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Harris Center Teen Mentor Program
For two years, the Harris Center has worked with the American fashion industry to improve the well-being of models and to encourage healthy lifestyles for all women. Our Teen Mentor Program offers adolescent girls the unique opportunity to learn from each other, from Harris Center staff, and from celebrities the best ways to promote positive body image and self-esteem. The program aims to foster the development of leadership skills through mentoring teens as they create outreach and advocacy projects in their own schools.
Studies suggest that some degree of body dissatisfaction is reported by the majority of teenage girls in the United States and is associated with depression and low self-esteem. The Harris Center recognized the importance of this issue and responded with the creation of the Teen Mentor Program, an education and outreach effort designed to help girls build healthy body attitudes and self-esteem, both within themselves and among their peers. The Program was born in March 2010, when a small group of Teen Mentors met with Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, designer Michael Kors, and model Natalia Vodianova at the Harris Center’s 13th Annual Public Forum ("Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in the World of Fashion"). One student's participation resulted in a national leadership award; another’s participation yielded a published newspaper article.
In 2011, we expanded the Program to accommodate 12 girls, eight of whom are completing a second year in 2012. We also designed a curriculum of monthly meetings to empower these young women to promote positive body image among their peers. Participation in the Public Forum has remained a central theme. In 2011, our Teen Mentors met with Diane von Furstenberg and Miss America 2008 and Miss America 2011 (each of whom had eating disorders as her platform). At our 2012 Forum (“Health is Beauty: Defining Ourselves”), our Teen Mentors engaged in a private panel discussion with our speakers: Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group; Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue Italia; and international supermodel Doutzen Kroes. At this meeting, our Teen Mentors voiced their perspectives on pressures to be thin within their own communities and exchanged ideas with the speakers about the importance of promoting positive media images across our society.
With guidance from the Center, our 2012 Teen Mentors are creating superb projects to increase body acceptance and self-esteem among their peers. Here are some examples of these projects:
- A 20-minute documentary featuring students and teachers at Brookline High School discussing body image issues that affect them on a day-to-day basis. The film will be presented at an assembly for about 200 Brookline High students. The girls who created the video will give a presentation beforehand, describing the Teen Mentor Program and why they are interested in the topics of body image and self-esteem. They will also explain the rationale behind "Fat Talk Free Week" and promote participation in this campaign.
- A body image/positive self-esteem panel featuring students from Wellesley High School. The panel will shed light on body image issues from a variety of student perspectives: someone who had a friend suffering from an eating disorder; an athlete; a male student. The panel will take place on a weekday evening in Wellesley in front of an audience of about 50 people – parents, students, and school faculty.
- A media literacy campaign. Two Teen Mentors have been compiling statistics, facts and pictures that illustrate the misleading nature of photoshopped images. They are creating large posters to place around their schools to educate their peers about the extent to which media images are altered. The posters are being displayed in central, shared spaces, so the entire school will be exposed to this information.
Our Teen Mentors have offered highly positive feedback about the Program:
- "Even though none of us knew each other coming in, it was easy to know each other quickly because we were all there for the same thing, and that was a lot of fun." [Sam, age 13]
- "We are not perfect. None of us. The mentor group was a breath of fresh air for me because I could be honest about my fears, worries, and experiences. I felt it was a safe place for me to talk. That was amazing." [Melissa, age 18]
- "The Teen Mentor program has given me the power and the tools to attack the lifelong damage that can be caused when girls hate their bodies." [Laura, age 17]
Please stay tuned for further information about our exciting Teen Mentor Program.
This page was updated on April 16, 2012.
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