Voice Your Verse ‘n’ Open Your Purse!

By Janette Santos, Editorial Intern

Are you a poet? Well you’re in luck because April is National Poetry Month! To coincide with this annual celebration of the written art form, She’s the First launched their “Voice Your Verse” campaign. She’s the First is a nonprofit focused on getting American girls involved in raising funds to sponsor the education of girls in developing countries. The campaign aims to raise $10,000 by publishing an anthology of poetry called If the World Were my Classroom.  She’s the First promises that “100% of proceeds from the anthology, published during National Poetry Month in April, will sponsor girls’ education in Kenya, Tanzania, India, and Nepal.”

In March of 2011, She’s the First founder/president Tammy Tibbetts and Hannah Brencher, creator of MoreLoveLetters.com, decided to combine their love of poetry and social media with their passion for girls’ education. Now in its second year, this year’s campaign began in February and will last 90 days, over the course of which She’s the First invites students to host their own She’s the First Open Mic Night to raise more money, and awareness for the project. The campaign will culminate in a spoken-word event in NYC on April 17.

Besides helping to sponsor girls’ education, She’s the First provides several other great reasons to participate and contribute to the Voice Your Verse campaign—the education of girls has greater implications beyond gender equality. Research consistently shows that educating girls and encouraging them to work outside the home raises the economic output and stability of a country.  In terms of the economy, maternal education is linked to lowered maternal mortality rates as well as improved hygiene standards; thus, promoting the education of girls can incite widespread effects. Did you know that approximately 1 in 7 girls are wed before the age of 15 in developing countries, and they often suffer complications or death from pregnancy? In fact, pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young girls between the ages of 15 and 19, and it has been shown that girls who stay in school longer have fewer children and marry later.

To find out more information about the campaign, and contribute to the cause, you can visit http://www.shesthefirst.org/poetry/ or http://www.shesthefirst.org/2012/04/poetry-anthology-girl-sponsorships/.

Photos courtesy of She’s the First.

Celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8!

By Liz Peters, Editorial Intern

Girls celebrate all sorts of holidays: Thanksgiving, Independence Day, their birthdays and those of their friends, maybe even Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza. But how often do you celebrate being female? International Women’s Day gives you the chance to scream, shout, and make merry over your womanhood!

Designed to connect girls and inspire futures, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1909, driven by women taking a stand against their discrimination the year before. In inspiring futures, let’s take a look to see where we have been in the past. In 1908, 15,000 women stormed the streets of New York City, demanding shorter hours and better pay for their work, as well as the right to vote. One hundred years ago, women were not allowed to vote. They were not allowed to serve in the military; they were banned from many sports and jobs; they were not allowed to have abortions. I don’t even think they had the freedom to wear pants!

Today, all of that and more is possible.

We’ve come pretty far, ladies, but there is still more to conquer. And progress hasn’t come without a fight.  Recently, for example, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest breast cancer charity, pulled their funding from Planned Parenthood, a sexual health and reproduction organization, because of various concerns. In 2008 alone, Planned Parenthood provided nearly 3 million people with health services, some, but not all, related to reproduction. Not only does Planned Parenthood provide medical services, it provides knowledge. As the nation’s largest sex educator, the organization brings issues and methods of contraception, family planning and sexual diseases to light, preparing women, younger and older, for anything that may come their way. Many women don’t have access to affordable sexual and health care, except through Planned Parenthood. In offering breast cancer screenings, Planned Parenthood examines the full health of a woman, possibly catching early signs of cancer and saving lives, at a minimum, encouraging women to get checked regularly.

It’s no wonder that the backlash to pulling funding was so strong. After facing heavy criticism, displayed on several social media sites, the Susan G. Komen Foundation listened to the concerns of the public and reversed its initial decision a mere three days after pulling its funds. They also offered an apology. But the fact that this incident happened at all is scary, and symbolic of how disturbingly women are positioned in this society. Can you imagine funding for men’s prostate cancer screening being pulled without warning?? It’s something to think about.

So despite many successes, the reality today is that women are still outnumbered in politics and the workplace, still receiving unequal pay to their male counterparts [check out our blog post on the Paycheck Fairness Act], still facing a glass ceiling in many fields. It’s clear that we still live in a patriarchy, where men hold the majority of the power. It’s time to even things out.

Under-represented and often misrepresented, women in today’s society need to jump the hurdles that the women of the past could not. It’s a lot of responsibility, but we can handle it. We’re up for the fight. Remember where we were 100 years ago? With your help, just imagine where we’ll be 100 years from now!

How You Can Join the Fight for Women

•  Set goals and see them through
• Get involved with your school’s student government
• Find yourself an afterschool job
• Play a sport traditionally viewed as for “the guys”
• Volunteer at an organization focused on empowering girls and/or women
• Investigate, question, and stay informed on issues surrounding women today

Lastly, on March 8, get together with your girls and celebrate being you—an empowered, intelligent, beautiful girl!  Happy International Women’s Day!

Logo courtesy of International Women’s Day

America Ferrera is No Dummy—She’s Inspirational!

By Janette Santos, Editorial Assistant
Photos by Max Tsekhanaovsky, Courtesy of The Mass Media

On Tuesday, January 31^st, award-winning actress and political activist America Ferrera visited University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she was met with great warmth from the community. The reason for her visit? She was slated to speak about how race and class have affected her career. But in the end, America did much more than that. In recounting tales from her life, she heightened and inspired an entire ballroom of people.

Beginning on a humbled note: “Wow, I‘m sure there are a million other things you could do tonight. I‘ll try to make this worth your time!” Ferrera began to speak. She recalled how when she was nine years old, she used to daydream about having a life where the water in her house would never get shut off and the electricity would never go out. She dreamed of a life of fame, and wealth, and diamonds. She wanted to be a famous actress. America revealed that she caught the acting bug when she played the role of the Artful Dodger in a school production for Oliver Twist, and from then on, she just couldn’t stop. She appeared in a plethora of films and TV shows from a young age, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Touched by An Angel, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, How to Train Your Dragon, and most prominently, Ugly Betty.

But America did not fit the cookie-cutter image of an actress; she was not blonde, thin, or wealthy. She was quite the opposite of that, and that made her life difficult. America described, for example, how an ex-manager had once told her that she had “inflated ideas of what she could accomplish as an actress.” After that, all of a sudden, self-doubt began to constantly infiltrate her thoughts. She reported: “Like many other young people, I didn’t appreciate what made me unique.” This sentiment plagued her for years.

It wasn’t until she got to college and experienced what she calls her “pre-quarter life crisis” (a period in her life when she nearly quit acting) that Ferrera says her perspective of herself and her life changed dramatically. Fresh off the success of her movie, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, America decided that she would go back to college and study international relations. After a semester of learning about the existence of sweatshops, deformed baby alligators, and young girls forced into prostitution, America was utterly shocked by her ignorance. Growing up, America was academically gifted—she graduated from high school as the valedictorian—and was constantly told by teachers that she was “smart.” But after coming to college, Ferrera decided that she was “stupid.” She lamented: “I mourned the discovery of my stupidity. How could I be a dummy? But I didn’t know about the world; I didn’t know how to ask the right questions.”

At that point, America Ferrera looked upon her long-held passion and love for acting as a “frivolous, useless activity” that would not help people. She decided to quit acting. But luckily for her (and us!), America decided to speak to her professor/mentor, Mr. Anders, and ask him whether she was doing the right thing. In response, Mr. Anders told America about a young inner-city girl that he was mentoring. This girl had always held him at arm’s length, but one day she asked him if he really wanted to know what her life was really like. He answered, “yes,” and then at her request he took her, and a few of her friends, to see the film Real Women Have Curves. The movie was about a Mexican-American girl named Ana who is an accomplished student, but also works in her sister’s dress shop, and who, despite her mother’s old-fashioned perceptions of how a woman should behave, dreams of going to Columbia University. The movie portrays Ana’s struggles in dealing with both her traditional mother’s views, and her own self-image issues. Mr. Anders told America that because of that movie, he was able to open a dialogue with the young woman he was mentoring, and to tell her parents about her dreams of attending college, a dream that she was eventually able to fulfill. It was because of this movie, Mr. Anders told America, that this girl’s life was changed for the better. For those of you who don’t know, the role of Ana in that movie was played by America Ferrera.

All of a sudden it hit America that her passion for acting actually had the potential to help others. She realized, “I didn’t have to give up what I loved doing in order to help people.”

Ferrera referenced the many times over the course of her acting career that she was looked over for a role because she was “not Caucasian enough, or not authentically [Mexican] enough.” It hurt, but she realized that regardless, she needed to love herself. “I was fat, brown, poor, and ethnic…but my so-called faults made me perfect for [the role of Ana].” Likewise, in her role as the titular character in Ugly Betty, America felt that she was able to help people deal with the very same problems she went through growing up.

Ending her talk with a quote from Steven Levitan (the co-creator and executive producer of Ugly Betty), Ferrera stated, “[As actors,] we’re not just making people laugh, we’re making them more tolerant.”

And with that, the entire ballroom erupted into an uproarious standing ovation!

A Recipe for Change

By Lauren Castner, Alumna Editorial Assistant

Photos courtesy of She’s the First and Lindsay Brown

Did you ever think a cupcake could change a girl’s life?  Well, it can!  She’s the First, founded by Tammy Tibbetts and Christen Brandt in 2009, is a non-profit that raises money to help girls in developing countries become the first in their family to graduate from high school.  This fall She’s the First is hosting bake sales across the country to help raise funds to send more girls to school!

So why cupcakes?  Lindsay Brown, a college student from Notre Dame, took a trip to Nepal after selling baked goods from her dorm room to help support the Kopila Valley Children’s Home & School.  What was she selling?  The now famous tie-dye cupcake!  To read more about what inspired Lindsay and her trip to Nepal, click here.

She’s the First is in regular contact with many of the girls they sponsor – girls even blog for She’s the First and answer your questions.  One student, Jancy from India, just judged a T-Shirt Design Contest with Annie Wang, one of the founders of Her Campus!  The winning design is going to be on t-shirts sold this fall to raise more money for students like Jancy.

Are you interested in putting your baking skills to use for She’s the First?  You can help them reach their goal to have 200 bake sales across the country, with one in every state!  Teens in Alaska and Hawaii have already committed to join in the bake off, but many other states could still use representatives. (Click here to see the Bake Off map).

You can host a bake sale at your school! If you have any questions, check out this guide to hosting a great bake sale, or email Lauren Castner at laurencastner@shesthefirst.org!

Read She’s the First…Executive Director to learn more about this organization and find out why their executive director, Christen Brandt, is a Teen Voices Leading Lady!  

Celebrating Teen Voices’ Fall Session

By Sarah Binning

Another session has come and gone. Time flies when you’re writing articles and creating social change through media! After three months of hard work, our teen editors handed their completed articles to Jessica, our fantastic editor—a moment worthy of celebrating and special recognition. At last night’s awards ceremony, we celebrated the accomplishments of our Fall 2010 teen editors and mentors!

The teens wrote special tribute paragraphs to their mentors, expressing their thanks and reminiscing on memories made this session. Mentors also read paragraphs to their girls, reflecting on the accomplishments of their mentees.

“One thing that I learned from you is while you are doing an interview be friendly, calm, and professional,” Chelsey (right), reads her paragraph to mentor Julia (left) with group member Marshea.

Mentor Megan (right) reads to Cynthia (left): “I want you to remember that the world needs you, that thoughtful, caring, loving inner you. I am privileged to have gotten under your skin to know the real you, and I hope you share that privilege with more and more people who will be lucky to know you as I have been.”

Megan tells mentee De’Shannah (middle), “One day we were having one of our chats … and I’ll never forget what you said: “day by day.” It’s a thought that’s stuck with me since then, inspiring me to keep going.”

“You and Gilesa worked very hard and I loved seeing a friendship form between the two of you that may never happened if it hadn’t been for Teen Voices. I’ll miss our adventures together and finding out fun facts about the two of you while playing the fruit snack game,” mentor Kathleen reads to Lakhala (left) and Gilesa.

But that’s not all. Saun Green, program director, and our six wonderful peer leaders have been carefully observing the teens this session. They created superlatives for each participant that best expressed the girls’ personalities and contributions to Teen Voices. Above, Saun presents superlatives to the Dear D section.

We laughed. We cried. We left with warm hearts and a greater love for Teen Voices!

Thanks again to our wonderful mentors! Front row:  Michelle, Rachel, Karen, and Julia. Back row: Jessica (Editor), Ashley A., Kathleen, Megan, Ashley M., Mary and Lydia. Missing from photo: Katie (feel better, Katie!).

Symposium Gives Voice to Gender and Sexuality Issues

By Sarah Binning

For 35 years, the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) has worked to promote female leadership and to achieve female economic and educational equality. On Saturday, WCW gave voice to the road blocks we face in our struggle for diversity and equality at their Reflections, Conversations, New Directions Symposium.

Teen Voices’ Executive Director Jenny Amory attended the Gender and Sexuality panel, which featured panelists  Deborah Tolman (author of Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality), Linda Williams (UMass Lowell professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology), and Jean Kilbourne (co-author of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids). Wellesley College Director of Studies of Gender Policy in U.S. Jurisprudence, Monica Driggers, moderated the discussion.

Amory says that the compelling presentations and discussions ranged on topics from the commoditization of sexual agency in girls to mainstreaming of pornography to the ways that violence is intertwined with sexuality and power.

Following the session, she said, “The research on these topics so clearly points to the need for organizations like Teen Voices that promote girl-generated media and support girls’ voices  in the mainstream media.”

For more information on the Wellesley Centers for Women and the symposium, please visit their website.

Photo of Jean Kilbourne courtesy of Wellesley Centers for Women

Exposed Author Kimberly Marcus Discusses Her First Novel

By Lauren Castner

Last Tuesday, fellow Teen Voices editorial assistant Ashley Morris and I attended a dinner with Kimberly Marcus, author of the upcoming young adult novel Exposed.  The dinner was at Harvest, in Cambridge, MA, and celebrated the upcoming February release of Marcus’s first novel.

Marcus’s excitement about her new book is plain to see.  She told Teen Voices she couldn’t believe she was at a dinner with a group of people who had read her novel (and we were super excited to have dinner with a published author!).

Exposed is written in free verse, a refreshing departure from the writing styles we typically see in young adult novels.  It tells the story of Liz, her best friend Kate, and the events that lead up to Kate’s decision to end their friendship.  Liz is an aspiring photographer and Marcus tells the story in snapshots; she is able to say a lot with few words.  As a former children’s therapist with a Master’s in Social Work, Marcus tackles tough issues with accuracy and knowledge. The story reads realistically and could very well happen in any town across the country.  I picked up the book and had to read it cover to cover; Marcus knows how to reel in her audience and hold them captivated until the end of her novel.

If you’re interested in learning more about Marcus, check out her website here, and look for Exposed in bookstores on February 22!

 

Become a Teen Voices Change Agent!

Calling all teen girls! Are you a Change Agent? Teen Voices wants to know where you create social change! How are you making a difference this holiday season? Are you volunteering at a local food pantry or homeless shelter? Caroling at nursing homes and hospitals? Are you donating winter coats, hats, scarves and mittens? Or maybe you tutor students. No matter where or how you create social change, we want to see how YOU are changing the world!

Becoming a Change Agent is simple! Follow these three steps and you can be a Change Agent too.

1. Bring Teen Voices magazine along with you the next time you volunteer or find another way to make the world a better place.

2. Snap a photo of yourself in action. Be sure to include the magazine in the photo!

3. E-mail your photo to teenvoicesmagazine@gmail.com. Please make sure your photo is saved as a jpeg or gif!

Don’t forget to include a description of the photo along with your name, age, and address. (We’ll only put your first name, age, and state online.)

Each month we’ll select one winner and the Change Agent will receive a FREE Teen Voices T-shirt. So get out there and change the world!

Civil Rights and the Young People’s Project: One Girl’s Trip to the SNNC 50th Anniversary Conference

By Deamonte Tibbs-Petty,
The Young People’s Project

The Young People’s Project is a non-profit group dedicated to raising math literacy and working for social change. Their mission is to change the quality of mathematics education for children. As part of that group, I traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina, in April for the SNNC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) 50th Anniversary Conference. More than 1,100 people attended the conference, which was both a celebration and a documentation of those who fought for social change in 1960.

I learned about so many inspiring people in the civil rights movement, and saw what they have achieved by fighting against racism and fighting for equality. One powerful woman I learned about was Ella Baker, an activist and civil rights organizer who was a strong leader and speaker for her community. To me, she is the definition of a role model because she stood up to oppression and fought for equal rights for the black community. Baker once said, “Strong people don’t need strong leaders.” This quote stuck with me because it reminds me that we all have enough willpower to lead ourselves.

At first I didn’t understand what SNCC had to do with YPP, until our College Math Literacy Workers explained to us that Bob Moses was in the civil rights movement and the actions he took to get his daughter to learn math are the reason we now have the Algebra Project and YPP. We were very lucky to be able to hear the SNCC stories. I appreciate what Bob Moses and SNCC have done because if it wasn’t for them taking brutal beatings and disrespect to come together and march for what’s right, my high school wouldn’t have the diversity and love it has today. No one is being judged or discriminated against because of the color of their skin. We are all treated like human beings, and to me that is love.

Besides going to workshops at Shaw University to listen to the activists, we also met other YPP coordinators and staff from places like Jackson, Mississippi and Chicago. Meeting students from all the YPP sites was a good experience for me because I got to see that we all want to make a change in our communities.

At one workshop, we did an activity called “Neighbor Circle.” We formed groups and got to know each other like neighbors. We had to pick a major problem that happens in our community and talk about how our group would work together to fix it. Many of us found we share the same ideas when it comes to wanting school to provide extra help, clubs, and money for those who need it. We felt that the way math is being taught makes it difficult for kids to learn, whether because of bad supplies or the scarce amount of teachers.

I feel like I have grown from this trip. I now understand that if you want to make changes for the better, you have to stand up for your beliefs. My ancestors’ fight against struggles and abuse make the world a better place today. I learned that you can make a change without using violence. The civil rights leaders were the role models and leaders of that time and now they are passing down knowledge so we can be role models for kids in the generations to come. Everyone in YPP has high hopes and dreams that students will become powerful adults who will make a difference.

View photos from the SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference.

Anna Deavere Smith On Collaboration

Actress, author, and playwright Anna Deavere Smith performed at Teen Voices’ annual fundraising event, Amplify, on April 14. In this clip from her performance, she talks about a race riot that took place in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, and portrays a Jewish woman who lives in the neighborhood. The message in this piece, Smith says, is that we can learn to solve problems when we collaborate, or “extend ourselves out from what we know.”

Anna Deavere Smith on Collaboration

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