Teen Leads Campaign Calling on Seventeen to Print One Unaltered Photo Spread Each Month
Will Lead Petition Delivery and Mock Photo Shoot Outside Seventeen Magazine HQ Wednesday
NEW YORK, NY – Seventeen Magazine readers supporting a new campaign on Change.org calling for one un-photoshopped photo spread per month will demonstrate outside of the magazine’s headquarters on Wednesday.
A group of young women will stage a mock photo shoot celebrating their bodies just the way they are and deliver 13,000 signatures gathered through social action platform Change.org.
WHAT: Petition delivery and mock photo shoot
WHERE: Seventeen Magazine headquarters, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019
WHEN: Wednesday, May 2, at 11 am ET
VISUALS: Teenagers will take photos in front of a backdrop outside Seventeen’s headquarters holding dry erase boards with handwritten messages to Seventeen on them. Julia will also be carrying a big box of signatures to deliver to Seventeen Magazine.
Background: Julia Bluhm, a 14 year-old member of the girl-led SPARK Movement, is leading the campaign on Change.org following Glamour Magazine’s recent decision to stop altering photos of models to make them appear slimmer. Bluhm, an eighth grade ballet dancer, says she hopes Seventeen will decide to follow suit to promote positive body image amongst their teen readership.
“I’m a teenage girl, and I know how it feels to think you’re not good enough,” said Bluhm, who launched the campaign on Change.org. “I want girls to be able to feel good about themselves, and being able to relate to the images in the magazines we read will help.”
“I started this petition to help girls see that they’re not alone,” Bluhm added. “Seventeen Magazine is supposed to be a relatable magazine, right? How can we relate to computer altered photos?”
Live signature totals from Julia Bluhm’s campaign:
http://www.change.org/petitions/seventeen-magazine-give-girls-images-of-real-girls
For more information on SPARK Movement, please visit:
http://www.sparksummit.com
SPARK is a girl-fueled activist movement to demand an end to the sexualization of women and girls in media. SPARK collaborates with hundreds of girls 13-23 and more than 60 national organizations to reject the commodified, sexualized images of girls in media and support the development of girls’ healthy sexuality and self-esteem.
For more information on Change.org, please visit:
http://www.change.org/about