Dove self esteem fund

Taken from the Dove website

'The Dove mission is to make women feel more beautiful every day by challenging today's stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves. Dove, manufactured by Unilever, is the No. 1 personal wash brand nationwide. One in every three households uses a Dove product, which includes beauty bars, body washes, face care, anti-perspirant/deodorants, body mists, hair care and styling aids. Dove is available nationwide in food, drug and mass outlet stores.'

Facts that dove have found out:

•Seven in ten girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationships with friends and family members
◦62% of all girls feel insecure or not sure of themselves
◦57% of all girls have a mother who criticizes her own looks
◦More than half (57%) of all girls say they don’t always tell their parents certain things about them because they don’t want them to think badly of them
◦The top wish among all girls is for their parents to communicate better with them, which includes more frequent and open conversations about what is happening in their own lives
•Reality vs. Perception: Low self-esteem significantly impacts girls’ overall feelings about their own beauty
◦71% of girls with low self-esteem feel their appearance does not measure up, including not feeling pretty enough, thin enough or stylish or trendy enough (compared to 29% of girls with high self-esteem)
◦78% of girls with low self-esteem admit that it is hard to feel good in school when you do not feel good about how you look (compared to 54% of girls with high self-esteem)
◦A girl’s self-esteem is more strongly related to how she views her own body shape and body weight, than how much she actually weighs
•Girls with low self-esteem are significantly more likely to engage in negative behaviors
◦75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, or drinking when feeling badly about themselves (Compared to 25% of girls with high self-esteem)
■61% of teen girls with low self-esteem admit to talking badly about themselves (Compared to 15% of girls with high self-esteem)
■25% of teen girls with low self-esteem resort to injuring themselves on purpose or cutting when feeling badly about themselves (Compared to 4% of girls with high self-esteem)
■25% of teen girls with low self-esteem practice disordered eating, such as starving themselves, refusing to eat, or over-eating and throwing up when feeling badly about themselves (Compared to 7% of girls with high self-esteem)
•The self-esteem tipping point: Transition to teenage years results in loss of trust and communication with adults
◦67% of girls ages 13 – 17 turn to their mother as a resource when feeling badly about themselves compared to 91% of girls ages 8 – 12
◦Only 27% of girls ages 13 – 17 will turn to their father for help when feeling badly about themselves compared to the 54% of girls ages 8-12. (At 16, girls become more likely to seek support from male peers than from their own dads)
◦65% of girls ages 13 – 17 refrain from telling their parents certain things about themselves to prevent parents from thinking badly about them, compared to the 49% of girls ages 8 – 12
•Parents’ words and actions play a pivotal role fostering positive self-esteem in girls
◦Girls with low self-esteem are less likely to receive praise from either parent and more likely to receive criticism than girls with high self-esteem
◦More than one-third (34%) of girls with low self-esteem believe that they are not a good enough daughter (Compared to 9% of girls with high self-esteem)
◦93% of girls with low self-esteem want their parents to change their behavior towards them in at least one way (Compared to 73% for girls with high self-esteem)
This includes:
■Wishing to be understood better (Low: 60%, High: 14%)
■Being listened to more (Low: 52%, High: 18%)
■Spending more time with them (Low: 43%, High: 15%)