New Moon Girl Media YouTube Channel!

Hi everyone,

This is Julia, guest blogging to share my excitement about our new New Moon Girl Media YouTube Channel! The first video posted is a trailer for our orb28 blog for teen girls, which shows New Moon girls in action--brainstorming, working together, speaking out, and making their dreams for orb28 into a reality. I am so honored and inspired to work with these girls, and it was quite nostalgic editing the footage from the retreat into this trailer! (I also really enjoy the accompanying song, "Race You Back Home," and am glad indie female songwriter, Elizabeth Ziman let us use it! Check her out with her band, Elizabeth and the Catapult.)



The New Moon Girl Media YouTube channel is also the kick-off to more multi-media-filled days at New Moon. We'd love to receive your videos on why YOU love New Moon! Why do you think New Moon is positively unique? Why is it important in your life and for girls everywhere?

You can submit your video to add to the trailer excitement! And we of course welcome your written testimonials of why you value New Moon as well.

Please help us spread the word about this video and our YouTube channel by rating, commenting, and sharing the trailer with family and friends. I'm excited to hear your feedback...Thanks!

You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self

Julia guest blogging here...

I just got word from our friends at 5 Resolutions that Claire Mysko's book for girls is out this week!

Claire writes:
"You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self is based on the Girls Inc. "Supergirl Dilemma" study, which shows that girls are feeling increasing pressures to be perfect and please everyone. Perfectionism is a major source of girls' stress (60% of girls in the study reported that they often feel stressed), low-self-esteem, and poor body image. That's the bad news. The good news is that with the right tools and support systems, girls can learn to give up the quest to be "super" and start celebrating what makes them amazing. My hope is that this book will help to kick-off that celebration. I would like to say a big, big thanks to you, dear readers! Your support and kind words have meant so much to me. Speaking of amazing...you all fit the bill."

To kick things off, Claire is doing a book giveaway for girls on her blog! Girls who post a comment about what makes them amazing will be entered to win an autographed copy of the book. The contest runs through July 7th and girls can enter here.

Woohoo for positive change!

Girls growing New Moon

Here's a message from Julia for all girls & parents (see the end of the message if you're a parent or caring adult) who want to help New Moon reach more girls:

Hey girls,

You're the most important part of New Moon Girls and we want to invite you to be on the new Street Team that I'm coordinating-take a look at what this is about! At New Moon we want the world to hear from girls, respect girls, and support girls' dreams. The Street Team will help more and more girls everywhere use their voices, achieve their dreams, and work together in ways that matter.

You can use your voice and spread the word about New Moon Girls magazine and New Moon Girls online! Find out more about what the New Moon Girls Street Team is doing in June and all the fun ways YOU can get involved. New Moon plans are always centered on girls and their ideas so I want to hear from you!

Feel free to e-mail me and with questions and ideas, and I'll send you an application to join the team and get some street teamer goodies. Now you can share your love for New Moon while being an ambassador for girls and their dreams!

If you want to join the street team or if you've got thoughts on what Street Teamers could be doing...or even what we should name our street team, give me a shout!

Thanks!

Julia
juliab@newmoongirlmedia.com

For Parents & Other Adults: You can join the Street Team, too - email Julia for more info on what you can do to help.

Thanks for helping us reach more girls - they benefit from New Moon and you can get it to them.

Bill Moyers Has Spoken!

Nancy Gruver and I are back at the National Conference for Media Reform today! I'm feeling tired but excited by--as Bill Moyers just said in his keynote speech--being surrounded by "kindred spirits."

Moyers' speech was of course excellent. He handed us the challenge and the power to insist on free media, accompanied by the inspiration and feeling of community to continue to do so. His words even brought a tear to my eye.

After his speech, Nancy Gruver and I agreed on what a great speech it was. And then Nancy said, "But out of all those quotes, examples, stories, and anecdotes he mentioned, not one involved a woman." That fact had slipped right past me, the feminist that I am, because I was listening to value of his words in my life and my work. And his words were incredibly valuable! But it's just worthy noting that yet again, female voices have been excluded from media, even at the Free Press conference for media *reform.* (There IS an awesome panel coming up today regarding how "there is no media reform without women" that I'm really looking forward to, and I hope they keep panels like this in the future and increase their number.)

I'm not criticizing Moyers for a personal oversight; his speech simply reflects the male-dominated history of media that continues up until today. When women's voices have been absent and silenced, their quotes and stories are much harder to find.

Our work at New Moon obviously addresses this issue - What else do you think we can do to help girls' and women's voices matter? What actions are you taking that you want to share? We're all together on this, and we'd love to hear your comments and ideas!

More from the NCMR

I'm done with sitting in on panels for the day, and my overall feeling is of inspiration. Many experts feel that we're at a cross-roads of change, and that calls for media reform and social change are stronger than they've been in a long time.

Also really important to me is the emphasis on collaboration I've been hearing. Events like this conference make the possibilities of the change that can happen with collaboration seem within reach. There are so many passionate, hard-working people here, gathered together to meet each other and work together. It's easy to become embittered or cynical when working alone, but remembering that each of us here today (and many others who aren't!) are out there, contributing to improving life on this planet, refreshes me and helps me keep going.

For now, I'm off to the art opening for Project Girl, a really exciting project where girls respond to negative media images with their own art and media pieces.

More tomorrow!

From the National Conference for Media Reform

Hi everyone! This is Julia again - I'm writing from the National Conference for Media Reform. So far we've heard some opening comments full of information, passion, and calls to action.

Everyone here has goals of shaping a free, tolerant society with open communication; this is the kind of world I want to help create for girls. The girls that I'm lucky enough to work with have the passion and energy to change things that frustrate them, and I hope that vigor never gets kicked out of them. When girls continue to speak out as they turn into women, it's much more likely that they will be future leaders in many industries as well as government. I'm really proud to be part of New Moon, where we help girls' voices stay strong!