dove are a brand that are known for their campaigns about real beauty. they have large adverts in print media and on tv that use real people who are all shapes and sizes. dove have recently commissioned research to form a new 2012 campaign called the dove self-esteem programme.
this research (that was conducted with young girls aged between 11 and 17) showed that there is a lack of self-esteem among them that prevents them from realising their full potential and impacts their future success. 52% of the girls said they would be happier if they were more beautiful and only 8% said they are entirely happy with every part of their body. but how does this impact their future? well girls that have self and body-esteem issues could end up dropping out of sport which could result in the uk having less athletes. this may seem hard to believe but low self-esteem can affect how a young girl feels about their future and possible careers. the research shows that only one in three 11-17 year olds felt confident that they would have a successful career in the future.
out of the young girls that took part in the research 45% described themselves as ‘average’ and ‘ordinary’ with a further 10% feeling ‘plain’, ‘unattractive’ and ‘ugly’. this is from the age of 11! young girls are spending more time on makeup and beauty treatments then they are on homework. it also looks like social media is having its impact in all of this as 60% of the young girls said that using the internet made them feel more confident when interacting with people online.
with this new campaign dove will be reaching out to young people in the uk through self-esteem workshops that will be held in schools all over the country. also any dove product that is bought between the 26th-15th may will help towards this. hopefully these poor self-esteem issues can be addressed and helped.
to illustrate the campaign dove have created a photo with rankin where professional women like chemmy allcott have been photographed with their younger aspiring counterparts. dove have also put a mother and daughter discussion guide on their website (www.dove.co.uk) for mums that want to find out more on how to support their daughters.
did you ever feel like you had confidence issues when younger or do you ever worry about these issues stopping you from doing something you love? i know i always worry about taking risks as failing always scares me but then i always feel like there are so many other women in the world that are so successful at a young age! we love to pile the pressure onto ourselves don’t we :P
