Women are strong, intelligent, and generally underrated. The popular female stigma accepted by many adult men and women is hindering young ladies and teens from pursuing their passions and doing what they were born to do. At least that’s what the statistics show. These inspiring commercials will change the way you look at the foundations of femininity and inspire you to address young females as so much more than “pretty” and “dainty”.
This Verizon ad highlights a young woman and her curiosity from childhood to pre-teen years, toward nature and tinkering with mechanics. As she grows, she is told how pretty she is, is encouraged to stay clean, and well-meaningly, her parents whisk off more physically demanding, messy, or technical tasks to her brother. The commercial reveals a sad and shocking statistic by the National Science Foundation, that 66 percent of 4th grade girls say they enjoy science and math, yet only 18 percent of all college engineering majors are female. The ad reveals that by discouraging young women from pursuing their interests for more “girly” pursuits, we can steer them away from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers, which are outpacing other careers in the job market by about 300%. Watch and learn how the all-too-common phrases that we unthinkingly spout off to young women can be game changers. We’ve previously written on inspiring women who challenge these stereotypes here.
Have you ever been jeered with the phrases ‘you: hit, run, play, or fight like a girl?’ What does that mean exactly, and when did doing something “like a girl” become a bad thing? The brand Always is stepping out to take the negative connotation of the phrase “like a girl” and knock it out of the ballpark. Check out this commercial about preserving the confidence of young females and empowering them to do things exactly as a girl would. If you’re not part of the 29 million people who have already viewed this video, we think it will be a game changer for you!
For more great content on women’s empowerment and accomplishments, stay tuned for the Outlier Series upcoming book Ingredients of Outliers: Women Game Changers and related mini e-Books set to publish throughout the summer of 2014.
Let’s all examine the words we feed our daughters, nieces, female students and mentees, the girls nextdoor and everywhere. Each woman should know they are beautiful, but additionally and perhaps more importantly, just as strong and capable of the challenges before them as their male counterparts. These simple messages, can determine the foundations for whether a young woman thrives in every setting, educational, career or otherwise. Cheers to a future that celebrates women outliers.
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