Confronting the Sexualization of Girls and Young Women, SPARK Team Members Are Not Afraid to Speak Up — and Take Action
This quaint New England town seems an unlikely garrison from which to wage digital-media warfare. But as Seventeen magazine editors have learned, youth activism can be ignited anywhere, given the right spark.
In April, Waterville eighth-grader Julia Bluhm, 14, journeyed to Manhattan to protest Seventeen’s practice of retouching photos, making girls and young women look sexier and less flawed. After an interview with CNN, she was invited to the magazine to discuss her objections and spent an hour doing just that. Bluhm and her teammates at SPARK — which stands for Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge — eventually collected more than 84,000 signatures on their anti-Photoshopping petition, distributed online through change.org.
After meeting with Bluhm and hearing from thousands of like-minded readers, Seventeen’s latest issue announced a Body Peace Treaty. The editors now promise to “never change girls’ body or face shapes,” to feature “real girls and models who are healthy” and to give readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how it shoots and edits photo spreads.
Bluhm is delighted, if somewhat surprised, by Seventeen’s response to her petition. “I didn’t think they’d do anything,” she admitted. “But I definitely believe [their action] will change things, not only for their magazine but for making girls aware.”
The policy change signals a major victory for SPARK, launched two years ago in response to a report by an American Psychological Association task force on the sexualization of girls. Among the APA’s recommendations: the need for more age-appropriate multimedia education and more public awareness of the sexualization issue in general.