Raising confident girls

While I don't have a girl, I can only imagine how difficult it is to raise a girl in our society. The pressures on our girls are great, especially the pressure for our girls to look a certain way. I am convinced that it is impossible to raise a girl in our country who never struggles with her self-image at some point in her life. 

But as scary as it is to raise a girl in our country, I am thankful that I am not raising a girl in China. Today we learned that the young girl who sang during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was actually lip-syncing (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/oly.kids/index.html). Why? Because the actual singer, a seven-year-old Chinese girl, was deemed too ugly to be broadcast across the world. I am so sad for this little girl. Can you even imagine telling a child, "we only want to use you for your voice because you are not cute enough to be seen?"

By no means is the United States doing a much better job with the messages that we send our young girls. But I at least know that we want to do better. For instance, I LOVE what Dove is doing through their Campaign for Real Beauty. They are working to free the next generation from beauty stereotypes, and I pray that they are successful - for the sake of all of our girls.