AUTHOR'S GOOD ADVICE: DON'T BUY INTO THE LIES PUSHED BY SOCIETY

It is very difficult to be a teenager in the '90s. How do you survive?

That's a good question that I can't answer yet, because I haven't quite made it.

But I can relate to you some of the ideas Mary Pipher, author of the best-seller "Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls" shared with us during her presentation at Ferris High School on Sept. 19. Her slide show was most moving. She showed numerous advertisements that she clipped from magazines and explained how composite bodies were formed, airbrushing was used and how women are sexualized as objects. To think that magazines paste together different body parts to obtain one completely unrealistic image they call a model really made me think about the negative messages females are receiving. We receive contradicting messages from everywhere: schools, friends, guys, family, magazines, television and music. What messages are we getting? Be smart, but not too smart. Be strong, but not intimidating. Be thin, be pretty, be popular, etc. With all these confusing standards we must live up to, it's no shock that many of us feel awkward or inadequate and attempt to hide our true selves. Pipher's advice to girls is to fight. To not lose who you are. To not buy into the lies. She told us to remember the dreams we had when we were 8 and 10 years old. Don't forget them, they will open the door to opportunities for us. It's good advice.

Copyright 1998 Cowles Publishing Company
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