News to Use

Girl caught!

Is your daughter steamed about all the offensive images of girls and women she sees in advertising and the media? “GirlCaught” stickers are great tools for fighting back. Go to www.tbio.org to print them out; your girl can then slap one on any and all disrespecting ads and articles. And when she mails the “caught” material to the good folks at Mind On The Media, they’ll fire it off the company. That way, she’ll let that marketer know she’s going to“GirlCaught” their product—a sure way to get the attention of profit-seeking corporations.

Looking for “bad ads” is a fun way to get her talking about the effect of demeaning images—and brainstorming about better ways to feel “beautiful.” Get her cooking up plans to celebrate Turn Beauty Inside Out Day on May 21. Since 2000, girls all over have been gathering to toast their own wonderful, beautiful inner attributes and plot further girl-affirming activities. Request a Turn Beauty Inside Out action kit at www.tbio.org.

Have some pi!

Another day to set aside for some fun: March 14. It’s Pi Day—a fitting day to celebrate the math constant 3.14—and a good day to use some engaging activities to make math come alive for girls. Buy your daughter her favorite pizza, and let her demonstrate the never-fail relationship between circumference and diameter before devouring. Serve with pi-neapple juice? Or you might make a game of converting the clock to pi-time. How about a mini-scavenger hunt with your girl solving for pi in a clue that leads her to a round treat?

Feeling even wackier? Get her throwing frozen hot dogs (there’s a reason for this choice, but you can also use certain non-food objects) in a game that once again shows the miracle of pi. Find it and other inventive ideas at http://www.wikihow.com/Celebrate-Pi-Day and check out  www.piday.org for more pi info. Then get in gear for Square Root Day on March 3, 2009, when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the year. Anybody up for an all-square meal of root veggies?

Family meal Rx

Teen girls who frequently eat meals with their families are less likely to use diet pills, vomiting, laxatives, and other extreme weight-control tactics five years later, reports health researcher Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer in the January, 2008 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Girls who ate more meals with family got more protective effect from disordered eating than did boys. Researchers believe the benefit may come from their greater appreciation of family bonding associated with eating together. When families eat together, girls are more often involved in making meals, which is also linked with healthier attitudes toward eating.

Learn more about how to guide girls in healthier, happier eating in the Sept./Oct. 2006 Daughters interview with Neumark-Sztainer. And ask our expert, psychotherapist Kathy Kater, about how to keep a girl satisfied at any size at the Daughters Community Forum (www.daughters.com).

Make art, make history!

Lots of girls love making art, so this March is an ideal time to inspire her further. The 2008 theme of National Women’s History Month is Women’s Art: Women’s Visions. Browse through the honorees listed at the National Women’s History Project website, www.nwhp.org, and check out the project’s wealth of info about celebrating Women’s History month, too! Honorees include Faith Ringgold, whose picture books your daughter may remember. See www.faithringgold.com for Ringgold’s engaging paintings and “story quilts.” It’s easy to make a small story quilt: Get some indelible fabric markers and a square of white fabric at a fabric or craft store, and let your girl create her own artistic history!

Learn more about remarkable female artists together through Google or “Clara,” the female artist database created by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (www.nmwa.org). Talk with your girl about different art media and look for inspiration among the Women’s History Month honorees’ work, such as Miriam Schapiro’s use of bright paper and other “femmage” (fabric, buttons, etc.), Violet Oakley’s magnificent murals and stained glass works, and Lorna Simpson’s compelling photos. She may well want to create more art—a great time to emphasize that you don’t have to be “good” at art (or anything else) to dive right in.