also very important for her to get exposed to team sports as they teach her to work with others and help her learn social skills;

4. Limit her exposure to TV and to advertising;

5. Increase her awareness and understanding of gender related biases and discrimination. A great way to do this is to have her examine the different ways men and women are being portrayed in movies, tv shows, commercials and books. What are the differences? Are they real?

6. Encourage you daughter to speak up, express her point of view and ask questions. Encourage her to think like a scientist. Right from the time she cannot speak, ask her the question – well, what do you think and encourage her to respond. If she asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, tell her you don’t know and follow this up with – come, let’s find out. Encourage her to evaluate options when solving a problem, ask her to go over her options out loud, ask her what worked, what did not work and encourage her to reflect on the reasons for the different outcomes;

7. Encourage your daughter to try new things, to move out of the stereotypical “female” activities. Does she know how to fix her bike? Have you though her how to read a map? How about encouraging her to try a new sport that is not traditionally played by girls? maybe a martial art?

8. Let your daughter solve her own problems or at least attempt to do so. Encourage her to be creative in solving problems and “think outside the box.” Explain that there are answers to every question and solutions to every problem;

9. Encourage her to follow her dreams and interests. Advice her to do the things she enjoys and loves with commitment and hard work. Nurture in her the desire to take risks and achieve excellence;

10. Teach her to become financially intelligent and help her break the Disney princess culture that a woman needs a prince to care for her. A woman will only develop real confidence if she is financially independent and has the ability to make her own choices in life;

11. Take your child outdoors and wherever you can, identify and enjoy with her the beauty of physics, chemistry, biology and math. Your backyard is the best place to start;

12. Girls can be encouraged to love and learn math and science by motivating them to get their hands dirty trying out various things just like boys. Give them a lot of books on science, dinosaurs, books and material on construction and transportation. Provide games that develop spatial skills such as puzzles, model kits, checkers and chess, etc;

13. Be mindful of role play and the characters children adopt i.e girls are the nurses and boys are the doctors…etc. Play with them, help them adopt many different characters instead of the stereotypical ones;

14. Introduce her to strong female role models (characters and real people);

15. Expose her to a variety of career options and women who are fulfilled and successful in those careers;

16. Find reasons to praise your daughter but be genuine and keep it matter of fact. Compliment your child on skills, abilities, initiative, hard work, dedication and values. Minimize focus on appearance. Most of all, Believe in Her.

Happy parenting!

ps. If you wish to fully understand what is fact and what is fiction in regards to gender differences and the true impact of nature and nurture in your child's development we highly recommend the books:

"Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps -- And What We Can Do About It" by Lise Eliot. Here is a video of Lise going through a summary of her findings.

"Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference" by Cordelia Fine. Here is a video by Cordelia going through a summary of her findings.

Here is also a very insightful video with Shelley Correll explaining How Gender Stereotypes Influence Emerging Career Aspirations.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

Sexualization of Girls - Theme of the day #WonderliciousRevolution

2011-10-24T09:23:00.001+11:00

We are running a Wonderlicious Girl Revolution campaign this week, everyday we will focus on raising awareness and sharing information on a specific threat to girlhood. Today the theme is Sexualization of little girls.

We love this video from Colorado College Psychology Professor Tomi-Ann Roberts as it provides you with a deep understanding of this issue. Please take the time to view it.

Happy parenting!

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

Sometimes little girls need to just say NO! Join the Revolution!

2011-10-22T20:45:00.001+11:00

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Click on the image to order our Girl Power Toolkit!

Jackson Katz: Male Characters in Hollywood by @RepresentPledge

2011-10-20T08:01:00.001+11:00

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7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Girls Change the World!

2011-10-18T10:52:00.001+11:00

Way to go Sesame Street. Share this with the girls in your life.

Muahh!

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7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

A Wonderlicious Rebellion - Our Shop is now OPEN! Happy Dance!

2011-10-13T23:00:00.002+11:00

Sometimes a little girl must say No! Today I bring to you a Wonderlicious Rebellion! :)

I must admit that when I started this tribe, I was a little naïve. I truly believed that inspiration, motivation and great role models would be the only tools we were going to need to support our girls.

I wanted young girls to experience the sparkly world of possibilities. To learn and develop without ever needing to understand or care about the unfair representation of girls in the media or the tricks played by corporate marketing to get them to be a lifetime consumer of their products…

But as I visited toy stores, reviewed children’s media and read the never-ending list of very depressing studies about eating disorders, problems with body image and self-esteem and sexualisation and objectification of children... I changed my mind.

I realised that it was very important to also provide media literacy and promote critical thinking at an early age.

I realised that we need to equip our girls with the ability to evaluate what they watch and hear. We need to teach them to question and to challenge stereotypes, and we need to do this at an early age because unfortunately if we don’t get to them first…they will:

Toy stores that are divided into girls/pink and boys/blue sections where the pink area is overflowing with items that send her one single message that external beauty is the only thing that can possibly matter to her.
Billboards, ads, magazines and dolls showcasing unattainable and highly stereotyped images of external beauty that do not represent the true beauty and diversity of real body shapes and skin colors.
The violence against women depicted in movies, on TV and in magazines.
The absence of women and girls portraying multidimensional roles in the media, from children's books to movies and tv series.

I decided to create a little tool to help parents and educators explain in simple terms what is right and what is wrong to a preschool aged girl. I am not suggesting in any way that you call attention to nasty things that she does not see: let's keep toxic media as far away from our girls as possible for as long as we can. DO surround her with a supportive and inspirational environment full of positive influences, but... when she does comes across bad influences and stereotypes and unfortunately she eventually will we have a created a very simple tool that allows you and her to simply say:

No!No!No!

It is a visual symbol of the Wonderlicious Rebellion, a gesture that will allow her to think critically about what she is experiencing and determine if it is not right!

Because as a girl she can proudly say:

I can do and be anything I wish to be, my imagination and potential are limitless, all the colors of the rainbow and toys are available to me.
I am a little girl, I have all the time in the world, I don’t need to grow up fast.
I want see real girls of many shapes and sizes, just like my friends and me, represented in toys, books, magazines, movies and on TV.
Skin and hair come in many beautiful colors; I want to see girls and boys that represent all the wonderful diversity in the world.
Yes! I am gorgeous inside and out but I am more than just a pretty doll to be looked at, I like to jump, to explore, to have fun, to get dirty, to learn and so much more.
It is not right to promote violence against girls or any other creature in the world.
Where are the girls? I want to see girls and women too.

As part of our Girl Power Toolkit and together with our posters, stickers and our story cards, you will also receive seven books of post-its with these designs so that when she and you come across something that it is not right, she can just take one of the notes and stick it to the book, magazine and even to on TV, or give it to someone else. A gesture that will make all the difference!

With your guidance and the help of our little rebellious role models we will guide her to critically question what she is presented with, disregard what is not right and embrace a girlhood free from limitations.

Learning to challenge stereotypes is an important building block to nurture the girl power seed.

Let the revolution begin today!

I almost forgot ... our store is now open to take your orders. I have only ordered from the printer 500 Girl Power Toolkits, as that is all I could afford to buy in advance, so don't miss out, ORDER TODAY!

Muahh!

Chief Super Hero Wannabee @ 7Wonderlicious

Another Drum rolllll ! 2 - Role Models & Stories (Girl Power ToolKit)

2011-10-12T22:22:00.001+11:00

Story telling is very powerful.

Since the beginning of time, people have come together to tell stories. The act of story telling is the single most powerful mechanism to teach values and to shape behaviors. The characters in these old stories tap into our imagination and inspire amazing achievements. I have previously shared with you studies about this subject via our blog.

When I first started shaping 7Wonderlicious it was very clear to me that creating cute characters that little girls can relate to would be the best way to influence their belief system and expand the limited scope of girlhood being fed to them by the media, corporate marketing and society in general.

I wanted to create little role models that looked like them; characters that demonstrate traits such as leadership, confidence, curiosity, love of learning, diversity and so much more. I knew this was definitely the best way to seed their creativity and imagination just enough for them to move away from the passive stereotypes usually associated with girlhood.

Our 28 empowering stories tell tales of strong girls and brave girls, conquering their fears and applying their strengths to good causes. These are the kind of compelling roles that only boys tend to play in movies, books and TV series. Now girls have the chance to hear stories of powerful girl characters they can model themselves after.

Many of our tiny little stories end with a question:

“Are you a leader?”

“What are your strong points?”
...

These are questions that allow your daughter to think about her own experience and encourage her to think about her own strengths.

I receive many emails from parents and educators telling me how they are surprised with the discussions that our story app generates through these questions, even with girls as young as three. Adults and children engage in conversations about confidence and empowerment. It is a very powerful tool... and yet many of you don’t own an iPad and some of you choose not to give gadgets to your children…

Soooo….drum rolllllll…. :) as part of the 7Wonderlicious Girl Power Toolkit we will also provide you and your girl with our 28 stories as a glossy paper deck of cards, with an illustration on the front and text on the back.

These stories are completely aligned with our 70 traits in the Girl Power Posters so you can use them to exemplify these traits to your girl. It is much easier to talk about confidence, leadership, speaking out etc when you have our little role models as your empowerment partners demonstrating these traits.

One more surprise coming up tomorrow before I tell you how to order the entire Girl Power Toolkit.

Its like Christmas in October!

...before I leave you today one final thought...

On toxic brands, trademark characters and corporate interests

Our 7Wonderlicious role models represent Girl Empowerment, they represent the potential in each little girl. Their stories and actions will always be deliberately designed with only one interest in mind – her bright future, a future full of possibilities and choices.

They are a force for good an alternative to toxic media and marketing.

You have my word and full commitment that they will never change or be victims of corporate interests. My focus is on positive impact and value to every girl. I hope one day 7Wonderlicious will be big enough and make enough money so that I can put that capital to good use and solve the bigger, much more complex problems experienced by girls in Third World countries. Our mission will never change. I will never trade off the integrity and purpose of these characters for any sum of money.

That is my promise to you all!

Chief Super Hero Wannabee @ 7Wonderlicious

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Drum rolllll ! 1 - Our new Girl Power Toolkit #GirlPower

2011-10-11T11:00:00.007+11:00

I think of girl power as a tiny little seed, a seed that is present within the heart, spirit and imagination of every little girl from the moment she is born.

Due to the bad influences so prevalent in our society, this seed needs a lot of nurturing, protection and nourishment to flourish to its full potential. My job is to inspire and support you on this crucial task, because you… yes YOU hold the key to her empowerment, and her confidence.

I understand that, at least for now, her future is in your hands and I want to provide you with the best information, inspiration and tools to help you raise a confident girl.

7Wonderlicious has accomplished a lot in the past year. You can find out more about what we have been up to through this little video, but now I am very proud to announce the next phase of our girl power campaign.

DRUM ROLLLLL! Introducing our Girl Power Toolkit

1) Inspire and motivate her with our Girl Power Reward System!

Would you like to have a daily reminder of the traits and attributes you should be nurturing in your daughter? Would you like to have an age appropriate way to reward her Girl Power efforts?

We have created 7 posters, each one with ten different Traits of a Wonderlicious girl! Seven posters you can hang on the walls of her bedroom or add to the door of your fridge. The 70 traits include simple affirmations that even the tiny little ones can easily embody, such as:

“I am a leader”,
“I am physically active”,
“I speak up”

More complex concepts are included for the older children such as:

“I am not afraid to make mistakes because I learn from them”
“I apply critical thinking to media and marketing”.
“I know that beauty comes in different sizes, shapes, colors and abilities”

The posters bottle up all the goodness and insights from the amazing resources we have been sharing with you for the past year in a very simple way. The posters come together with lots of stickers that can be used to celebrate her girl power traits. As always, we suggest you reinforce the behaviors you are trying to support by using specific examples in a matter of fact way and without exaggeration. Our goal is to celebrate her effort in developing these traits.

Although our products are focused on girls aged three to seven, I personally am inspired and motivated by these traits every single day :) So no matter who you are trying to empower do check these out:

Did you think this is it? Nahhh this is just the beginning ... the 7Wonderlicious Girl Power Toolkit includes two other surprises. But that will have to wait for tomorrow.

Happy Dance!

PS. It only took me a year to get these out…sigh… now you understand why we have seven different logos, they were actually designed a year ago to fulfill the role of stickers in our Girl Power Reward System. It took me a while to get these out because I had to read exactly 56 books and hundreds of articles on child psychology and girl empowerment. I wanted to ensure I had captured all the right traits and that they were consolidated in a simple way that is easy to understand. I also got input from all of you via our fb page when I asked two months ago: “What behaviors and capabilities should we encourage to empower our girls?”

Good things happen to those who wait! ;)

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

The number one wish of high school girls is to be thinner

2011-10-11T06:56:00.001+11:00

I LOVE this project so much: Healthy is the New Skinny

Lets encourage all girls and women to appreciate their bodies and show them that real women come in many beautiful sizes, shapes and colors.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

A Soldier of Peace

2011-10-09T23:00:00.000+11:00

"My 6 year old has decided to be a "Girly Solider" ~ she has a really cute military style jacket with flower lining and saw a military type little girls hat at a store with a pink heart on it..."Mom, will you paint me camouflage with a lil sparkle and I'll be a solider"? I ♥ her...she's already got a beautiful balance about her!"

-- this comment was left on our FB page by Nichole Olson in regards to Halloween

MAGIC HAPPENS when you take away labels and limitations and let kids unleash their creativity.

This week three amazing women won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for women's rights. These inspirational leaders and soldiers of hope used vision, resilience, perseverance, strength, hope and love as weapons of choice.

This is what happens when women and girls believe they can change the world. Can you imagine the goodness that our little 6 year old soldier of hearts and sparkle will be unleashing in the near future?

Muahh!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Fun Stuff ! Bullying backfires :)

2011-10-09T12:06:00.001+11:00

Pixar For the Birds Original - These bloopers are hilarious

Lets teach our girls to embrace and celebrate diversity instead of fearing it, by accepting and appreciating the differences in others she will also learn to celebrate her own uniqueness and strong points.

Muahh!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

From a simple thought a forest grows!

2011-10-09T06:19:00.001+11:00

Sometimes we all need a little reminder to make a connection. Teach her to love the life right in front of her eyes.

Life Nature You from Myles Thompson on Vimeo.

From a simple thought a forest grows!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Your Daughter's most important Super Power is her Confidence!

2011-10-04T22:21:00.001+11:00

You have a little girl in your life, her future, for the time being, is in your capable hands. All your love, focus and attention is centered in supporting her to reach her full potential whatever it may be, and yet... it is hard…

…it is hard to protect her from the bad influences so prevalent in our society…

…it is hard to provide her with the ongoing guidance and literacy she requires to develop the important critical thinking skills she needs to push back on the toxic messages provided by the media…

…it is hard to keep up with all the advice, the thousands of articles and books published about this subject…

…because no matter how much you care, no matter how much you engage in the task of raising of a confident girl, there is so much more you have to do to keep your own little tribe running smoothly. Life is busy and adults need to provide the financial stability that is much needed in the household: the kids need to be fed, the house work needs to be done, the career demands attention….

…and even when you have the time, it is difficult to navigate through the sea of information and misinformation out there, the useless sound bites provided by the media that contradict each other on an ongoing basis.

I want to support you, that is my mission and my calling in life… I have been working very very hard to find ways to bottle up all the amazing books and articles from the top experts in the field of girl empowerment into easy reminders and tips for you and your girl.

I have been working hard to create a daily source of inspiration, a little reminder of the attributes you should be nurturing and developing in your daughter and a way to celebrate her progress down the path of Confidence, Empowerment and Wonderliciousness …yes yes I just made up a new word :)

I have created a simple way to keep you both focused on what matters, on the attributes and traits of a confident girl, because her most important super power will always be her confidence.

During this month, to celebrate our first birthday, I will be sharing with you this new product, I am excited and a little nervous. I will take another week or so to review it with a few more trusted partners in crime and experts as I want to ensure it is on point and adds real value to you and your girl.

In the meanwhile, here is a little source of inspiration for you and your daughter, I hope you can use it to remind her everyday that girls are amazing:

Stay tuned,

Muahh!

Chief Super Hero Wannabee at 7Wonderlicious

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Hot, Sexy and Brainless does not belong in a little girl's world or vocabulary!

2011-10-02T11:57:00.003+11:00

This post is mostly about little girls and playboy bunnies, but before I continue I want to make something really clear:

Every woman has the right to freely express her sexuality with joy and without fear or shame.
Every woman has the right to choose her own sexual conduct as long as it does not endanger or impact others negatively.
Every woman has the right to celebrate her body and dress in whatever way she sees fit.
Every woman has the right to own her body, to choose her values, to decide whether she wants to hide her figure under a veil or bare her body to the outside world and wear fishnets and short skirts.
Every woman has the right to choose her path without being judged, without experiencing slut-shaming or physical assault.

We should all celebrate healthy sexuality and freedom of expression and respect each others values no matter what they are, as long as our individual choices do not impact the well-being and individual freedom of others...

Playboy Bunnies

Hardcore pornography is a vehicle that actively promotes violence against women, which degrades them, objectifies them and attempts to subordinate them. Hardcore pornography is now the main source of sexual “education” for boys who now believe that what they see on the internet is the way one should experience sex. This issue is very well articulated by Cindy Gallup in the brilliant TED talk Make Love not Porn (warning there is some graphic content in this video).

The playboy brand is no longer limited to just a soft-porn magazine, playboy is an active producer of the worst kind of hardcore porn as pointed out by Melinda Tankard Reist in this blog. The playboy brand actively sells violence against women, the playboy brand is toxic and degrading. I urge all human beings to be very deliberate about what they promote and consume and consider the ramifications of their actions to society and to the next generations to come. I vote with my feet, playboy will never see my dollars…and yet... I argue that woman have the right to choose to engage with this brand if they see fit without being judged or harassed.

But my tolerance and open-mindness ends abruptly when hardcore pornography brands are being peddled to young girls.

"Stop -- just stop!" wrote Melanie Klein on facebook when she first called my attention to this issue. That is EXACTLY RIGHT! We need to stop this madness with your help no matter where you are located in the world!

Enough is Enough!

Little Girls

Diva is an Australian fashion jewellery retailer that is very popular with young girls. The brand itself caters to many different age groups but there is no doubt that they target aggressively little girls as exemplified by the presence in their stores of Disney princesses and Winnie the Pooh products.

Diva just released a new line of playboy branded products. The playboy bunny is now the central feature on all their retail shop windows and website. The playboy brand is featured in items such as “playdate” necklaces and other jewelry featuring "the bunny".

By doing this Diva is actively promoting the sexualisation, objectification and exploitation of young girls, in addition to that, their association with the playboy brand makes them an active promoter of violence again women and girls.

Here are the arguments:

As very well articulated by Tomi-Ann Roberts in this video shared by Spark Summit, little girls are not passive recipients of the sexualized messages provided by the toxic media and by corporate marketing. Developmental cognitive psychology shows that once children know their gender they become highly motivated to be the best example of it, they simply become active agents of whatever examples of feminity they are being fed. If the examples of femininity available to a little girl are playboy bunnies and images of a highly sexualised raunchy culture that is what she will strive to be and what she will defend as her core set of values.

Underage girls, and adult woman for that matter, are constantly faced with messages that they are not good enough, thin enough, pretty enough, white enough…and now they have a new standard being set: they also need to be “hot & sexy” enough.

Little girls are innocently wearing porn symbols on their neck, without the knowledge of its meaning, triggering thoughts and emotions in the adults that actively consume the brand and exposing them to possible abuse.

Little girls have the right to a childhood full of innocence and fun, they have the right to experience definitions of girlhood that do not reduce them to objects to be looked at and consumed. Little girls should experience a childhood where they learn they can reach for the stars and that their potential is only limited by their own imagination. They should be reminded that they have a voice, that they are leaders, that they are intelligent and that their academic achievements are only determined by their hardwork and not by their gender.

Hot, Sexy and Brainless does not belong in a little girl's world or vocabulary!

Diva STOP reducing little girls to sexual objects!

Thank you to Collective Shout and Melinda Tankard Reist for leading the charge and to all other girl champions and activists for all that they do for our girls.

Take Action!

Please sign the petition here.
Write to Diva here: contact@diva.net.au
You can let them know what you think on their Facebook page here.
Tweet them on Twitter here.
Phone them: 02 9938 3311 or 1300 348 228
More contact details for Diva can be found here.

Tell Diva to withdraw their Playboy range or you will boycott their store.

Read more about it at:

Collective Shout: Diva selling Playboy brand to girls
Enlightned Education: Playboy for Diva: Now young girls can help prop up a failing porn company!
Salon: Hugh Hefner wants your tween

We need your help!

thank you,

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

What a Girl Wants

2011-09-30T22:30:00.000+10:00

Eleven girls aged 8 to 16 from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and two classrooms of middle and high school students were interviewed about their views on media culture and its impact on their lives. Watch what they have to say:

The documentary "What a girl wants" is available to buy at the Media Education Foundation Website.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Soooo much has happened in one year

2011-09-20T21:24:00.001+10:00

As 7Wonderlicious approaches its first birthday anniversary in October I reflect on all that has been accomplished this year and feel a mix of pride and impatience...

Pride because of the value 7Wonderlicious has been able to provide to our tribe through our products and our community awareness campaigns. Pride because this little tribe/business is driven by myself alone and I work 12 to 15 hours a day on my day job (that I also love) and use ALL my "spare" time (nights, early mornings and weekends) to build this dream.

And yet... despite all the effort, despite all that is being achieved it is but a drop in the ocean given the scope of my dreams and aspirations: to change the world and forever eliminate all threats to girlhood because I just don’t settle for anything less.

But neither myself or my seven cartoon friends ;) will ever be discouraged by the size of the problem, we already punch way above our weight and have the energy and drive that can only be ignited when you are powered by such an amazing vision of a future where both girls and boys have equal opportunities to reach their full potential and follow their dreams whatever they may be.

I hope you enjoy this little video. The girls will take you through our first year in retrospective, sharing all that we have accomplished and teasing you in regards to what is coming up next :)

I am hopeful about the future and extremely grateful to have you all as part of this Wonderlicious tribe.

Muah!

Chief Super Hero Wannabe @7Wonderlicious

PS. I want to give a special shout out to the amazing partners in crime out there and apologize for not having the time and capacity at the moment to connect with you more deeply. Please know I truly respect and appreciate all that you do and that I hope to respond to all the amazing emails and great suggestions as soon as I can. It is not for lack of interest, it is simply lack of enough hours in the day, saying that I am snowed under is... an understatement :)

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

An important announcement from the 7Wonderlicious HQ

2011-09-18T22:27:00.004+10:00

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Consuming Kids - The Commercialization of Childhood

2011-09-07T22:30:00.003+10:00

Consuming Kids talks about the practices of a very toxic multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car from cradle to grave. This film shows how corporations have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform children into the most profitable consumer demographic in the world.

There is an urgent need to push back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood to protect their health and well-being.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

The documentary "Consuming Kids - The Commercialization of Childhood" is available to buy at the Media Education Foundation website.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Slim Hopes Advertising & the Obsession with Thinness

2011-08-24T22:30:00.001+10:00

Jean Kilbourne's provides an in-depth analysis of how female bodies are depicted in advertising images and the devastating effects of those images on women's health.

Jean talks about the relationship between these images and the obsession of girls and women with dieting and thinness, and the increase of life-threatening eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

The documentary "Slim Hopes Advertising & the Obsession with Thinness" is available at the Media Education Foundation website.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

My Body Is Amazing!

2011-08-20T00:32:00.001+10:00

Here is an empowering song by Kidfirmations for you to share with your little ones: My Body is Amazing!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Sports ARE for Girls!!!

2011-08-16T23:05:00.001+10:00

Sports and physical activity are an essential part of the life of a healthy and confident girl. The research shows that girls who are active and play sports:

become less stressed and feel happier because the brain chemicals released during physical activity improve their mood.
learn about team work and create tighter bonds with team mates.
do better in school because exercise improves their concentration, memory and learning.
are healthier, have more energy, are fitter and maintain a healthy weight. They are also less likely to smoke, develop cancer or osteoporosis when they are older.
learn how to deal with competitive environments, become more resilient and perseverant.
have a healthier self-esteem and body image.
are more confident.

We encourage parents to see physical activity, movement and sports as an inherent part of their daughters' lives from day one. By the time boys are three years old, their dads are taking them out to the backyard and teaching them how to throw or kick a ball. Why not encourage girls in the same pursuits?

Encouraging your girl to be active starts by setting a good example and getting the entire family active. Statistics show that girls who have parents involved in sports are more likely to get involved in sports themselves.

Be a great role model, take the family out for a bike ride, a hike in the country side or even a friendly ball game.

Show you support her athletic involvement by attending your daughter's games and cheer her on in the crowd .

Follow women's sports in your community or on TV, such as the women's events in the Olympics or world championships. Ensure you provide media literacy and guidance to your girl in regards to what you are watching as unfortunately the media does tend to objectify female athletes not focusing on their athletic capabilities but on how they look.

We need to give girls the basic tools they need to have a successful sports experience by constantly reinforcing the message that "Sports ARE for girls".

"Coverage of women's sport lags far behind men's, and focuses on female athletes' femininity and sexuality over their achievements on the court and field. While female athleticism challenges gender norms, women athletes continue to be depicted in traditional roles that reaffirm their femininity - as wives and mothers or sex objects. By comparison, male athletes are framed according to heroic masculine ideals that honor courage, strength, and endurance. "

-- Media Education Foundation

The documentary "Playing Unfair The Media Image of the Female Athlete" is available to buy at the Media Education Foundation website.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Generation M for Misogyny

2011-08-11T22:18:00.002+10:00

"Another generation of women and girls is being trained to please men, to do whatever they can to not make men unhappy, to stroke men's egos and to know their second class status and not complain about it"

-- Jackson Katz

We are all so desensitized by the constant flow of toxic media into our daily lives that it is almost easy to think that Jackson Katz is exaggerating in the statement above, well think again, a study by Buffalo University has found that the portrayal of women in the popular media over the last several decades has become increasingly sexualized, even "pornified." The same research identified that the same is not true of the portrayal of men. Details can be found here: Science Daily - Marked Rise in Intensely Sexualized Images of Women, Not Men

The first step on the path to violence is dehumanization!

"Girls today are raised around images of idealized beauty, where airbrushed perfection informs girls of the standards of beauty in our society, and it is also no accident that the words "Hot" and "Sexy" appear on almost every cover of teen magazines aimed at girls and where makeover tips are found thorough. It is against this background of idealized beauty, and the beauty industry's insistence that girls and young women have many imperfections that this beauty industry thrives ".

Please share this post with your family and friends, we need to raise awareness with as many as possible that the current culture of Misogyny in our society is NOT ok. Help your loved ones get out of a state of numbness and helplessness. Help them identify that what is happening in the media, in the pop culture and in the marketing world needs to stop today, and that we are the ones that need to make it happen. Help create a better world for our children!

Misogyny = hatred or dislike of women

PS. The full documentary "Generation M - Misogyny in Media and Culture" is available to buy at the Media Education Foundation Website.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Girl Empowerment: Against all odds Dads step up today and everyday!

2011-08-10T21:54:00.005+10:00

Today we honor all dads of little girls. Dads that against all odds and under incredible pressure from culture and society, step up to raise confident, strong and self assured daughters. Dads that decided to go on a journey of discovery, a journey to understand what it means to be a girl in today's world, so that they can guide and nurture their daughters to reach their full potential.

Today we also want to honor all parents of little boys, that despite many hurdles are raising the next generation of amazing men that will fight for the equality of all human beings. Boys that will not be afraid to display emotions and that will use their strength combined with integrity and compassion to make this world a better place for girls and stop the cycle of violence against women in the world.

The men of today and the men of the future have many hurdles to cross, many stereotypes as well as cultural and societal pressures. Today we want to acknowledge those hurdles and celebrate their successes.

So what are these odds and pressures that we write about?

As mentioned in these amazing videos by Tony Porter and Jackson Katz, from the time little boys are born they are nurtured to be strong, though, physical, competitive, intimidating. They are raised to be “manly”.

Boys are exposed to toys and games that teach them about violence and war. Their peers pressure them to never display softness and emotion at the risk of being bullied and labeled gay or queer, which apparently in this "manly" world is a very serious offense. Here is Adrian H. Molina talking about how our society disrespects men that are loving and sensitive.

The lack of female role models in the media as continuously pointed out by Geena Davies and Anita Sarkeesian continue to underplay the role women and girls have in society. Boys just don’t see many women and girls in positions of leadership or in added value roles in society.

Female authors like JK Rowling are asked to hide the fact that they are women because apparently boys do not read books written by women…really? Is this really coming from the children or the adults buying the books?

As they grow up teenage boys are thought to see women and girls as objects for their pleasure and arousement. This TED talk by Psychologist Philip Zimbardo addresses why boys are struggling with intimacy and relationships. Byron Hurt created a documentary that demonstrates how the hip-hop culture objectifies and dehumanizes women.

The same toxic marketing that feeds on women’s insecurities to sell them beauty products is distorting men’s expectations of how real women look like.

The internet gives boys easy access to hardcore pornography that continues to take the dehumanization of women to new heights, where violence and abuse are promoted as a form of pleasure. The lack of rites of passage and parental guidance in today's "busy" society means that this type of porn is often the only way sex is introduced to a young boy, making them believe this is the way people should have sex. This subject is very well articulated by Cindy Gallop in the TED talk: Make love, not porn.

And yet... despite all of the above, amazing dads from all over the world step up and have the courage, the strength and the love to go beyond the limitations imposed by the stereotypes and actively teach their children that girls and women are human beings that deserve equal rights and opportunities, that deserve to be respected. Dads that show their children that girls can lead, that they can be athletes, heroes, authors, presidents, law makers... Dads that are role models in the way they share parental duties, in the way they engage respectfully and as peers with all the females in their life and in the way they raise this generation of children to be free of limiting stereotypes.

Here are great examples of some amazing dads that know that:

--> girls should not be limited by the princess/pink world:

Encouraging princess culture—however innocently—contributes to the sexualization of girls. Men can be part of the solution to the ‘princess problem.’ by The Good Men Project - Hugo Schwyzer
Princess Parenting: Father Daughter Solution by the Dads Labs

--> girls need to be empowered to counteract the damages caused by media and marketing: Empowering Girls – The process begins by Brandon Duncan

--> girls can be super heroes too: Who says superheroes are for boys? by the Good Men Project - Van Sias

--> girls need great role models:

The Power of Pippi by DadsandDaughters - Joe Kelly
Stories about Girls by GeekDad - Jonathan Liu
Happy To Be Girls! by BookDads - Chris Singer

--> dads can learn to engage in the "girly" activities too: A Couple Quick Little Girl Do’s that Dad’s can Rock by Fatherhood Factor - Keagan

We honor these incredible role models and wish them the same joy and fulfillment described by Bill Belsey in this amazing post: Before My Very Eyes - A Love Letter from Dad to Daughter On Her Graduation

For some dads when their little girl is born the world changes forever: values and belief systems need to be re-evaluated. A new sense of responsibility for women's rights emerges. A recent study shows that when male CEOs have daughters, women at their firms earn higher pay and the wage gap between female and male employees at these companies’ closes.

Can you image the power that all these enlightened dads can have in helping make the world a better place for girls?

Resources for dads of daughters:

Great book selection with advice for Dads of Daughters
Dads and Daughters blog by Joe Kelly
Dads, Daughters and STEM
The journal of father-daughter communications
The father daughter bond by Rachel Simmons and Peggy Drexler
Dads, Daughters and Body Image by Psych Central
Talking to Your Daughter About Beauty by The Good Men Project

Resources for parents of boys:

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Fighting Weight Obsession: Good Girls Don't Get Fat

2011-08-03T22:05:00.001+10:00

A great empowering message by Dr Robyn Silverman:

Enjoy!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Health, Empowerment and Positive Body Image are NOT “Newsworthy”

2011-08-02T21:50:00.001+10:00

A journalist of one of the largest international news networks in the world told me today that women’s health, empowerment and positive body image are not “newsworthy”. I was upset but not surprised. The state of the media in the world is just appalling with a few rare exceptions. This event is just another proof that we seriously need to look at what information we are consuming on a daily basis.

Sometime ago I came across the amazing Kite sisters and their wonderful grassroots campaign to redefine beauty. I was very impressed with their work, determination and passion. They were planning to use billboards to advertise powerful uplifting messages to remind women they are worth more than their body parts.

Given that 7Wonderlicious is a small start-up business that is being developed with my life savings I don’t always have much more to invest in other causes apart from the ongoing donation of a percentage of all revenues to women and education via Kiva.

Sometimes there are projects that you just know you need to support because of the passion, perseverance and credibility of the people involved. This was the case with this project from Beauty Redefined as well as the documentary from the Elena Rossini entitled the Illusionists. So I decided to take some of the money that I have stashed away for further product development for 7Wonderlicious to back up these two fantastic grassroots projects.

I was very excited and super happy when the Kite sisters emailed me to say they were approached by one of the main international news networks that was interested in the campaign (the network will remain nameless, you will understand why later). They asked me if I could be interviewed to discuss their work and I accepted immediately. I really wanted to support them in any way I could. The details of my interview can be found at the end of the blog.

This week I followed up with the journalist, a very nice person that emailed me the following:

“Unfortunately, the article was killed by my “nameless news network” editor after he previously gave the go-ahead on the story. His reasoning was it lacked newsworthiness. In reality, he did not like the whole positive body image message of the article. His attitude was very narrow-minded and he basically claimed such a message simply promoted obesity. I was very upset because I felt like it was both a positive story and very much newsworthy. I guess it underscores the battle the Kite sisters face in getting their message heard. I would be happy to send you a copy of what would have been written if you would like it.”

I think the email from the journalist says it all. I am not disclosing the name of the network or the journalist as I want to respect the privacy of this individual and do not want to get this person in any kind of trouble, we desperately need the support of people like this individual that continue to try to get media coverage on important issues facing women and girls.

Question 1 – How can billboards with the messages below promote obesity?

You are capable of much more than being looked at.
There is more to be than eye candy.
Your reflection does not define your worth.
When beauty hurts, we’re doing it wrong.

Is this editor aware of the increasing number of preteen children being treated for eating disorders? Is this campaign in any way promoting unhealthy lifestyles, junk foods or a sedentary life?

Question 2 – How come a story of two passionate and very intelligent young women standing up for what they believe and helping others is not news worthy but these stories are:

yoga for dogs
DiCaprio, Depp are the top best-paid actors

The “news” stories above were posted on the same news network this week.

I do not have more information than the email above and my comments are based on the journalist’s interpretation in regards to why the editor rejected the story…. but something does not feel quite right. Even if we decide to focus just on the facts, the reality is that the story got canceled for not being newsworthy.

Having billboards all over one state in the US full of empowering messages that counteract the overload of toxic marketing messages that make women feel horrible in their own skin IS in my humble opinion, VERY newsworthy.

Celebrating the fact that two resourceful, confident, intelligent and well informed young women are making a difference in the world and creating a movement that is positive and empowering IS in my humble opinion, VERY newsworthy.

Fortunately other news agencies understand this and this project is getting excellent media coverage and rallying the support of many sister movements around the world.

YOU GOOO GIRLLSS!

PS. Here is my interview that explains why I decided to support Beauty Redefined:

When did you first learn about the Beauty Redefined billboard project? What was your reaction to it?

I came across Beauty Redefined via social media on either Twitter or Facebook. We share a common passion for the empowerment, health and wellbeing of women and girls and came across each other via our online community that is highly networked and supportive. I have been following their posts for a while and found out about this project through their blog.

I was very excited about this project for several reasons:

It is very inspirational to see young women take on activism roles within their community. Lindsay and Lexie engaged in this project with confidence and passion and have demonstrated tremendous perseverance to move it forward. They are excellent role models for all women including the young girls that are my primary focus.

I was excited with the potential reach of this campaign within Utah but also the opportunity for Lexie and Lindsay to expand it across the US and the rest of the world. It is a very smart way to engage with local communities and make them think about the effects that media has on their body image and overall self-esteem.

The irony of using billboards to promote empowerment and positive body image was also not lost on me. It makes me proud to see Beauty Redefined turn a channel that is mainly used by corporations to target and feed on female insecurity to sell product, into a vehicle to promote health and wellbeing.

You pledged enough money to cover the cost of a billboard. How does it feel to be a part of bringing this project to life?

Given that 7Wonderlicious is a startup business that is being developed out of my personal life savings it is always hard to find additional funds to support other causes, but as soon as I read about this project I knew I wanted to support it in any way I could. It was clear to me that Lexie and Lindsay had a really great idea, the ability to follow through and the opportunity to make a significance difference in this space.

I know that this campaign will support our shared vision to nurture a healthy self-esteem in all women and girls and I am proud and grateful to have the opportunity to contribute in any way I can.

How does this campaign fit into your own ideals and the ideals of your organization?

7Wonderlicious is a little company and movement with very big aspirations that was created in October 2010 to help reduce all threats to girlhood that crush our girls ' true nature and potential.

We focus on overturning the gender stereotypes that make girls obsess with body image, keep girls from taking leadership roles, that limit girls' interests in sciences and math and cause them to feel self-aware when playing sports. We try to address these issues as early as possible and focus on girls aged 3 to 7 providing them with products that showcase great empowering role models.

Like Beauty Redefined we also focus on activism, mostly through social media, raising awareness to these issues, promoting media literacy and actively pushing back on corporations and media that objectify women and girls. We reach over 40k people through many different online channels and volunteers. Our community is very active, passionate and engaged.

This project is 100% aligned with our mission and is shaping a better world in which our preschool aged girls can grow up to be happy, healthy and full of confidence. We support and champion this campaign as if it was our own as it shares a common vision.

Going forward, do you have plans to support Beauty Redefined on other initiatives?

I hope to have the opportunity to partner with Beauty Redefined on further campaigns. They know they have my support in terms of raising awareness, engaging my community to source further donations, brainstorm, partner and within my financial constrains continue to support further expansion of their work around the world.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Sisterhood

2011-07-23T23:14:00.001+10:00

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

7Wonderlicious giveaways for your confident little girl!

2011-07-19T22:26:00.002+10:00

If you asked the little girl(s) in your life to explain or demonstrate to you what it means to have confidence, what would she say or do? We want to find out!

We want to promote interactions between you and your girl about confidence, in a fun way that can nurture her creativity and imagination. We also have four excellent 7Wonderlicious goodies to give away.

Here is how your girl can win one of these prizes:

Ask her to create something that represents the theme confident girl(s). This can be a drawing or a painting or anything else as long as she uses her imagination. It can also be a photo or video of your girl showcasing what she thinks confidence is.
Go to our secure community site www.7wonderlicious.org and post the item there: you can add it as a photo, a video or a blog as long as you name it: Confident Girls.
We don't encourage you to post to facebook and twitter as they are less secure.
This game is applicable to girls aged between 3 and 7.

We will draw the four prizes this coming Friday, the 22th of July. Given the age differences we believe drawing the prizes is the fairest approach.

We were going to give you some suggestions on how to articulate confidence to a preschooler...but then we remembered this video from Jessica and thought she would do a very good job at demonstrating it and articulating it ;)

"I can do anything good!"

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Dear Daughter...

2011-07-17T21:49:00.002+10:00

A few days ago I asked you this question on Facebook and Twitter:

"Ladies If you could go back in time to when you were a little girl and you could give this little girl some advice, reassurance or inspiration, what would it be?"

My goal was to encourage you to think about what would have been useful to know when you were growing up, and also identify if these same words of advice, reassurance and inspiration are now useful to the little girl(s) in your life.

I compiled a list of some of the most popular answers - You inspire me!

"No matter what anyone says, you are unique and beautiful and special, just the way you are."

"You are beautiful. Your sexuality is a gift. You can decide to be happy. Be fearless. People will like you."

"Don't be afraid to make mistakes, that is how you learn."

"Don't be shy. Be yourself, out loud! Don't be afraid to share your feelings."

"Be confident and tenacious, follow your dreams!"

"Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, not just size 5."

"Never stop dancing and singing and expressing your creativity and sense of fun even when times get though."

"Trust your instincts, be courageous, be confident. And SMILE."

"Fill your bucket first that way you will have much more to share with others."

"You are beautiful just the way you are & surround yourself with only people who help you believe & feel that"

"Do not be afraid to speak up for yourself and others when you are not being treated with kindness and love. Take care of those in need but also yourself. Walk with your head high proud of who you are and remember that Mommies and Daddies are human too and they will make mistakes, but their love is always there for you."

"Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live."

Are these words you should be sharing with your daughter? are these words you should be sharing with yourself? it is never to late ;o)

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Empowering Girls Book Club

2011-07-16T22:30:00.006+10:00

Be sure to join us at our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Times have changed...right?

2011-07-15T10:53:00.001+10:00

Born in the 19th century the Bronte sisters originally published their poems and novels under masculine pseudonyms, following the custom of the times practiced by female writers.

We are now in the 21th century, you would think that things have changed significantly... right?

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

How about boys, do they think girls can be super heroes? lets find out...

2011-07-13T00:51:00.003+10:00

Yesterday we played this same game with girls aged 3 to 7 and the results were the following:

75% of the girls selected a girl
25% selected a boy

Children typically tent to identify with the characters that are most like themselves, girls are likely to select girls and boys are likely to select boys, but things do change in situations where there is a highly dominant stereotype associated to the question.

In general it seams we are doing well in regards to avoiding in our girls the belief that Super Hero = Male.

But how can we be sure? we have nothing to compare our results to.

Shall we play the same game with boys? will the percentages be similar?

Here are the instructions:

Show a boy between the ages of 3 and 7 the picture below and read the text in bold.

Please do not prompt him in any other way or say anything else not written in the text.

Snuggles the cat is stuck in the tree,
he did not eat anything for two entire days,
we really need to find a super hero to climb up the tree and bring Snuggles down,
can you select a super hero from the group of children playing in the park?
can you point at only one? the tree can not hold more than one hero.

Did your boy point to a girl or to a boy? please note down his first instinctive answer.

There is no right or wrong answer here, it is clearly ok for a little boy to point to the stick figure of a boy or a girl, this is not a test on any individual answer. I am looking for group trends, I want to find out if as a group the boys express a significant preference for either boys or girls.

No cheating or prompting the child my very passionate community.

Given that our community is likely to have in their lives more girls than boys, I ask you all to share this little game with parents and educators of boys so that we can get enough answers to compare.

Once you finish the game please add your answer to the new poll on our facebook page so that we can track percentages. I will only report on poll results, I will not count tweets or FB/blog comments.

Here is a link to the Poll

Muahh!

PS. I know that some of the older children have used their excellent critical thinking skills to decide who they select to be the super hero. Some selected the larger girl because she was the strongest, others the smaller boy because he was the lightest. This is great, teaches me to draw all figures with the exact same proportions next time :) dont worry it will not impact the overall group trends.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts. 7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Do little girls think girls can be super heroes? lets find out...

2011-07-11T19:30:00.003+10:00

As a group of interested and engaged parents, educators and loving adults we spend a lot of time debating about the limiting beliefs imposed by gender stereotypes. Today I decided to create a fun little game to find out what is the perception of our little girls in regards to the association between gender and superheroes.

Please rest assured that there is absolutely no science behind this little home made test :) , this is just driven by my curiosity to find out if our girls think girls are super heroes too. We may play this game again with the boys but for now lets get some data on the girls.

So if you have a little girl in your life in between the ages of 3 to 7 and wish to help us understand how we are doing as a group, come play with us.

Here are the instructions:

Show a girl between the ages of 3 and 7 the picture below and read the text in bold.
Please do not prompt her in any other way or say anything else not written in the text.

Did your girl point to a girl or to a boy? please note down her first instinctive answer.

There is no right or wrong answer here, it is clearly ok for a little girl to point to the stick figure of a boy, this is not a test on any individual answer. I am looking for group trends, I want to find out if as a group the girls express a significant preference for either boys or girls.

Shall we find out together? So so curious!

No cheating or prompting the child my very passionate community :)

Once you finish the game please add your answer to the new poll on our facebook page so that we can track percentages. I will only report on poll results, I will not count tweets or FB/blog comments.

Here is a link to the Poll

Will the stereotype rule? No matter the result, we will be here to continue to work on empowering our girls.

Muahh!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts. 7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

The Dark force is upon us - Are parents really in control?

2011-07-09T21:20:00.001+10:00

If Darth Vader walked into your living room and in your presence started hypnotizing your kids to smoke a cigarette or do any other unhealthy activity would you let it happen? Probably not … but what would happen if you were also hypnotized by the dark force? Could this really happen to you? or is this blogger completely mad and trying to feed you a bunch of conspiration theories for shock value?

One of my ongoing debates with parents and educators is related to how much or how little we should hold corporations accountable for the wellbeing of our children. Should Disney or Mattel or Monster High be accountable for the products they release when we can simply choose not to buy the goods? Is it not the parents’ responsibility to protect and educate their children?

Many parents tell me that “blaming” companies is either wrong because after all it is just plain old capitalism or just simply useless because we don’t have the power to change their behavior.

The first clarification I want to make is that this is not about blame, this is about accountability and responsibility. The second clarification I want to make is that this should not be an “OR” but an “AND”, in my view, parents, educators, corporations, regulators and society at large should all be accountable for the wellbeing of our children.

Today I want to focus on challenging a common misconception…that we are in full control of our purchasing choices, that we are perfectly capable of identifying when we are being marketed to, that we can make logical and rational decisions and that we can easily teach our kids not to be manipulated.

Before you accuse me of undermining your intelligence, or assume that I am stating that parents are uneducated or just plain stupid please be assured that anyone including MIT students (as I will show you) can be a sitting duck to a marketer’s mind tricks.

Marketing focuses on how to drive specific human behavior, this is an art perfected by years of social-economical and behavioral research. Call it “behavioral psychology” or “NLP” or “behavioral economics”, the art of influencing is perfected to a level that is equivalent to the metaphor I used in my intro to this blog : hypnotism the ultimate form of manipulation.

The NLP techniques used in the video below by Derren Brown to manipulate a guy to believe he wants a BMX bike are used everyday by millions of marketers around the world. Ask your favorite “Online Marketing Guru” they will happily share them with you at a cost.

Check out this video by Dan Ariely showing how MIT students buying behavior can be easily manipulated with a very simple trick. Next time someone offers you three options you should think twice before making your decision...

I could also show you how anchoring a feeling, a word, or a color (for example pink) can drive you to want/need desire something you don’t really need. I hope you see a pattern here... do I really need to continue?

I hang out with a very intelligent and engaged group of people (you) that cares about the wellbeing of the next generation of amazing adults. I have the utmost respect for all of you, and would never ever undermine in any way your capability to take care of your own family. I just ask you to be aware that when commercial interests are at stake WE are all under the influence of very dark powerful and manipulative forces. Most of us including our children are just like clueless lambs being led to slaughter unless we push hard on corporations to act with integrity.

There is no way I am not going to hold companies accountable for using manipulative tricks on little children. We need to keep marketing away from children!

Welcome to this positive blog post :) but wait I have not finished yet. I have some good news, you have a choice! you can join the rebel force. You have a voice that has more influence than you imagine. Many groups of people around the world come together to push back on toxic commercial interests that do not align with the long term interests of humanity.

You can vote with your buying power by:

refusing to buy products from toxic companies
supporting businesses that focus on long term sustainability and on the wellbeing of all people
supporting great causes and activists

You can participate in raising awareness and pushing back:

you can speak up in your community and drive awareness and literacy
you can join communities or social media groups focused on activism
you can write to regulatory bodies in your region

Everyday parents, educators, activists, authors, artists, doctors and many others from all over the world have their voice heard and drive positive change. Join them in action!

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?"

-- Master Yoda --

May the force be with you,

PS: This post was inspired by this awesome campaign by greenpeace

Some other eye opening resources on this subject:

Subliminal advertising by Derren Brown
Are we in control of our decisions? by Daniel Ariely

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Part 2: Want to kill your daughters' self worth? stop by at the nearest toy store

2011-06-12T14:13:00.004+10:00

An update on this story: The impact of “Want to kill your daughters' self worth” aka @hamleystoys campaign

In many developing Countries little boys are turned into war machines as soon as they can carry a gun, not much different from the Middle Ages where tribes needed protection from foreigners and beasts. But why do we still emulate this behavior with our children in own backyards?

Recently I visited Hamleys, London's famous toy store. I entered the store happy and full of positive expectation, what I discovered made me sick to my stomach and really quite upset. Part one of this post focused on the girls floor, please read that first. Today I am going to give you a detailed account of the boys floor.

I left the girls floor already feeling very angry and upset, 90% of the girls floor was focused on external beauty, they might as well have a big flashing neon sign saying:

“Hey little girl, your worth is 100% defined by how you look, you are no more than an object to be looked at and consumed, you have no other value. Never mind learning critical thinking and problem solving leave that to the boys”.

You can imagine my reaction when the first toys I see to my right in the boys floor are the building blocks, the puzzles, the alphabet, the shapes cube and the clever cogs. Apparently these are boys toys…argh…

It is not that a girl cant go pick up these toys from the boys floor, of course they can, but what message is this giving to girls? Building things, critical thinking and problem solving are boys activities?!!!

How can anyone be surprised that the only professions where there has been zero progress in the participation of women is in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math)? Why do we see so many studies showing that girls with the same exact aptitude for STEM than boys struggle with confidence which in turn affects the way they perform and lead them to leave the field?

Why would they choose to engage in a profession when they are told from birth that these are boys activities and capabilities?

Before I could turn away from this section, I saw the bike that was clearly missing from the girls floor. Right... cycling, outdoors and physical activity is not for you little girl...

Anyone that knows me personally will be surprised with the tone of these two posts. I know...I know but not even the most positive, glass half full person on the planet can endure this expedition without turning into a bitter raging fuming lunatic.

As per my previous post, I decided to give you a full account of the two floors, no editing has been done, I just went around the floor and took pictures of pretty much everything I saw.

Next I saw some little cars and trucks... brmm brmm :)

some walkie talkies...

but 60% of the store was covered with WAR toys.

the tanks...

the guns...

the soldiers..

The photos above are not an accurate representation of the tons and tons of toys depicting war and violence. I decided not to post all of the photos as they all looked pretty much the same and I am trying to avoid using all of your internet bandwith. You will have to trust me on this...60% of the boys floor was focused on WAR!

"Dear little boy, welcome to the world! Your role on this planet is to be the champion of violence and war. You will be strong, unemotional and ruthless in your pursuit of power. Nothing around you will teach you to nurture and care for other creatures. We will forget to tell you that it is ok to have empathy and emotion. We will take full advantage of the healthy testosterone that roams your body, that makes you so full of vitality and energy, that drives you to jump around and to want to play ruff"n"tumble with other boys and redirect all that amazing power to the destruction of other human beings...because really...we don't have enough of that going on in the world."

What are we doing to our boys? please teach them to explore, to build, to be curious, to be active, to be adventurous...lets keep violence away from all children.

Before we leave the violence section... lets not forget the wrestling toys...

Harry Potter was only present in the boys floor...

Toy Story was only present in the boys floor...

and "obviously" only boys can be super heroes...sigh...

As a proud and very cool geek girl ;) that really really loves scifi, I was not happy at all to see that some of my favorite characters were only available in the boys floor. Apparently the jedi force only runs with the boys...

next was Tron...

and the Transformers...

When I started this tribe, I decided to focus 90% of my time on inspiration, education and guidance. I fully intend to keep following that path. As I write this post I am collaborating with several amazing people around the world on more products and services to fulfill our wonderful mission.

But as I dwell deeper into the world of girl empowerment and gender stereotypes, I can not help but to be horrified with what I see happening not only on our backyards but in third world countries.

I have to ask you for your patience as I will sometimes need to vent my anger and frustration. I do hope that it will also help raise awareness to these issues and get your support to fight this madness.

A toy store is a place full of wonder, the ultimate paradise for a little human being closely followed by a candy store ;o) I still remember the excitement and magic of such childhood moments, exploring a world of fantasy, color and creativity. Getting lost in my own imagination triggered by the characters and stories developing in front of me. It should be a place where everything is possible, where the future is only limited by our own imagination.

So why are these places limiting our kids' choices at most most crucial time in the development of their own identity, when they are so hungry to define who they are and who they are not? This is not subliminal advertising, this is very explicit and damaging gender apartheid.

With luck these children have wonderful switched-on parents and educators, like the members of this tribe. Adults that will guide them to a more empowered identity where they can grow to their full potential. But why should we allow the commercial interests of big corporations to limit our kids' choices and to promote gender apartheid?

Remember...

It takes a village to raise a child!

Ps. I had to write this post twice because blogger managed to delete it, so apologies if you received two similar but yet different versions of the same post :)

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts. 7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Want to kill your daughters' self worth? stop by at the nearest toy store

2011-05-23T20:06:00.006+10:00

An update on this story: The impact of “Want to kill your daughters' self worth” aka @hamleystoys campaign

I recently visited Hamleys, London's famous toy store. I entered the store happy and full of positive expectation, what I discovered made me sick to my stomach and really quite upset. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Last week I visited London and I decided to do some research over the weekend. I was looking for soft dolls to get some ideas of textures and materials for our own 7Wonderlicious soft dolls (one of our future projects).

I walked into Hamleys with a camera in hand ready to take pictures of materials and see how they combined together: cloth, felt, plush that sort of thing...

It is a fun place full of kids, mostly 2 to 8 year olds. There were airplanes flying around, a lady pirate talking to children and lots of robot toys wondering in random directions all over the floor.

I was as excited as the kids and felt a little like the original Dora Explorer with my backpack and camera ready to discover this wonderful world of play.

A placard told me how the store was divided, I decided to explore all floors as the soft toy floor did not have anything to inspire my creative juices. I was encouraged to see preschool, gadgets and games were not divided into gender sections.

Soon I was in the GIRLS/PINK floor, and it took me about one second to lose the positive expectation I had when I first walked into Hamleys. The account of what I experienced in this floor and on the boys floor is quite comprehensive. I did not do "creative" editing or leave out details to create impact. I literally went around the room and took photos of everything.

As soon as I exited the escalator I was in front of a HAIR & NAIL bar.

Two wonderful girls carrying a bunch of fake nails greeted us with a smile. I have to say that the entire staff at Hamleys is lovely and very helpful. I asked the girls if I could take a photo, they smiled and nodded.

So my journey in the "girls" floor started with a nail bar, hmm...I decided to try and keep my spirits up. Who was I to judge little girls that are having a bit of fun with sparkly nail polish, after all, the lady at the bar was explaining that it was toxic free...

I continued to explore the area inside the nail bar, I found myself in front of an entire wall of nothing else but makeup. No other item in that store had as much wall space...makeup?!!..by now my mood had changed significantly, but I was still not prepared for what was to come.

Near the makeup I found the jewelry section... right... I was ready to leave this section of the store, it was clearly the "beauty" section, it was without a doubt the central feature of this floor and it was sending a very strong message to all girls coming into this floor: girls value external beauty above everything else ... I was getting too annoyed to stick around...I kept going... it can only get better right?

So I continued walking and I found an entire section focused on arts and creativity. I was so happy that I did not come across another item focused on beautification of girls that it took me a few minutes to realize what was wrong with this picture... all of the arts and crafts items were placed in the girls floor (later I found out that no such items were present in the boys floor) hmm interesting...so we are telling boys they are not creative?

It was a nice section, some store employees were teaching the kids how to create art using paint and other tools, there was also a face painting stand and a place that was featuring sparkly little tubes that could be used to create fun cards. Apparently none of these are boys activities. I continued my journey.

Wait... I must have turned the wrong corner, left Hamleys and entered a porn shop, what is that? ?Monster High? Bratz? Is this a store for children? what is she wearing? what happened to her clothes? whats up with the enhanced lips?

The only thing good about coming across the Monster High and Bratz section first is that I had no more energy to get upset at the barbies and the princesses...it is interesting what contrast does to you. Lets ponder on this for a second, here are a bunch of dolls that all look the same, creating a very narrow definition of beauty...with unrealistic and unattainable body proportions, and yet they almost seam harmless when compared with the porn figures above. But is it really ok to steal just because you are sitting next to an axe murderer?

There were no non-caucasian princesses around.

Dresses, makeup, hair, beauty...where are all those career Barbies that Mattel is so proud of?? I did look around...oh and I found one non-caucasian barbie...one...

Apparently the beauty section did not end with the nail and hair bar. There was another hair bar teaching girls how to detangle their hair.

The next section was focused on the baby dolls and on the barbie heads for hairstyling. I moved away from this section very fast because I found a few encouraging items in the next sections.

Yay a doctors outfit! Happy dance! after such a bad experience I was really ready to throw a party. Call me cynical but I did check the label on the shirt to ensure it was not a nurse's outfit. Nope it was definitely a Doctors custom. Hurray!!!

When I got to the pirate and cowboy outfits I had a green from ear to ear, little wins... ( yes they were available at the boys section too )

Cash Machines and money came next. Not tooo bad...

and yes... the kitchen and the cooking appliances...none available in the boys section. Because "obviously" cooking and house chores are girls activities...

Last but not least, the frilly dresses.

So wait, do girls ever use their brains at all? ah I forgot to tell you there was one puzzle in the entire floor... a princess puzzle.. sighhh

As you scroll down these images I ask you, is this the definition of girly that you would like to imprint in your daughter? Are we back in the middle ages?

This is the time when your child is developing her identity. More connections are being made in her brain at this stage than in any other time in her life. She is shaping her model of the world, her belief system. Is this what you want her to believe?

Many parents write to me saying that we should let girls be girly. Well my personal view is that it depends on your definition of girly. Having a little bit of fun with dressups and sparkle is part of child play, I for one still like doing it. What is happening in these stores, in the media and toy industry is very different. They are narrowing down the definition of girly to activities and items mostly focused on external beauty and objectification of girls. Girly or Pink (now interchangeable words) equals shallow, obsessed by looks, vain and highly insecure.

We have shared with you previously a lot of research that demonstrates that an increasing percentage of girls as young as six are now suffering from body image issues and eating disorders. These are the same girls that are being programed by the marketing world to be mass consumers of diet, beauty and fashion products, to be constantly trying to look like barbie or sleeping beauty or later the photoshoped stars and models showcased by the media.

Want to know where the building blocks, science products and outdoor activities were located? check back in with us for the second part of this blog post focused on the boys floor... believe me this story is far from over.

Please help us raise awareness of these issues, don't let children be manipulated in this way, it is absolutely criminal. This is not about your daughter playing with a princess doll or playing dress up , this is about the war being waged on girls' intellects, on their bodies, on their self worth and self esteem.

Want to kill your daughters self worth? Stop by at your local toy store.

Go to Part 2 - The boys floor

PS. clearly Hamleys was the wrong place to try to find inspiration for our soft dolls, my search did continue in other stores but the story above repeated itself time and time again. I am very happy to report that the arts and crafts specialists in the street markets around London were very generous with their time. They saved the weekend and shared with me many ideas that I am really excited about.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts. 7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Ladybugs Game - drumroooollllll and the winners are....

2011-05-23T19:57:00.001+10:00

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Here are the three Lucky winners of the LadyBug Game:

Jane Barnes
Beverlee Powell Nichols
Joanne Turley

Ladies please email us the location of the ladybugs, your address details, your preferred tee from the store closest to you and the required size.

Thank you for playing, no one has yet found the little frog so we will keep the competition open :)

Muahh!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

WANT TO WIN A FREE T-SHIRT FOR YOUR DAUGHTER? GAME TIME!

2011-05-21T19:00:00.036+10:00

We have hidden six ladybugs somewhere on our website…each ladybug has a letter, all six letters make up a word.

Post a comment with the word (only the word) either here or on our facebook page to apply to win one of our cute t-shirts.

At the end of the contest we will remove all the ladybugs from the website and draw the prizes. If you win we will ask you for the location of the ladybugs, so ensure you write them down and keep them safe. :)

Three winners will be drawn Monday/Tuesday depending on where you are in the world.

Lets Go! -> www.7Wonderlicious.com

Good Luck!

PS. Extra Bonus...be also on the lookout for a little frog on our Websites, he is excellent at the hide and seek game and very very difficult to find...if you do ... email us his location and you will win our book.

Story telling is powerful, but what are the stories being told?

2011-05-18T21:51:00.001+10:00

Since the beginning of time, people come together to tell stories. The act of story telling is the single most powerful mechanisms to teach values and to shape behaviors. Stories tap into our imagination, engage those around us, and inspire amazing achievements. We know that myths, legends, epics, and folk tales help shape human experience.

A study by Wells's (1986) investigating the links between storytelling and school success found that the key to literacy development was consistent exposure to storytelling and narrative discourse in both the home and classroom environments.

People and in particular children will relate their own life experience to the characters being portrayed in the stories plot.

A study by Mello (2001) showed that when students were presented with a variety of stories from disparate cultural texts, they began to examine their own biases and conceptions. Through the process of listening, consuming, and thinking about the stories, students clarified their own values and their own condition. The stories also gave students a greater tapestry of images to choose from.

This same study showed that students had a difficult time with the behavior of nontraditional heroes and heroines portrayed in some of the stories. Children struggled with the concepts of warrior women and housekeeping men.

As this study progressed and more stories containing differing viewpoints were told, the children started to challenge their own traditional beliefs.

Mello’s study concluded that the activity of storytelling along with the content had an impact on interpersonal relationships, empathy, and interest. Through stories, children were exposed to long-standing archetypal models that engaged their imaginations. Storytelling stimulated sympathetic responses as well and caused students to think more deeply about their social world and helped children develop individual perspectives.

So what stories are our children exposed to? Are they diverse enough to allow them to engage in critical thinking and challenge biases? If stories have such a significant impact in learning, what stories are we telling our children?

A study by McCabe looking at almost 6,000 children's books published between 1900 and 2000 found that males are central characters in 57% of children's books published each year, with just 31% having female central characters.

A study by the Gena Davis institute on Gender in Media showed that in the top-grossing G-rated films there were three male characters for every one female.

A study by True Child on pre-school TV programs showed that girls represent only 33% of the lead characters on the shows. Nearly half (43%) of children’s programs reviewed feature 0 female lead characters.

But what happens when women and girls do actually make it to a leading role? What traits do these female characters possess?

The research is also overwhelming on this, the female characters are widely obsessed by external appearance, focused on household chores, have the gift of creativity but are rarely associated with science or maths. The female characters are selfless, polite, nice and modest.

A large percentage of girls are still portrayed as people pleasers, following rules, they never ever get mad, they are enthusiastic but quiet , they are weak and in need of rescue.

This definition of girlhood limits their power and potential and creates a psychological barrier that will be with them for the rest of their life, it will impact their relationships, their academic achievements, their careers...their life.

Story telling is very powerful, lets ensure we are telling the right stories.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Bin Laden's Death - What values will you be passing on to your child today?

2011-05-02T20:39:00.000+10:00

Osama Bin Laden is dead. As we attempt to help our children make sense of this event, we are all forced to face our own values and belief systems.

Is your child aware of this event? If so, how are you going to explain to your child that many people in the western world are celebrating the death of someone, no matter how evil he may have been or how much suffering he caused?

The way you will approach this task will differ depending on many factors such as origin, faith, race, ethnicity, philosophical and political views, your take on justice... in summary your belief system.

Your children will shape their own identity based on the most important role model in their life – YOU.

We cannot guide you in this very personal task but want to encourage you to think about what values are important to you and your family and to be conscious and deliberate in the way you relate this event to the young people in your life.

What values will you be passing on to your child today? What words will you choose?

Calling all caped cruzaders!!!

2011-04-30T14:27:00.004+10:00

... actually you don't even have to own a cape...

About two months ago we asked you to help us prioritise what to focus on next. You were, as always, responsive and helpful, and we have received a very clear set of marching orders.

We have been working hard and very enthusiastically to make it happen.

We are a tiny little biz/movement, every dollar we receive from our products goes straight into the development of new products and services focused on girl empowerment, or is donated to other girl champion organizations around the world. We definitely punch WAY ABOVE OUR WEIGHT but can only afford to invest in one or two ideas at any time.

These are very exciting times for us as we move forward with our parenting advice pack as well as plan some really innovative fun ways to empower our girls (but that I will need to leave for another time… shhhh top secret... I would tell ya but then… you know… shhh). ;o)

We have been engaging with some of the most outstanding researchers and child experts in this field from all over the world, and have setup an advisory panel. Sounds impressive right …well it is more like a group of like-minded passionate friends… a very experienced and talented debate team.

This group provides us with guidance and feedback on our products and services during the design and development phases to ensure we have considered all aspects and have best educational and literacy products for you and your girl.

We connect once or twice a month via video conference on the web to discuss our ideas and review our products. We are looking to extend and diversify this team. We want to cover as many dimensions as possible to drive real innovation:

different points of view on education and child rearing (the mother, the father, the teacher, the grandparent, the child psychologist, the counselor, the feminist, the activist, the visionary teen…don’t fit in any of these?... insert your archetype here … )

different subject matter experts on nutrition, body image, technology in education, innovation in education, fun, neuroscience, health, sports…

different nationalities, cultures, backgrounds...

We are extending our inner circle and mastermind group from 6 to 20 people and would like to invite you to apply to join us.

We apologise in advance for not being able to accept all applications mostly because we want to keep the workgroup to a size that allows the close collaboration of a very experienced and diverse bunch of straight talking passionate activists.

What we have to offer to you:

the chance to connect with other passionate experts from all over the world

the opportunity to review and test our products in advance and contribute in creating positive change in the world

a feature of your full profile on our website as a member of our panel and a close collaborator

a chance to discuss your own initiatives and ideas with other experts

our gratitude and admiration forever and ever and ever

we might even throw in a super hero cape

So please if you are interested, do send us a note via the contact us page on our website. Tell us why you think you should be part of this group, what life or professional experience you have in this field and why you are passionate about our mission. Don’t worry if you don’t fit in any of the areas we have listed, if you feel you have something significant to contribute just give us a shout. We will reply to everyone.

We are looking forward to have you as part of our family and to fight side by side with you to eliminate all threads to girlhood.

Up Up and Awayyyyyyyyy !!!

Love,

Recommended Kids' books to promote a positive body image

2011-04-27T21:57:00.003+10:00

Given the latest news of how body image and self esteem issues are on the increase and impacting girls as young as 6 years old, we have decided to focus today's blog post on some good books for young children that will promote a positive body image as well as help them understand the many problems associated with eating disorders.

Shapesville

Shapesville is one of the best books that promotes positive body image in kids between the ages 3-8. It is highly recommended by experts and by the US National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). The book is about a small town called Shapesville where five friends live and have different body shapes, sizes, colors and talents.

In Shapesville, the five friends’ unique personalities are celebrated. The authors Andrew Mills and Rebecca Osborn use simple rhyming verse in delivering a beautiful message:

“It’s not the shape of your size or the size of your shape but the size of your heart that deserves first prize.”

Erica Neitz creatively and playfully illustrated the characters in basic shapes and colors.

Internationally respected eating disorder prevention experts provided guidance to the authors in writing Shapesville. The topics about children’s body image in the book were intensively researched and parents are assured that its contents isn’t not just funny and colorful but most importantly useful in helping young children absorb and internalize the message about a healthy body image.

Full Mouse, Empty Mouse

Full Mouse, Empty Mouse is a tale for children aged 5 to 12 about two mice who use food to deal with the ‘’mouse stress’’ which include cat, dog & rat chase as well as mousetraps.

Billy Blue is a male mouse who overeats to feel comfortable but he is teased because he is fat. Her sister, Sally Rose is admired because she is thin but she under eats to reduce her size to feel safe. Although their parents are busy working, they have a wise aunt who teaches Billy and Sally to listen to their bodies, tune in to their feelings to meet their needs in ways that are more effective.

Empty Mouse, Full Mouse is a humorous story that captivates the imagination of both children and adults that will help them understand about body size and weight. It also teaches children about the importance of sharing their feeling with concerned adults and the problems that will come up when people use food to cope with stress in life.

The author of the book Dina Zeckhausen, is an expert on treating eating disorders and founder of the Eating Disorders Information Network ( EDIN).

Further Reading

Organizations like NEDA provide really useful information and support for individuals, parents and kids to help avoid and overcome eating disorders. A complete list of books and other materials about eating disorders is available at their website.

Thank you to Ally Stefanides for pointing us out to the NEDA book library.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Non-Toxic Kids…Help Your Kids Stay Safe, Healthy and Smart

2011-04-24T09:41:00.002+10:00

Parents like you are constantly seeking for information that you can use to help keep your kids always safe and healthy. You want to them to grow smart and empowered. All parents want the best for their children and making sure that they are protected against danger.

The technological advancement in our society is changing so fast, different companies worldwide introduce new products in the market every day. We also know that some of these products are being recalled because of their levels of toxicity that are harmful to human health.

Products have been recalled because they are toxic or poisonous such as toys and milk. Many parents wonder if the products they are providing for their kids are really safe and healthy.

Perhaps most of you are asking…is there a place where I can find useful information about products that are safe for my kids? Yes, there are websites dedicated to keep our kids toxic-free.

Katy Farber, a teacher, freelance writer, author and mother of 2 little girls from Vermont has been sharing her knowledge and experience in helping parents like you raise children safe, healthy and smart through her website Non-toxic Kids.

Katy writes about the environment, education, parenting and green living. The non-toxic kids website has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, AP and many other national newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites because the topics discussed are very helpful, keeping parents informed on research regarding health and the chemicals in our daily life.

It is important for parents to become conscious and well-inform about the chemicals that are used by industries in manufacturing different products we use and offer to our kids.

One of the articles in the non-toxic kids website shared the warning made by Sandra Steingrapher, a scientist, mother and author of books about the impacts of industrial chemicals on children and the environment citing combine evidences from research suggesting that “neuro-developmental disorders caused by industrial chemicals have created a silent pandemic in modern society.”

Chemicals are necessary to process products however there are chemicals that are harmful to health such as lead, which is widely used by manufacturers in making toys and it’s proven harmful causing developmental delays among children.

Katy Farber shares helpful information and tips to help parents raise Non-Toxic Kids. Check out the website and learn more about chemicals, safer products for kids, recalls and toy safety, foods, allergies, books for girls and many other useful topics you can use for healthy parenting.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Pygmalion Effect – The Power of Positive Expectations

2011-04-22T23:00:00.013+10:00

Does it make a difference to the child if the parent, teacher, or educator believe the child to be a high performer or a low performer?

The answer is a resounding YES!

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, often children or students and employees, the better they perform.

A study by Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968-1992) demonstrated that when teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do; when teachers do not have such expectations, performance and growth are not so encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a variety of ways.

How do you see the Pygmalion effect affecting the expectations teachers, society and parents have on children based on gender or race or background? Hmm something to think about...

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."

---Henry Ford

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Developing problem solving skills in your child

2011-04-20T23:00:00.002+10:00

Life is a journey. Every person has to go through different roads and figure out how to overcome all the roadblocks to reach his or her destination.

One of the main parenting objectives is to make sure that children are prepared to travel through life’s journey equipped with all the skills they need to overcome every obstacle they encounter in life.

To achieve that objective, parents should help their children develop critical thinking and problem solving skills while they are still young. According to studies, individuals learn 50% of their lifetime skills during their childhood years.

If you train your child to become critical thinkers and problem solvers when they are still young, they will carry these skills until their adulthood and will become part of their identity.

What is critical thinking? According to Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder, “Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. According to them, a well cultivated critical thinker;

Raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely

Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively

Comes up with a well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards

Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing as need be their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences

and Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems

Dr. Paul and Dr. Elder further explained that critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and socio-centrism.

If your daughters develop critical thinking skills, they will solve their problems by taking into consideration all the important factors. The try identify the problem, analyze it, find alternatives and creative options and research for possible answers to the problem, create possible solutions. Evaluate each solutions based on the amount of risks, efficacy and practicality before arriving to a final decision.

Here are a few tips to promote problem solving and critical thinking skills in your child:

Talk and practice active interaction with your kids frequently

Provide them multiple learning experiences (visit the zoo, botanical gardens, library, museums, parks etc.)

Play with your kids and try to incorporate problem solving like playing puzzles and other games

Provide opportunities for them to make decisions based on their age

Get her involved in science activities that involved observations and hypothesis testing

Always remember that you play a very critical role in their development. They need you to constantly communicate, interact, play, provide new information and experiences, solve problems and have fun with them.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

All-girls school vs. mixed school: What do you say?

2011-04-19T23:00:00.016+10:00

There is an increasing debate between advocates for single sex education and mixed sex education. Proponents for single sex education argue that girls who attend an all-girls school perform better in academics compared with girls who attend to a mixed (co-educational) school.

Because of this, parents are wondering which type of school is better to empower their girls. Is it better for their daughters to study in an all-girls school or to a mixed school? What do experts say?

According to a report entitled: Women Graduates of Single-Sex and Coeducational High Schools: Differences in their Characteristics and the Transition to College by UCLA, students who graduated from all-girls schools showed higher levels of academic engagements, SAT scores, more confident in mathematics and computer skills.

Girls from single-sex high school also showed that they have higher levels of political engagement, more confident in public speaking and displays greater interest in engineering courses.

Base on the report, 62% of girls who attended single-sex independent schools spend 11 or more hours per week studying compared with 42% of girls from co-ed independent schools.

According to Linda J. Sax from the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, "Though generally small, many of the favorable outcomes for single-sex alumnae are in areas that have historically witnessed gender gaps favoring men, such as in mathematics, computer science and engineering. Research is needed to clarify whether these benefits are due specifically to gender composition or to the climate and pedagogy that exist in all-girls schools."

In United Kingdom, results from the General Certificate for Secondary Education (GCSE) showed that the girls in single-sex schools (more than 70,000) within a three-year period, on average all of them demonstrated a consistent progress in their Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) results compared with more than 600,000 girls who took the test from mixed-schools wherein 20% performed worse than expected.

According to Alice Sullivan, researcher from the Institute of Education at University of London said, “It is very interesting that girls seem to be making more progress at single-sex schools. It does support a body of research evidence that girls do better in single-sex environments.”

On the other hand, Alan Smithers director of education at Buckingham University pointed out, “We know across the piece that the main variables relating to exam are pupil characteristics, social background and quality of teacher. There is very little space for gender in the classroom to make a difference. Where it apparently has an effect, it relates to other factors, such as the aspirations of the parents who want their daughter educated in a single-sex school. But if this is true it will change our understanding."

Dr. John Newton, headmaster at Taunton co-educational schools cited that boy’s schools began turning co-educational in the 1990’s because of economic necessity however he explained that “Taunton did it in the 1970s not because of finances but it was educationally right.”

Dr. Newton emphasized that co-ed is better in preparing girls to face the outside world. According to him, "Girls are learning to compete with boys and boys, who are a little late to the game, are learning to compete with girls. Co-operation and competition is something we have to educate them about.”

Experts in education have varying opinions regarding the issue. We parents must understand that there are too many factors to consider to make sure that our girls will perform better not just in academics but also socially prepared to face the outside world. Our advice is that it depends on the girl, her family and the environment around her.

There is one thing we can be sure about…parents love, care, support and involvement in their over-all development, school and extra-curricular activities will make a great difference. That will surely empower our daughters to help them achieve their dreams and aspirations in life.

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Healthy Eating Habits, Girl Let’s Do It!

2011-04-15T22:41:00.002+10:00

“Mom I don’t want to eat veggies!” says Nicky, a five-year old girl. She has the same objection at everymeal , “I will eat my chicken and mashed potatoes but not the broccoli.” Her mom will reply, “You should finish everything in your plate, broccoli is good for you, it’s healthy!”

Does it sound familiar? Yes, most parents share the same problem when it comes to convincing their children to eat veggies.

Eating fruits and vegetables is key to a healthy life, reduces the risk of chronic diseases and provides the nutrients required to sustain a confident energetic child.

The recommended amount of daily fruits and vegetables depends on a person’s age, sex and physical activities. Health experts say that for children aged 2-3 years old the recommended amount is 1 cup, 4-8 years old 1 ½ cup and 9-13 years old 2 cups of fruits & veggies per day. This amount is recommended to children who have less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity; if a child is more active, she needs to eat more.

If your daughter doesn’t even want to take a single bite…you need to do something to encourage her to eat. It is very important for parents to teach children the importance of nutrition and develop a healthy eating habit at a very young age.

A healthy eating habit is one of the most important gifts you could offer to your child. A good health is a lifetime benefit and it is priceless.

How can parents encourage children to eat fruits and veggies?

Teach kids about nutrition. Explain to them how our body works and how important fruits and veggies are for our body parts to function properly. Emphasize that fruits and veggies protect us from getting sick.

Be a role model. Show them that you love eating fruits and vegetables. It should be part of your every day meal. Remember that children follow the examples set by parents.

Cut up vegetables and fruits as snacks instead of cookies. Make it fun.

Take your daughter when shopping for produce and ask her to choose the fruits and vegetables she wants to eat. Encourage her also to try new things.

Our friend Kia Robertson created a wonderful website, “Today I Ate a Rainbow” and composed a song to encourage kids to eat healthy. The song is fun and the site provides very useful information as well as a number of products to help parents in this important task. Check it out!!!

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!

Teach your daughter to give back

2011-04-12T00:01:00.015+10:00

Girls who develop spirit of volunteerism have a more meaningful life. They constantly learn new skills, create new friends, and discover the things they are good at and what really makes them happy as a person.

Volunteering does not only contribute a positive impact to the volunteer herself but also to the community, to the country and the world as a whole. “When kids volunteer, it tells others that they don’t have to be perfect or famous or even grown up to make a difference.” ---Kalynn Dobos, age 7---

Imagine a world where all girls believe that in their own little ways they can create a positive change… life in the future will be much better. Volunteering is sharing your abilities, energy and time with all your heart and commitment without expecting anything in return.

How does volunteering empower girls and how would they be able to develop new skills? Two great examples were the young women volunteers Kiyoko Okamoto and Kozue Kamijo from Japan who volunteered to educate and help build the Lagud Learning Inn for the Ifugao children.

The Ifugaos are indigenous group of people who live in the picturesque northern part of the Philippines where you can find one of UNESCO’s World Heritage, the Banaue Rice Terraces. The Ifugaos built the high slopes of the Cordillera Mountains into rice terraces 2,000 years ago with minimal tools using their hands. Although the Ifugaos live in a place, where most people describe as a great wonder and paradise the truth is, they are impoverished and children don’t have access to education.

Kiyoko Okamoto and Kozue Kamijo volunteered through an NGO, the International Keeping Good Sannan (IKGS) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) helped the Ifugao children build a learning center to get educated.

They shared their skills in food service to the Ifugao children and taught them how to properly serve and entertain tourists. They also teach them how to make brochures and develop a website for the center. While teaching the Ifugao children, Okamoto and Kamijo admit that they also learn important lessons in life from the Ifugao people.

They learn to live a simple life. Do you know how to cook rice perfectly without using a rice cooker? Okamoto and Kamijo learn the technique in cooking rice without a rice cooker and wash their clothes without a washing machine.

These are simple but new skills for them and they admit that it made them more confident and independent women. Being able to witness the culture and simple lives of the Ifugao children and their resilience to cope with hardships in life while working hard and trying their best to reach for their dreams inspired the two young women Japanese volunteers.

Wherever these two young women go and whatever they do, they will never give up even if they encounter adversities in life. Every volunteer learn lessons in life making them compassionate, determined, smart, strong and become leaders in the community.

Girls don’t need to go to other countries to volunteer. There are many opportunities where girls can volunteer and share some of their time like the library, animal shelter, petting zoo, parks and many non-governmental organizations.

The spirit of volunteering and the people who take part in this noble deed will help define an individuals’ personality. Encourage your girl to volunteer and mold her to become a better person…contributor of positive change to your community, to your country and to the world.

“Volunteers don't get paid not because they're worthless, but because they are priceless.”

---Sherry Anderson---

Be sure to join us in our Raising Confident Girls online forum to connect with other parents and experts.

7Wonderlicious - Empowering girls all over the world!

Happy parenting!