ChickSpeak

It’s everywhere. The media is pretty much everywhere you look-magazines, newspapers, the television, the computer, billboards and even on the side of a bus or top of a taxi. Unless you’re living in a cave with no electricity and no communication with the outside world, you’re exposed to anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 advertising messages every day. That’s 365,000 to 1,095,000 advertisements per year.

Sorting through all those messages can be tough, too, especially for young women. Along with selling a variety of products ranging from useful to useless, many of the advertisements also sell not-so-healthy messages such as being overly thin is “in” and women have no power. Although we generally know those generations are very wrong, sometimes women can get swept up in the flood of mass media.

That’s where Project Girl comes in. The girl-led, arts-based initiative aims “to enable girls to look at all media forms with smart eyes so that they control the interpretation of what they see and hear rather than letting the interpretation control them.”

It was created in 2006 by two Madison, Wis., mothers, visual artist Kelly Parks Snider and videographer Jane Bartell, who watched their own children struggle with mass media advertising and entertainment.

Along with teaching girls to critically deconstruct mass media advertisements, it also promotes creating positive friendships, learning the value of art and taking part in a positive social change through the use of all forms of art.

The initiative offers workshops, lectures and a traveling art exhibition. You can also find valuable resources on their Web site such as a PowerPoint presentation, a workbook, video and print curriculums and more. If you decide to purchase any of it, all the proceeds from your sale are used to help sustain and expand more Project Girl programs.

Want to get involved?

Purchasing material and hosting the Project Girl leaders for workshops, meetings or lectures are a surefire way to start conversation for young women. If that’s not possible at the moment, you can offer financial support by following instructions listed on the Web site. But the most important thing you can do, however, is open up the dialogue between girls and young women about mass media and how it affects them. Stick to Project Girl’s focus on the arts or take an approach of your own.

Either way, once a dialogue is started, it opens up the path towards change. That’s the key.

If you need a little inspiration to get started or want to see the results of Project Girl programs, check out some of the girl artists or cool videos on the Web site. Be prepared to be amazed by incredible artwork and inspiring words, including awesome advice such as “devote your time doing the activities that truly bring you happiness.”

But before you get involved with Project Girl and promoting social change, test your own media-savvy skills with their media test. Next time, you’ll be sure to think twice about that advertising message.

Cassandra Zink graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She is in love with all things media, has an addiction with iced green tea with mint, loves going to the beach and hopes to travel the world one day.

Photo courtesy of projectgirl.org