The DOVE Campaign for Real Beauty

I think the moment when I was introduced to my love for real beauty, was a couple years ago when I watched a commercial in which a girl approximately 6 years of age said, "I am beautiful." My heart melted. I never forgot about DOVE's beauty campaign since.

DOVE's Campaign for Real Beauty's mission is "to make more women feel beautiful everyday by widening stereotypical views of beauty." Intriguing, no? So I checked out their website.

Here's what I learned:

the stats

~ Seven in ten girls believe the lie that they are not good enough, when it comes to their beauty, school, and relationships with friends and family.

~ 70% of girls admit to having been involved in negative activities such as eating disorders, drinking, smoking, and cutting while feeling badly about them selfs.

~ 57 % of girls have mothers who criticize themselves, effecting their daughters.

~ Only 2% of women truly believe they are beautiful, despite what they say publicly.

DCfRB

DOVE launched the campaign in September of 2004, reaching out to the United States and Puerto Rico. Partnering up with the Girl Scouts, the Boys & Girls Club, and Girls Inc., DOVE sets up workshops with girls, run by normal, and normally shaped, women. Within these workshops, beauty is open for transparent discussion and debate. Workbooks (which can be downloaded online) are used by girls, mothers, and mentors.

Just for Girls

On DOVE's website, there is a page specially for girls from the ages of 6 to 16. The page holds self-esteem "tools." This is where you can download free workbooks for girls, their moms and mentors. There are games and quizzes, designed to expose the media and their photoshop schemes; as well as to open doors for girls to look at themselves and their unique beauty. The page for girls also has a virtual safe, to lock up girls' vulnerable thoughts about beauty.

"Wrinkles or Wonderful?"

The campaign is not only for young girls. In 2007 DOVE discovered that 91% of women between the ages of 50-64 believed that our society was in a great need of a beauty reality check! They agreed that the stereotype claiming that only the youth could be beautify needed to be kicked to the curb. DOVE's "Beauty Comes of Age" campaign celebrated gray hair, age spots, wrinkles and the lovely like.

Being a part of it all...

You can help break down the stereotypes by going to the DOVE Beauty Campaign website, printing off the self-esteem workbooks, and giving them to girls or moms in your community.

Feeling more of a call? Through the DOVE website you can locate a group of Girls Scouts or a Boys & Girls Club near you, partner with them to become a part of their workshops.

Any purchase of DOVE products will contribute to the DOVE Campaign for Real Beauty.

(photos from DOVE's Campaign for Real Beauty)