What are we buying in America? Do we even know?

Take a look at this month's cover of Vanity Fair. It is strewn with beautiful girls. Unfortunately, all beautiful girls that fit only one mold. The ultra thin, size zero model. The western iconic image that women and girls are pummelled with daily. If this is the only image being promulgated by the media and recent studies show that adolescents are dialed into the media an average of seven and half hours a day, how do girls who do not look like this feel about themselves?

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/03/cover-girls-201003

Do adolescent girls really have the resilience to cast this image aside and pretend it doesn't matter to them? Can they really be expected "not to care" if they don't look like this? Where in our society is the message that tells them this image is not important? Is there even an alternative message being conveyed?

Do we really ever consider what our daughters are digesting culturally in terms of body image? And, what are we actively doing to help them build strong internal cores so that they can shrug off these external messages that invalidate them if they don't fit this mold? What can we do in our every day lives to remind girls they are whole and complete exactly the way they are??

Here are a few things to consider:
1) We should not be critical of our own bodies in front of our daughters. Any scrutiny we put upon ourselves will transfer to our girls scrutinizing themselves in the same way;
2) Choose movies, magazines, books and music that demonstrate/value women leading lives of meaning and purpose; and
3) Acknowledge, praise and support the development of internal qualities, gifts and talents in ourselves, our girls and other women.

Remember, they are watching us to learn how to take care of themselves and treat others.