International Day of the Girl, October 11 ~ #InspireConfidence

Social media plays an increasingly influential role in shaping our definition of beauty. Everyday, young women seek validation by fishing for ‘likes’ on the pictures they post. Social media is simply a part of young women’s lives – they wake up, scroll and share, and go to bed doing the same. This means there is little escape from the anxiety associated with social media which in turn, and as research suggests, has contributed to the deterioration of their self esteem and body confidence both globally and in Canada.

On average, girls spend nearly 50 minutes per week preparing for a photo. Forty-four per cent (44%) of those girls, have deleted a photo of themselves they posted within the last month because they felt it did not receive enough ‘likes'. Nearly all of those girls have posted a second photo because they did not feel that their first post received enough ‘likes’.*

Today (Tuesday October 11) is International Day of the Girl – A global initiative to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm to better the lives of girls. In support of this day, Dove wants to encourages you to go to www.selfesteem.dove.ca and download their resources to help our next generation of girls to overcome beauty related pressures and raise their self-esteem and to understand that the only ‘like’ that counts is their own.

To date, the Dove Self-Esteem Project has surpassed a goal of reaching 2 million Canadian young girls and boys with their resources. This year, Dove hopes to reach 228 thousand Canadian girls and boys with the resources—with a global goal of reaching an additional 20 million by the year 2020.

*Results of a Canadian study of girls between the ages of 13 – 19. Statistics gathered from nearly 70 per cent that have posted a photo of themselves to social media. (October 2016)


Disclaimer - I was not compensated for this post.