resources
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For parents, teachers, and other adult advocates for girls: Be educated so your girls can be, too. Also check out our Alternatives for Girls and Learn More lists for teens.
We hand-pick each link, book, or movie, and only post them if they are in line with our mission. (We do not trade links without vetting the site or product)
Great sites for parents and other folks who are raising (or helping raise!) girls
A Better Way to Look Parents’ Page – Resources and tips for parents on how to support daughters nearing puberty or in the throes of adolescence when looks occupy much of girls’ minds.
Dads and men
The Good Men Project – a social movement from the front lines of modern manhood.
The Dad Man – Joe Kelly—The Dad Man—is a father, author, speaker, blogger, activist and consultant. He is the recognized expert in the field of fatherhood you’ve been looking for. We love Joe!
Media effects
Shaping Youth – effects of marketing on kids: a blog.
Center for A Commercial-Free Childhood – supports parents’ efforts to raise healthy families by limiting commercial access to children and ending the exploitive practice of child-targeted marketing.
MissRepresentation.org – a new social action campaign started by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and based on her film Miss Representation. Its mission is to shift people’s consciousness, inspire individual and community action, and ultimately, transform culture so everyone, regardless of gender, can fulfill their potential.
Media Education Foundation – incredible documentaries and films, including the seminal Killing Us Softly 4 by Dr. Jean Kilbourne.
Cover Girl Culture – a documentary film that interviews editors of Teen Vogue and Elle magazines, and takes a hard look at the fashion industry. Now offering workshops too.
The Media Literacy Project – advancing education and advocacy for media justice . (based in New Mexico)
Body image, Health at Every Size (HAES), and size accceptance
The Body Positive – transforms people’s beliefs about beauty, health, and identity, freeing them to live balanced, joyful, and purposeful lives. Delivered through engaging workshops, books, videos, and activist opportunities, The Body Positive’s Be Body Positive Model provides both youth and adults with inspiration and skills to improve physical and emotional well-being.
Beyond Hunger – a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals overcome the obsession with food and weight and find a natural, loving and peaceful relationship with their food, weight, and selves. (based in San Rafael, CA)
Celebrate Your Body – Workshops, groups, individual, and couples sessions for transforming negative body image. (San Francisco Bay Area)
Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Self-Esteem Toolkit and Resources – Yes, they’re owned by Unilever (who makes Axe and Klondike, in our Gallery of Offenders). And yes, these resources are quite good.
Radiance – the magazine for large women.
Association For Size Diversity and Health – an international professional organization composed of individual members who are committed to the Health At Every Size (HAES) principles.
National Organization to Advance Fat Acceptance – a non-profit civil rights organization dedicated to ending size discrimination in all of its forms.
Fat!So? – The site of the intrepid Marilyn Wann: For people who don’t apologize for their size.
National Organization for Lesbians of Size (NOLOSE) – a vibrant community with a shared commitment to feminist, anti-oppression ideology and action, seeking to end the oppression of fat people.
The Healthy Weight Network – research and information on obesity, eating disorders, weight loss and healthy living at any size.
Eating disorders and disordered eating
National Eating Disorders Assocation (NEDA) – a wealth of information and resources to adults, including online treatment and support group referrals. The NEDA Helpline provides information and referrals to those affected by an eating disorder or concerned about a family member/friend/loved one: 1-800-931-2237
ANAD, the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders – advocate for the prevention and alleviation of eating disorders.
Eating Disorders Resources for Recovery – Books and videos related to eating disorders.
Eating Disorders Coalition – for research, policy, and action. Mission: To advance the federal recognition of eating disorders as a public health priority.
Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center – International eating disorder referral organization.
Mirror-Mirror – Information, resources, and support for those struggling with eating disorders.
The Something Fishy Guide to Eating Disorders – Raising awareness and providing support to people with eating disorders, and their loved ones.
Eating disorders treatment
Eating Disorder Center of California – An Intensive day treatment and outpatient program for men and women, adolescents and adults suffering from eating disorders.
Monte Nido Eating Disorder Treatment Center – A residential treatment center for women suffering from anorexia, bulimia and compulsive exercise.
The Renfrew Center Foundation – A national, non-profit organization advancing the education, prevention, research and treatment of eating disorders.
Research
Project EAT – Some of the most highly regarded research on the socio-environmental, personal, and behavioral determinants of nutritional intake and weight status among a large and ethnically diverse adolescent population, conducted by Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, MPH, RD.
Cosmetic Surgery Research Info
Media alternatives to mainstream women’s magazines
Ms. Magazine – an oldie (40 years at last count) but a goodie, especially the blog!
Bitch magazine – feminist response to pop culture: print magazine and excellent web site.
Educator resources
Body Image Health – including the Healthy Bodies elementary school curriculum (Just the free Preface overview should be read by anyone who is concerned with body image and health).
How I Look Journal Online – educator and counselor resource pages here.
Other organizations we think adults should know about
Girls Leadership Institute – Changing the face of leadership.
GirlVentures – Outdoor adventures for inner discovery. (based in San Francisco Bay Area)
Hardy Girls, Healthy Women – Hardy Girls, Healthy Women hghw.org – creates opportunities, develops programs, and provides services that empower girls as well as addressing girls’ lives in social and relational contexts. They believe it is not the girls, but the environment they live in that needs repair.
SPARK – a girl-fueled activist movement to demand an end to the sexualization of women and girls in media. They collaborate with hundreds of girls 13-22 and more than 60 national organizations (including About-Face!) to reject the commodified, sexualized images of girls in media and support the development of girls’ healthy sexuality and self-esteem.
Alliance For Girls – an alliance of girl-serving organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Children’s Media Project – provides workshops, programs, and projects for youth, artists, and educators that teach critical viewing of the media, that encourage youth to be creatively engaged in using the media to deliver important messages, and that offer employment and growth opportunities for youth. (based in Poughkeepsie, NY)
Women in Media and News (WIMN) – a media analysis, education and advocacy group that works to increase women’s presence and power in the public debate. WIMN’s POWER Sources Project provides journalists with a diverse network of female experts.
Women’s Sports Foundation – advances the lives of women and girls through sports and physical activity.
Movies and books for adults to support teens and themselves (buy using these links, and some of your purchase will go to About-Face!)
In this must-see update of her Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes — images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. (45 min, recommended by About-Face for older teens and adults)
$150-$295, streaming rights available [buy now]
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Written & directed by Darryl Roberts, “America the Beautiful” illuminates the issue of body image and beauty by touching on topics such as child models, plastic surgery, celebrity worship, airbrushed advertising, and cosmetics.
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Acknowledges the serious dangers of eating disorders and offers effective solutions and support for family and friends of those who suffer from them.
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Am I Thin Enough Yet? goes beyond traditional psychological explanations of eating disorders to level a powerful indictment against the social, political, and economic pressures women face in a weight-obsessed society.
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This well-researched book offers crucial help to men, women, and teenagers, showing how to develop and maintain positive self-esteem, social esteem, and healthy body image.
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Judith Rodin, the founder of the Eating Disorders Clinic at Yale University, examines why we fall into self-defeating, health-damaging obsessions, and how to escape them.
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Alissa Quart illuminates the unsettling new reality of marketing to teenagers, as well as the quieter but no less worrisome forms of teen branding.
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Kilbourne paints a gripping portrait of how the barrage of advertising drastically affects young people, especially girls, by offering false promises of rebellion, connection, and control.
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Inspired by research on media’s influence on young people, this complete curriculum helps individuals understand, analyze, and create powerful media messages.
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An intelligent, candid, and often personal work, Cinderella Ate My Daughter offers an important exploration of the burgeoning girlie-girl culture and what it could mean for our daughters’ identities and their futures.
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Twenty-two experts share their extensive knowledge on women’s preoccupation with body size by considering eating behaviors ranging from dieting and exercise, to anorexia and bulimia, and explore the disputed links made between weight and health.
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Delta Burke is an American actress who, having had to come to terms with the fact that she will never be the slimmest of women, became a designer of clothes for the fuller figure. In this book she offers advice and anecdotes on style and positive thinking.
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In this comprehensive and practical guide to kids and computers, Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. examines the advantages and drawbacks of computer use for kids at home and school, exploring its effects on their health, mental development, and creativity.
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Originally published in two volumes, this ground-breaking program shows women how to avoid the dieting/binging cycle and learn practical and effective techniques to understand why they use food to fill emotional and psychological needs.
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Geneen Roth was an emotional overeater and self-starver who finally broke free from the destructive cycle of bingeing and purging. She has gone on to help others do the same through her lectures and workshops, as well as gather real-life stories of inspiration for this book.
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Susan Brownmiller draws on the many manifestations of femininity through the ages, and demonstrates in beautiful and telling detail the many powerful nuances of that one word.
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Using the feminist perspective to illuminate and explore the relationship between the anguish of those who suffer from eating disorders and the problems of ordinary women.
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Featuring some of the best known authors and speakers on anorexia nervosa, bulimia, body image and food obsessions, Full Lives is a conversation about the lives of these remarkable women, describing the personal growth and satisfaction that recovery from eating disorders has bought them.
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Barbara Mackoff, in Growing a Girl, stresses that, instead of focusing on gender, parents should see children in terms of their individuality, while at the same time wearing “gender glasses” and teaching their daughters to be aware of society’s gender biases.
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Thompson examines the motives behind eating disorders and draws on interviews with women from a wide range of backgrounds.
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Asserting that social forces have contributed to the epidemic of anorexia nervosa during the last 20 years, Orbach argues that eating habits should be modified voluntarily, and only after the negative outside pressures have been understood by the anorectic.
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Journeys into the past to investigate America’s obsession with weight and interviews today’s weight-loss profiteers, coming to the conclusion that, far from helping people lose weight, diet gurus contribute to Americans’ weight obsession and obesity.
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The scientifically proven, step-by-step guide to overcoming repeated weight loss and gain, binge eating, guilt, and anxieties about food and body image.
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Terry Poulton explores exactly how big business glorifies emaciation–and why women have become willing to pursue the mirage of the “perfect” body, even at the cost of their lives.
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Part memoir, part exposé, Promiscuities is Naomi Wolf’s perspective on the confusion surrounding female sexuality
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According to Dr. Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist who has treated girls for more than twenty years, we live in a look-obsessed, media-saturated, “girl-poisoning” culture. Here, for the first time, are girls’ unmuted voices from the front lines of adolescence, personal and painfully honest.
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Inspired by a study by the American Association of University Women that showed girls’ self-esteem plummeting as they reach adolescence, Peggy Orenstein spent months observing, interviewing, and getting know dozens of girls both inside and outside the classroom at two very different schools in northern California.
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Women writers shed light on the issue of “fat-oppression”.
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An indispensable and extremely well-organized treasure map to literature by women.
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Explores the phenomenon of the violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement.
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Drawing on a vast array of lively historical sources, unpublished diaries by adolescent girls, and photographs that conjure up memories of the past, The Body Project chronicles how growing up in a female body has changed over the past century and why that experience is more difficult today than ever before.
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The Hungry Self answers the need for help among the five million American women who suffer from eating disorders.
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A widely acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at the media reality that children face, The Other Parent is a groundbreaking book that will change the way all Americans use and view the media.
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In this revolutionary new book, bestselling authors Carol Munter and Jane Hirschmann explore the myriad reasons why women cling to diets despite overwhelming evidence that diets don’t work.
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Media critic Douglas deconstructs the ambiguous messages sent to American women via TV programs, popular music, advertising, and nightly news reporting over the last 40 years, and fathoms their influence on her own life and the lives of her contemporaries.
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This book explores today’s hyper-commercialized society and the damage it is doing to our children as they grow from toddlers to teens…The authors offer timely advice to parents on how to mitigate the effects of a materialistic, poisonous culture, and to raise kids who care less about things and more about people.
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Other related sites
Face the Issue – great site addressing body image, eating disorders, abuse, depression…each section has an animation narrated by a famous actress.
Guerilla Girls – Reinventing the “f” word – feminism.
