Experts agree that social media is to blame for the huge increase in the decline of teen girls’ mental health over the past few years. While boy’s mental health has also suffered, especially due to COVID, it’s the girls’ which has taken a nosedive. Cyberbullying, competition between peers and the constant barrage of unrealistic and sexualized images of influencers to compare themselves to.

Sexualization of young girls and adolescents is a huge problem in our society and has been for decades. But social media has made it much more prevalent and pervasive.

The never-ending stream of filtered and perfected images of young women and teens in their social media feed makes it impossible to escape. Influencers and even “beautiful friends” put endless pressure on girls to be skinny but curvy, with flawless skin, plumped lips, and long silky hair. These images create the belief that their sole value rests in their looks and sex appeal. For many girls, their entire self-worth rests on this belief.

And if social media wasn’t enough sexualizing and objectification for them, their school drives the message home. For wearing clothes, they buy at the mall, girls are in danger of being “coded”, sent home, or forced to cover up. They’re made to feel their bodies are nothing but an object that drive men and boys to distraction at best or sexual assault at worst. Either way, it’s their fault.

Join me this week to discuss the sexualization of girls and find out how you can help your daughter or your son combat this pervasive and harmful issue.

Access TRANSCRIPT here.

Thank you so much for listening to the show! If you found it helpful in some way, please share it with someone who could also benefit from it. And if you prefer listening on a podcast app, please be sure and follow the show so new episodes will automatically pop up in your que.

I make this show for you, and I really appreciate and value your feedback. I’d love your suggestions for how I make the show better. And if you’d like me to cover a specific topic or you have a parenting question that I could discuss in a future episode, please reach out, I’d love to hear from you!

You may be interested in one or more of my FREE Parenting Guides.

Sources, Resources and Mentions:

Ep. 17 Teen Dating And Emotional Abuse: How To Recognize And Discuss It

Ep 23 Popularity, Friend Groups, And Mean Girl Behavior

Ep 24 Part 1 of 2 - Teenagers, "Rape Culture", Sexual Assault, and Consent

Ep 25 Part 2 of 2 - Teenagers, "Rape Culture", Sexual Assault, and Consent

Ep. 32 Teens, Sexting, Revenge Porn, and Sextortion (Yikes)

Ep. 33 Teen Sexting, "The Talk" and Potential Legal Implications

The American Psychological Association - Sexualization of Girls (Links to Reports as well as brochures for parents and girls)

The CDC on Increased Sadness and Violence for Teen Girls

The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and Five Keys to Fixing It

2021 Study on Dress Codes

US Dept. Of Justice 1996 Manual on School Uniforms

Overview of Dress Code Law

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Op-Ed on Dress Codes

2022 GAO Report to Congress on School Dress Codes