Beauty & Self-Esteem

They’re simply beautiful… inside and out and no matter what that will never change. I don’t think that we can tell them enough how proud we are of them, how much we love them, or how perfect we think they are. Do you?

This may be an older picture of my girls but I absolutely love it.

Dove has a mission to help women and girls and I couldn’t agree more with it. Read it below…

Dove® is committed to inspiring all women and girls to reach their full potential. The Dove® Movement for Self-Esteem invites all women to join us in creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety.

We are all beautiful… we just need to recognize that and fully embrace it. Beauty & self-esteem… they go hand in hand don’t you think?

Dove® research shows that it is still important for us to address girls’ anxiety about looks, as there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls’ confidence as they grow older. Key findings from our latest research include:

• Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (up from 2% in 2004)
• Only 11% of girls globally are comfortable using the word beautiful to describe themselves
• 72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful
• 80% of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty
• More than half (54%) of women globally agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic

SOURCE: Dove Research: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited

So what can you do?

Well, start by visiting the Dove self-esteem wall.

Anxiety about beauty begins at an early age, and can even keep girls from doing what they love. You can change that with a conversation. Reach out to the girl in your life and talk to her about beauty, confidence and self-esteem.

You can find the expert tips and real-world advice to get started on the Self-Esteem Wall. Then, once you’ve had “the talk,” share your experience to help inspire other moms and mentors.

You can share a sentence, small story, or upload your favorite photo of you and the young girl in your life from your desktop, Facebook or instagram.

Help Dove reach their goal of boosting confidence in 15 million girls by 2015.

Download the Let’s Talk Toolkit

Any time is a good time to start a conversation with a girl in your life about beauty, confidence and self-esteem. Not sure where to start? Download the Let’s Talk toolkit to get some great advice.

Created with Jess Weiner, Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador, this is a great resource for all women on starting a conversation in a simple way. Ask, Share, Listen and Act — you’ll find unintimidating ways to do make these a natural part of your talk about Self-Esteem.

Thanks to Dove for sponsoring today’s discussion… I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it wasn’t important. As always thoughts and opinions are my own.