Advice to Young Girls

The next generation of women are bombarded with so much pressure from the media and their peers. More than ever before, they need positive messages from healthy role models.

You Are Powerful

 "The message I would most want to instill is: you are more powerful than you know; you are beautiful just as you are." — Melissa Etheridge

You Are Unique 

"That each of them is already a unique and valuable person when she's born; every human being is." — Gloria Steinem

You Are Courageous 

"Courage. Also, I encourage courtesy—to accept nothing less than courtesy and to give nothing less than courtesy. If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent." — Maya Angelou

You Are Good Enough 

"We need to help them really internalize the message that good enough is good enough. We don’t need to be perfect. We're not supposed to be perfect; we're supposed to be complete. And you can’t be complete if you're trying to be perfect." — Jane Fonda

You Are Worthy 

"That they're beautiful. That they are so important and worthy, and that they need to safeguard themselves from the messages that are out there. That our society, for the most part, when it deals with or talks about women's bodies is wrong. That you don't have to be a size zero. You don’t have to look like a 'Gossip Girl' to be beautiful. That you don’t have to be like one of these bone-skinny actresses. You can be, if that’s how you naturally are, but you don’t have to strive for that. That they're all beautiful, and that any woman has the right to be beautiful and that you can claim this for yourself." — Margaret Cho

You Are a Visionary 

"I just want to awaken [young girls] to know how much power they have. I know it sounds cliché, but I want them to know just the power of vision—because if you can see it, you can get there. I think a lot of times a lot of people are lost: they just don’t believe they can do it. And if you just make one step toward it, you can. Just envision that person you would want to be." —Charreah Jackson

You Are Intuitive 

"Don't doubt… Don't doubt what you know." — Kerry Washington 

You Have a Voice 

"When I worked with students in high schools, I advised them to learn to argue well and not be afraid of confrontations, not be afraid to disagree. If some guy or teacher is not treating you well, you have a right to speak up! You don’t have to lock it away. You don't have to pretend it doesn’t hurt. But you have to speak up in a way that is powerful. Write it down, practice, rehearse your lines if you need to, but please say something! Because if you don't, twenty years later you will still be thinking about it: 'Well, I should have said this to him.' I think we all have those experiences, and hopefully we have less of them now." — Loung Ung