From magazines to marketing campaigns to music videos, girls today are surrounded by mass media images of girls and women. According to a 1999 survey, the typical American girl uses media of some kind (television, radio, computers, etc.) for over five hours per day. Recent studies* show that girls are being negatively impacted by this exposure:

• One in five girls say that girls their age are negatively influenced by characters they see on television; well over a third say that girls and boys are not shown as equals on television; and nearly two thirds view girls and women on television as being reliant upon others to solve their problems
• 69 % of girls reported that fashion magazine pictures influenced their idea of the perfect body shape, and almost half said that they wanted to lose weight because of magazine pictures
• Girls are often more likely than boys to have seen programs that upset or disturbed them (reporting that they feel there is too much sex on television and that television is too violent) and majorities of both sexes said that there aren't enough programs that help young people deal with pressures around sex, suicide, drugs, AIDS, divorce and violence

The Girls Inc. Media Literacy® program helps girls develop the skills they need to wade through the media messages that bombard them. Delivered in four age-phased components, the program helps girls evaluate messages in media such as television shows, films, CDs, newspapers, websites, music videos, magazines and video games; helps girls recognize stereotypes in media and differentiate between those stereotypes and their own lives; teaches girls to learn to "read" media messages with a critical eye as they consider issues of ownership, media business, and the roles of women and minorities "behind the scenes" in media careers; and teaches girls how to use media to create their own messages.

Additional resources from Girls Inc. include Girls and Media [pdf].