In 2004, Dove launched a worldwide Campaign for Real Beauty, in effort to diminish the stereotypical view of beauty and promote the real beauty, and health, of women everywhere. The current focus of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is to raise the self-esteem and self-confidence of girls and young women.
Statistics on how women define beauty
A global study, The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, inspired Dove's initial Campaign for Real Beauty. The results showed how the world had become to view “beauty” in a woman. If you weren't young, blond and thin, you weren't “beautiful”. The impact on the self-esteem of women everywhere resulted in:
- 2 per cent of women worldwide thought themselves “beautiful”
- 81 per cent of women in the United States thought that the media set a standard of expectation of beauty that “real” women could never achieve.
Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty: The Dove Self-Esteem Program
Lack of self-confidence and self-esteem can lead to a life time of emotional health problems, particularly in young women. Suicide, drug addiction and alcohol addiction are just some of the problems that can often be the result of a young woman's inability to “fit in” and conform to what is considered beautiful by the media. Many young girls are also bullied because of their lack of perceived “beauty.”
Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty to raise awareness about self-esteem in girls and young women is being targeted in the United States through MEI, a program of the Girl Scouts; girls and young women aged 8 to 17 years old are being given educational resources in an effort to build their self-confidence, at an age when stereotypical views of beauty are most influential. In addition, the Dove Self-Esteem Fund is sponsoring self-esteem building workshops, backed by celebrities, and empowering and educating moms and daughters through on line tools.
The impact of self esteem on young women
It is healthy to feel beautiful and beautiful to be healthy. Young women everywhere need to be shown that the stereotypical view of beauty is not a realistic definition of beauty, which will lead them to a happier, and healthier, life.
For more information on how self-esteem programs are helping change the lives of young girls and women visit the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty web site.
copyrightSharonFalsetto2010
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