Category Archives: Internet
Google Doodle Honors Journalist Nellie Bly For Giving a Voice to the Voiceless
The Google Doodle once again pays homage to women by showcasing a lesser known historic woman, who should have totally been in the running to have her face on the $20 bill.
But who is Nellie Bly? What was her claim to historic fame?
Nellie Bly was a go-getter, continuously curious and never took no for an answer. Ever. She was a pioneer journalist who spoke out for justice, she’s also remembered for embarking on a world record-breaking journey around the globe in 1889. And this year she would have been 150 years old.
Throughout her career she focused mainly on covering the beats of those who were struggling the most and in that era it was when and sweatshop workers. In essence, she gave a voice to the voiceless.
However, the one accomplishment you might have heard of was her trek across the globe, a trip that according to the Huffington Post was inspired by the fictional novel, “Around the World in 80 days.” And she did it all in 72 days—a new world record.
7 Keys to “ Social ” Security
Today’s teens have run rampant on the Internet with their shares and over shares through photos, mindless tweets and hormones. Oh…the hormones. But seeing what these teens share on their social networking sites is embarrassing to their older selves.
All I’m saying is I’m grateful that I joined the digital world in the early 2000s when the Internet was dial up, (“Mom, get off the phone I want to use the Internet!”) AOL AIM was the new cool way to communicate with your friends because your razor phone didn’t have texting, and Twitter just simply meant you were a “twit” x 2.
Unfortunately, teens don’t have the luxury of Facebook being exclusive to the college crowd with those legit .edu emails, but instead they have the freedom of expression when and wherever they feel the urge to share. YAY FREEDOM! But as former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “with great freedom comes great responsibility.” Responsibility…that pesky trait that is thrust upon us (most of the time) with age. When I was a teen, I was carefree and the only thing I was “responsible” for was completing my homework on time, acing that test, being a good friend, and the occasional laundry load. Now, at an earlier age, teens are responsible for their adult future the moment they create their first online profile.
Social networks make sharing a feeling, thought or angst too easy. Have a feeling? Type it out or snapshot it and put it out into the world. BAMZINGO. Easy Peasy. No second thoughts or maybe even first thoughts needed. It’s not like Facebook asks you, “are you sure you want to post this hateful message about Caroline to your timeline,” before you post said hateful message. Sure, for some period of time there’s a feeling of relief or a sense of pride and importance. Because today popularity is based on how many people “like” your selfie picture you just shared on Instagram, never mind the fact that many of your followers are trolls, bots or worse yet, sex offenders.
An article published in The Washington Post regarding how FLOTUS, Michele Obama, and how she is educating her daughters, Malia and Sasha, to navigate this Wild Wild Web era.
“I think they are [some] of the first kids in the White House growing up where everybody’s got a cell phone and everybody’s watching, Michele Obama said in a 2012 interview with women’s magazine, iVillage.
“We just have to have real conversations even now, it’s: ‘You can’t go off on somebody. You can’t act bratty. You may be having a moment but somebody could use that moment and try to define you forever.’”
The “forever” part is what many teens (and even college coeds) skip over. Even if that angsty tweet included every shade of profanity is deleted, it’s still there. The Library of Congress has it in their archives, seriously, (MWHAHA) and it can and will come back and rear its ugly truth when you’re interviewing for your dream job. Because just as you are defining who you are IRL (in real life), with every posting, comment, or “like” you’re defining who you are online—your persona.
With that, I give you 7 Keys to “Social” Security
1. Don’t follow for the sake of acquiring more followers.
Quality over quantity, people.
2. Avoid posting random thoughts that no one, including you, will understand tomorrow.
That’s what a private journal is for after all, your private thoughts, complaints about friends, family, and boyfriend.
3. Think. Think some more. Then Post.
As this becomes a more digital age, digital personas (whether true to your IRL persona) will play a role in how you’re viewed offline: Future employers, college admissions, significant others, etc. will care how you behave (or don’t) online.
4. Don’t post for the sake of posting.
Post because what you’re saying has a why!
5. Don’t have usernames like “faggotbaby” and “nookiecookies”.
Just don’t, be more creative (a.k.a. less profane), or if you’re not the creative type, simply go with your name or a version of it.
6. Refrain from posting, tweeting or retweeting images (even if you didn’t take them) that could land you in jail.
“Valentine’s day is coming up…” [insert photo of a heart-shaped candy box, but instead of chocolates it’s clumps of fresh weed…]
Seriously, I found that in a teens feed!
7. Sharing is caring.
Tell a friend that they’re tweets about so-and-so “being a hoe” is not only online bullying, but also will show up again and again when they’re application is sitting in the admissions office of their dream college or when they’re on an interview for that dream job.
Online, the future is now!
How are you protecting yourself, your siblings, friends, or for you parents out there, your children.
Holidays: Made with Code
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, how lovely are your coded branches.
Ya see, around the extravagant National Tree there are state trees often covered with ornaments made 
by students, community groups, etc. However, this year I, you, us got to participate in designing an 8 second pattern on our state’s tree through the great gift of tech, through code, and it’s all thanks to Google’s initiative “Made with Code,” who invited girls from across the country to make this season a little brighter by lighting up a holiday tree and sharing it with friends.
I love this idea, encouraging girls to hone their creativity and put into digital coded form. Why? Because today, less than 1% of girls are majoring in computer science. And currently women are under represented in companies, labs, design, boardrooms and organizations that make technology happen.
I myself couldn’t wait to make my 8 seconds of fame on the Virginia state tree that went live December 8 at 8:02p.m. I went to the site and I was actually surprised as I was expecting to see actual lessons for code complete with line breaks and about a gajillion of these </>, but instead there were just drop downs and drag and drops with selections for colors, movement and design. But for youngsters I guess it makes sense to show that by using the building blocks of pattern, color and movement creates a unique final product, digitally.
From me to you, Happy Holidays and have a joyous New Year!
It’s So Cliche [a guest post]
Today’s guest post [very first one ya’ll!!!!] is from Janna Hall of My Beautiful Catharsis and serves as reminder to all girls and women: stop being someone you’re not despite what the media is handing you daily and start being you! Because there’s no one else in this world that is better at being well…You! I couldn’t agree more! Around here at SGS we are constantly dissecting and beating those too present stereotypes to a pulp! Thanks to Janna for sharing her thoughts, inspiration and honesty!
It’s So Cliché…but “Be yourself; everyone else is taken” is a mantra that we need to carry on throughout our life. As kids, we grow up wanting to be like the girls on TV. My best friend and I couldn’t sit through a show or a movie without shouting, “I’M HER!” every time the prettiest girl came on the screen. For us, it was Clueless. From the moment Stacey Dash hops into Cher’s Jeep, we thought of every reason to ditch who we were and immediately wanted to look like, sound like, and be Dionne. Or the pink Power Ranger. Or Beyonce. Or in my best friend’s case, Britney. From a young age, we’re almost programmed to want to be everyone else, whether it’s a Disney princess, a pop icon, or the popular girl in school. It’s so wonderful to pretend, but what happens when we’re adults and realize that we’re actually not those women, nor will we ever be them? In the midst of our fantasies, we’ve grown to hate ourselves, not because of who we are, but because of who we aren’t. We aren’t those princesses. We aren’t those girls who, with one quick, flirty glance fall in love and live happily ever after with our Prince Charming. We aren’t those celebrities who have picture perfect bodies. We aren’t them. We are who we are. I am Janna. You are you. Somewhere down the path of pretending, we’ve placed more focus on the body we don’t have than our own reality. Somewhere down that path, we’ve snapped from fantasy land and traveled down the path of self-loathing. We’re obsessed with someone else’s beauty so much so that everything we see when we look in the mirror is repulsive. We’re so obsessed with someone else’s life that our own reality, no matter how fabulous it may be, seems worthless. We wander through life wanting to be someone else, while letting the person we were created to be wither away.
Janna Hall
Graduating in 2010 from James Madison University with a degree in English, Janna left her hometown of Richmond, Virginia and headed to New York City in search of something greater than herself. That “something,” she discovered, was the position of Editor for EvolutionaryPress Publishing, helping young writers fulfill their dreams of becoming a published author. A now 7-time published editor, Janna enjoys the thrill of making dreams come true, and continually seeks ways to reach others and make a lasting impact on lives—both young and old. After spending a summer volunteering with New York Cares helping young girls prepare for the upcoming school year, Janna realized how passionate she was about seeing young girls gain confidence in their ability to succeed in the classroom and decided to use her passion to help girls succeed in all aspects of their lives. Now, she works for Girl Scouts of the USA, running the social media channels and pushing the message of building girls of courage, confidence, and character.
Guess Who’s on Bloglovin’?
With the extinction of Google Reader reaching extinction by July 2013 *tear* I had to find a way to keep up with all my favorite bloggers and websites all in one place— enter BLOGLOVIN’. Follow me won’t you? Please? No really…do it!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Photo-shop or Drop?
Dove Canada’s recent ad campaign by Ogilvy Toronto used reverse psychology of sorts to inform those graphic designers, photo editors and art directors, who are responsible for copying, pasting, shrinking, deforming, whitening images what Real Beauty really is. In order to get straight to the source of the problem, said editors, Dove packaged their message to in the form of a Photoshop Action, a downloadable file that applies an effect with a single click. They created their “Beautify” Action that appeared to add a skin glow effect and planted it on websites that these creatives already visit. However, it reverted the image they were applying this “glow” to back to its original pre-altered state. Genius….though I suppose a bit misleading. Ok, ok a lot misleading.
Advertisements, magazines, “get skinny” websites, and social media networks like Pinterest are often the sources of what we as females, and males for that matter, view as beautiful. It’s everywhere! We are suffocated daily by these images and sure, we understand this celebrity or that model are apart of this fantasy world when we’re flipping the pages of a magazine or scrolling endlessly on our computers. But we are often left standing in front of the mirror naked going “wait, where did that dimple come from and when did that zit decide to rent space on my face?” It’s bonkers, and it makes me mad. Hmph.
Skipping Rope, not just for the playground anymore
This video takes skipping rope to a new place, the streets.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OiCYNDNV9k]
A few weeks ago, I saw this music video starring young kids entitled “Tweenchronic-Skip Rope” on my Facebook timeline. Noticing that it was produced/directed by the same idiot, who worked on Rebecca Black’s “Friday” viral video, gave me no hope that this was going to be a quality sound or video. Bring on the cheese please!
What I got was far from cheesy but rather disturbing. Frankly, this video is an example in my opinion of child exploitation. Let me explain.
The video opens with two young girls, Allison and Stacey, dressed in what I would classify as trendy urban chic. They say they’re going to teach us how to skip rope. Seems harmless enough, right? Wrong. Not long after the first verse, a boy with a stick-on mustache enters the video as part of the b-roll. He’s standing on the corner with his pockets overflowing with large candy bars and bags of pixie sticks. OK this is getting realllllly inappropriate. Then, it gets worst.
Welcome To Shattered Glass Slipper!
Hey there! Welcome to my new blog. Its been a long time coming but I’ve decided 2013 is the year I quit making excuses. So I’m happy that one of my new year’s resolutions is up and running for all of you to read.
A little about me and why I created this blog. By day I’m a communications coordinator by night a dance teacher and in between a 20something woman concerned about how the media and everyday life portrays females and its affects on young girls. Why can’t girls just be girls? Probably because well…”boys will be boys.” (more on that later.) Back in college I took a youth and pop culture class and was floored by this cartoon, Winx Club, ever heard of it? Probably not. Take it from someone who had to watch episodes as research, it was terrible. But that animated cartoon staring five fairies, who saved puppies from trees in thigh high boots and plaid mini skirts and who didn’t have powers strong enough to save people from drowning, because that was for the boys to do is the reason this blog was born.