Last weekend was Doves official Dove Self-Esteem Weekend. This year Dove has been concentrating on a “Let’s Talk” program designed to inspire you to reach out to your daughters and help them discover that beauty, real beauty, is who they are. Although the weekend is passed, the opportunity has not passed for you to be able to have a discussion and really inspire your children to realize that they can have healthy and positive relationships in their lives built on self esteem and self worth.
When to have the talk?
Sometimes I do not understand how so many young girls and women have so many self esteem issues. But the fact is that how we feel about how we look can impact us directly in what we achieve. Dove research has shown that more than 60% of girls avoid activities when they feel down about themselves. You can help combat the role society plays in affecting the women of the future by spending some extra time each day building your daughter and her friends to a higher standard based on who they are and what is on the inside.
Not sure how to have the talk? You can download this PDF to get the conversation started in your home!
What I did last weekend
Last weekend I spent several days on a coordinated travel blogging event with 33 other women. Every time I am with a group of women I often realize how easy it is to be insecure. Even when so many of us suffer from weight and cosmetic imperfections, most people constantly find ways to apologize or belittle their personal looks.
Personally, I see nothing but beautiful women.
One of the first things we say to the women when they arrive is to leave the attitude and bad self esteem at the doorway. It doesn’t always work. After all, a lifetime of feeling insecure doesn’t leave someone easily, but worrying about posing for a picture or being afraid to hop in the pool for fear of someone seeing you in a bathing suit can ruin a good time!
The only way that women can combat the continuation of this emotional virus from spreading to their children is to learn to grow stronger and treat themselves to positivity. Here are a few things I tell myself:
- Be proud of who you are!
- Smile…a lot!
- Look at the big picture. Life is not in the details.
- Realize that you are not perfect. Not with makeup, not with exercise, not always with your time, but if you try to be the best person you can be to your family and friends, that is all you can do and they can expect from you.
- Volunteer. I find that by volunteering my time I think outside of just my own issues.
And although we are all very different, I find my best friends, and their imperfections, the best thing about them.
(photos courtesy of Candace from Serendipity Mommy)
Walk the Talk
Last weekend Dove® hosted a self-esteem building rally and “Walked the Talk” with mentors and girls from their partner organizations (Girls, Inc., Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Girl Scouts of the U.S.A). To see everything that happened you can check out @Dove and the hashtag #DoveInspired .
Remember, you do not need to wait on someone else to tell you that you are a good person or that you are beautiful. Start with telling yourself that and then continuing it on by reinforcing someone else.
You never know what you may impact.
I just might be a future.
~Trisha
I’m really blessed that my mother never did negative self talk about her “looks” when I was growing up. That doesn’t mean I have the best self-esteem in the world but made a difference in how I “think” of myself. It’s so important to teach young girls that they are more than a face however it’s difficult to with all of the media telling them a different message. Thanks goodness I only have a boy, lol.
I am so glad that you shared this. I did a round up of beauty quotes this week after a friend of mine was feeling a bit insecure and concentrating on all her flaws. I told her she was BEAUTIFUL no matter what and to stop comparing herself to others and accept the fact that her beauty may be different from my beauty but none the less YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. Said hat to say this. I believe women are beautiful only when they start believing it!! So ladies start believing!
Again thanks for sharing. Btw love the pic of you and the girls. Silly faces and all, y’all are beautiful.
This is a great campaign! I am happy that I am more confident now because my confidence in most ways is shining through with my daughter. I am trying to teach her, through my actions, that inner beauty is most important!
What a wonderful campaign… and I totally agree with you that the women in the photo are all beautiful.
I have been insecure in who I am for a very long time. I was bullied by relatives when I was a young girl and my parents didnt know. They scarred me and how I looked at myself. Today, after struggling to recovery my son from autism, I have become a much stronger woman and I look back on myself when I was younger and wish I had learned this lesson years ago. My son, the one with autism, told me something very profound one day (he is 7). He and his brothers were acting up very early one Saturday morning when I was hoping to allow my husband the chance to sleep in. To try to quiet them I rushed from the bathroom without brushing my teeth or putting on my makeup. I was angry and told my son I was disappointed that he didn’t let me get my make up on. He looked and me and said “Mommy, make up doesn’t make you beautiful. What is on the inside makes you beautiful, and you are beautiful to me, Mommy.”
of course I couldn’t stay angry after that. But he was right.
This couldn’t have come at a better time! I have three children of my own and I spend quite a bit of time at their school volunteering as my professional background includes teaching, child care and child care management. I am a firm believer that there is good in everyone and that sometimes you might have to look a little harder, but everyone has something very unique and special to give. Find it and share it!