Mama Knows Best

Becoming a parent today is an almost frightening experience. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to junior high school sporting events, local festivities or shopping centers to find myself disgusted in the way that some of the girls are dressing today. A big portion of the blame lies on that of the fashion industry, while some lies elsewhere.

Best-selling author Dannah Gresh has sought out a year-long journey to collect signatures from 50,000 mothers across country that agree with her that little girls should not be wearing thongs. The name given to this band of mothers is being called The Bod Squad. The Bod Squad’s goal is to petition the Council of the Fashion Designers of America to review findings of a 2-year American Psychological Association study on the sexualization of little girls.

The Psychological Association’s report states that adult clothing (as well as music lyrics, Internet content and video games) is being marketed to younger girls and these mature products have been linked to eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. They have also found that the early sexualization presented to young girls have had negative consequences on girls’ ability to develop a healthy sexuality.

Dannah Gresh is an advocate of teaching girls what is means to be cool, trendy and fashionable without having to present themselves as sexual objects. She wants to send a message to youth fashion designers that have crossed the line and hopes they thoroughly re-examine the clothing lines targeting young girls.

Later in the month, Dannah will be releasing her first mainstream book series called Secret Keeper Girl. Each book in the fiction series is geared towards tween girls and approaches issues such as the pressures to have a boyfriend, how to deal with mean girls and age-appropriate fashion choices, modesty, finding your inner beauty, and building positive self-esteem.

If you are interested in this book series and would like to learn more or if you would just like to sign the petition to help put a stop to sexualization of young girls, please visit secretkeepergirl.com.