For the 4th blog assignment I decided to look into a web-based organization as an alternative media source. I ended up finding iamthatgirl.com. This non-profit organization works to counteract the mainstream media’s daunting and unhealthy message to girls. A message where they are measured against each other or against unreachable ideals, which consequently make them feel inadequate. The name itself hints at the fact that the founder, a women named Alexis Jones, wants this to be a source where every girl is “That Girl”, someone special, and they don’t have to fit a mold. It is about empowering yourself and each other. I Am That Girl’s statement online says, “ By building community and providing girls with a space to consume healthy media, we can silence their crippling self-doubt long enough for girls to think for themselves, discover their voice and speak their truth.”
I found this organization as an online media source but they also reach out to their audience, interact and engage them, through local chapters and by hosting events. The founder Alexis writes a blog on the organization’s website which often features other inspiring women. The blog entries shed light on real issues for girls, especially teen/late teen and college girls, which I feel is the target audience.
I Am That Girl has its own youtube channel which aims to be “a network
of media that lifts you up instead of breaking you down. Every day is a new theme.”
For example Wednesdays are Wildcard Wednesdays with news, both national and
global with special interest to girls. Monday is Music Monday; weekly
highlighting songs with positive messages for girls and mostly song by women.
Male singers with positive messages also get posted, including Bruno Mars’
“Just The Way You Are” which speaks to the organizations message, to stay true
to our individuality.
After having looked around this website I thought the founder had
started a media outlet that can really reach people and make a difference. The
blog entries are interesting and the fact that girls can use both the written
word and video if they want to get involved makes it even more accessible.
Right now through their youtube channel they have a campaign called
“That Girl Rocks!” Girls get to submit an entry where they tell I Am That Girl
about a girl that inspires and in their opinion “rocks”. The organization is
using female celebrities in the promotion video to inspire girls to submit and
recognize girls that mean a lot to them. If anything this campaign is a good
usage of celebrities speaking for an organization.
We have talked about the mainstream media message in ads,
music videos and film in the classes. And although this website does not, as
far as I can see, address films I believe that it can help as a motivation. If
they see that there are alternatives available for music videos and general
media, maybe they start thinking about alternatives to mainstream messages
films to.
We have talked about the mainstream media message in ads,
music videos and film in the classes. And although this website does not, as
far as I can see, address films I believe that it can help as a motivation. If
they see that there are alternatives available for music videos and general
media, maybe they start thinking about alternatives to mainstream messages
films to.
I Am That Girl relates to the readings we have been doing
from beginning to end. The first reading that came to mind when I was looking
through their website and saw what they were doing was Melissa Harris Perry 's
Sister Citizen, Crooked Room. Melissa Harris Perry writes about Zora Neale Hurston's
character Janie that her "quest is about carving out a life that suits her
authentic desires rather than conforming to the limiting, often soul-crushing
expectations that others have on her"(page 28). For me this applies in a
sense to the organization I Am That Girl, where they are trying to give young
girls a place to find their inner being and character rather than living up to
other peoples or society’s expectations in any way. Melissa Harris Perry also
writes that "some managed to get themselves more or less upright
regardless of how crooked the surrounding images were"(page29) which is
first of all a very vivid image. It is also what I Am That Girl tries to do. To
be the place where girls can be free from societies "crooked" or
wrong images of how they should look or behave.
I Am That Girl
I Am That Girl Youtube
Melissa Harris Perry's Sister Citizen Crooked Room
Jean Kilbourne Cutting Girls Down to Size
Bell Hooks did not write Sister Citizen.
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