Feminism | Posted by Sara Rowe on 04/14/2010

Girlzone.com – An Alternative to Beauty, Boys and Fashion Saturated Websites

For those of you girls looking for something different in the websites that you visit, I would like to introduce you to Girlzone.com. I’m the Managing Editor of this great website, which was one of the first independent website for girls created. Girl Zone was launched in 1997 with a specific “progressive” mission in mind. We wanted girls to feel good about who they are now and their potential for the future. Girl Zone is about the whole girl. While most traditional media for teen girls offer up mostly beauty, boys and fashion, Girl Zone offers content related to all aspects of a girls life.

Girl Zone is a hip and healthy website which provides girls with a chance to voice their opinions and to connect with other girls their age. It is a community of girls for the purposes of encouraging interaction, providing information, and facilitating personal growth. Girl Zone is a place that helps girls develop the “inner core” of their true selves – that will help carry them through the years of media manipulation and peer pressure.

Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown used Girlzone.com as part of their research into marketing towards girls through a survey that reached 600 girls from all over the U.S. In their resulting book, Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes, they concluded that, “tons of money [is] spent every day to help girls look powerful and feel powerful by conforming to a stereotyped image of an independent, ‘hott,’ boy-obsessed, shopping teenager. Too little money is being spent on developing the activities and programs and guidance that girls need to become truly powerful” (2006, 1-2).

In regards to websites targeting preteen and teenage girls, Lamb and Brown conclude that the same scenario is taking place. They write, “Over and over again girls are sold a promise that their voice counts, that they have the potential to do great things, that they are part of a larger world where what they do matters, and even that they are unique. Then the promise boils down to makeup, hair, clothes and boys” (2006, 205).

A survey recently released by the Girl Scouts of America and The Dove Self-Esteem Foundation reveals some very disturbing statistics about girls and how they feel about their bodies. They report the following:

Nine in ten girls say the fashion industry (89%) and/or the media (88%) place a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin.

Seventeen percent of African American girls are completely satisfied with the way their body looks, compared to 14% of Hispanic and 10% of Caucasian girls.

A different study done by The Dove Self Esteem Fund in 2008 found similar results about self esteem:

Seven in ten girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationships with friends and family members

78% of girls with low self-esteem admit that it is hard to feel good in school when you do not feel good about how you look (compared to 54% of girls with high self-esteem)

75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, or drinking when feeling badly about themselves (Compared to 25% of girls with high self-esteem)

65% of girls ages 13 – 17 refrain from telling their parents certain things about themselves to prevent parents from thinking badly about them, compared to the 49% of girls ages 8 – 12.

Girlzone.com is a website that hopes to change these statistics. Girl Zone talks about clothes and fashion but puts these topics in the proper perspective, as another form of self-expression over which girls have control. Real girls and women are featured doing real things. We aim for diversity of images of girls and women – color, size, braces, glasses, etc. The “voice” of the editorial is important – fun, uplifting, not preachy, a bit snarky and often on the quirky side. We specifically try to avoid references to dieting and beauty. Girl Zone’s strength throughout the years is that it is content rich, and speaks to girls about relevant issues that are not often found all in one place- sports, fashion, careers, life issues, health/body, entertainment, volunteering, DIY, the environment, technology, relationships etc.

Sara Rowe is the Managing Editor of Girlzone.com; MJ Reale is the Founder of Girlzone.com

http://www.girlzone.com

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Read other posts about: feminist websites, Girl Scouts of America, Girl Zone, girls advocacy, girls and feminism, girls and self-esteem, Girlzone.com, Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Ou Daughters from Marketers' Schemes, The Dove Self-Esteem Foundation, websites for girls, youth advocacy