#SocialMedia4Girls: Parent Workshop
Most parents of young girls are faced with confusion and questions regarding the use of electronic devices and social media. What Apps are appropriate? How much is too much? How do we monitor use?
To help answer your questions, we are incredibly excited to announce a free 90 minute parent workshop, followed by 30 minutes of Q & A.
When: Wednesday, May 9th at 6:30PM
Where: Burns Park Auditorium
Helping Girls Use Social Media in Healthy and Positive Ways
Parents and educators often don’t know where to start when talking to girls about social-media expectations and guidelines. We didn't grow up with Snapchat and Instagram, and it can be overwhelming to stay informed on the latest apps, and monitor what girls are exposed to and experience. Social media is not going away, researchers agree that social media use by teen girls is currently "fueling a mental health crisis.”
In MEDIAGIRL’s (http://www.mediagirls.org) 90 minute workshop, founder and Executive Director Michelle Cove shares a new road map with concrete strategies to help parents and educators understand our kids' use of social media, and guide girls in making social media fun, healthy, and empowering. There will be time for questions after the presentation.
What You'll Learn
- How girls say they’re influenced by social media
- Unspoken “girl rules” of Instagram, Snapchat & more
- How to help girls think critically about posting
- Healthy guidelines to set with girls around use
- How some girls are using social media to inspire
About the Speaker
Michelle Cove, founder and Executive Director of MEDIAGIRLS, is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and journalist whose projects have been featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Katie Couric’s talk show "Katie," "The Today Show," Fox TV, and national publications. She is the author of the book I Love Mondays (Seal Press, 2012), co-author of the national bestseller I'm Not Mad, I Just Hate You!: A New Understanding of Mother-Daughter Conflict, and author of Seeking Happily Ever After (Tarcher Penguin, 2010). Michelle was Sr. Editor of the national magazine Girls' Life, and continues to blog regularly for the
award-winning Huffington Post Parents.
MEDIAGIRLS TESTIMONIALS
"Michelle is one of the most dynamic, engaging, and inspiring speakers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She gives honest, practical feedback in a way that is both caring and down to earth, and she is one of the funniest people I have ever met. Her refreshing perspective encourages those she works with to grow, from the youngest, shyest girl in a room to the loudest, most outgoing woman."—Mikki Pugh, Boston Program Manager, Strong Women, Strong Girls
Michelle Cove ran her MEDIAGIRLS workshop at the Boston International Kids Film Festival, and provided a great discussion about the myth of the "perfect girl," what to look for in ads and how companies frequently play on the insecurities of women and girls in order to get them to buy products. The audience clearly enjoyed themselves and learned a lot from the interactive presentation, and I highly recommend Michelle to come to your community and schools! --Olivia Osiecki, Filmmakers Collaborative
"Michelle’s presentation was informative and thoughtful. Her passion regarding the representation of girls in the media was obvious and motivation to all who had the pleasure of hearing her words. She was able to achieve something that is very difficult when presenting to an audience with such a range of ages, which was to make everyone in attendance think." —Keith Civin, The Rashi School, Dedham, MA
Michelle Cove's presentation to middle-school and high-school girls and parents was remarkably engaging for their parents. Her candid assessment of the societal pressures that the media passively and overtly gives to pre-teen and teenage girls was informative and thought-provoking. Michelle's ability to hold the audience's attention was extraordinary, with many leaving well informed. — Justin Cameron, Principal Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School
Michelle Cove is a charismatic speaker who adeptly presented this difficult topic in a refreshing new light. Michelle’s presentation engaged all of the 50 attending students and left them inspired to make changes on our campus as well as in their communities back home. Several groups went on to initiate their own discussion sessions over their remaining week at the program. We are delighted to work with Michelle in the future and thoroughly recommend her. --Ariel French, Director of Programming for Explo at Wellesley
"Michelle spoke at the 'Gender in Society Day' at our school and really made an impact on the students. She was an extremely relatable speaker, which made everyone feel comfortable participating and asking questions. Her presentation was engaging and made students think, whether male and female. We were really lucky to have her as a speaker!" —Samantha Leone, co-founder Media Literacy Club, Newton North High School
We learned from Michelle how to stand up to media messages that undermine girls and women. We can either be mesmerized by the media's false images or empowered to re-shape them. By modeling the latter, MEDIAGIRLS gives girls the tools to transform their lives and the world around them. Michelle opened our eyes and led the way." —Paula Sharaga, Brookline Public Library
