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Program Helps Young Girls Choose The Right Path

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Nov 10, 2009 6:24 pm US/Mountain

Program Helps Young Girls Choose The Right Path

Written by Andrea Lopez

Reporting
Andrea Lopez
DENVER (CBS4) ― A Colorado-based, non-profit organization is trying to reach out to young girls to help them make the right choices when faced with peer and media pressure to be popular, look good, have sex, do drugs, and drink alcohol.

Smart-Girl guides try to offer "positive peer pressure," and instill both confidence and self-esteem in young girls who are feeling pressures at younger and younger ages. The organization put on a luncheon for parents at the Cherry Hills Country Club Tuesday to share information about what young girls could be facing and how to help them through those challenges.

"Twelve probably is the new 18," said Holly Cummings, a guide with Smart-Girl. "Girls are maturing a little bit faster and getting into things a little bit faster. Surprisingly, some of them are sexually-active; some of them are into drugs or know people who are; and there's just the regular peer pressure of 'Should I date this boy? Should I talk to that boy? This one doesn't like me. My friend hates me!'"

According to Smart-Girl, girls as young as 12 are already being bombarded with grown-up images that tell them what to wear, how to talk, what's okay to do with a boy, and how to be popular. The various venues in which girls can receive and see this information is much different than it was 20 years ago -- they can get images and information right on their cell phones, over the Internet, as well as on TV. The messages are often very sexual -- messages that should be intended for adults.

"I think that it starts late in elementary school," said Karen Silverman, Executive Director of Smart-Girl. "Some of these pressures about how they look and act. There's so much more information out there. We have the pressures of the Internet as well. You can get information about anything ... obviously we didn't have access to that information 20 years ago.

"I think that what's on TV is very different than what we had 20 years ago. We're less shocked by seeing images of men and women half undressed, kissing, having sex -- whatever. It's all out there."

The program is research-based and gives young girls guides or role models at times when they may not feel comfortable going to an adult in their lives. The curriculum helps girls to explore issues such as leadership, peer pressure, bullying, self-images, and strives to develop decision-making skills and emotional intelligence. Some of the programs are during school, after school, and Smart-Girl even offers a summer camp.

"We partner with middle schools or other youth-serving organizations," said Silverman. "We are a unique program because we have what we call 'near-peers.' Those are high school and young college women who go through a rigorous training and then are the leaders of the middle school-aged girls. We use that peer pressure in a positive way to influence girls."

Smart-Girl was founded 10 years ago and has programs in nearly two dozen schools in Colorado.

Additional Resources

For more information, visit www.smart-girl.org. Also visit www.beaconstreetgirls.com for a series of young adult books in which the characters face real-life challenges and solve their problems in positive ways.

(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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