Discovery Girls publisher Catherine Lee and daughter Alexa
Discovery Girls, a magazine catering to girls between the ages of eight and 12, is under fire for publishing an in-depth article instructing teens on how to find the right swim suit for their body types.
The Daily Mail is reporting on the dustup over the article, “Which Swimsuit Best Suits You?” which many believe is encouraging impressionable young girls to focus on how to flatter their body types before they even reach puberty.
For example, the article recommends that girls who are “curvy up top” should look for a suit with a “top that fits like your favorite bra” or one with side ties and cut outs because this will “draw the eyes down.” Girls with a “straight up and down” body should look to “add curves with asymmetrical straps and bold prints.” Those who are “rounder in the middle” should choose “higher waisted bottoms” and patterns that “draw the eye inward.”
Women from across the country quickly took to Twitter and Facebook to condemn the article which they believe plays into young girls’ insecurities about their bodies.
“Hey @DiscoveryGirls, why not include diet tips/surgical options with this? Your readers are 9, after all. Tick tock [sic],” tweeted a woman named Taffy Akner.
Kathryn Howell Dalton tweeted: “Magazine for 8 year old @DiscoveryGirls reducing their focus to flattering swimwear. Do better [sic].”
Carla Carvalho, a California-based surgeon and mother sent out a tweet urging doctors to pull the magazine from their waiting rooms. “@DiscoveryGirls what were you thinking this with? 50,000 angry physician moms, remove from our waiting rooms ASAP [sic].”
In response to the growing outrage, Discovery Girls publisher Catherine Lee then took to Facebook where she posted an “open letter” in which she appears to be dumbfounded by the fact that the article appeared in the magazine.
“It’s still hard for me to believe that an article so contrary to our magazine’s mission could have been published on our pages. I have been a loss for words for days,” she writes.
“The article was supposed to be about finding cute, fun swimsuits that make girls feel confident, but instead it focused on girls’ body image and had a negative impact. . . . As much we like to think that something like this would never happen to us, it did. We’re not immune to making mistakes, but we are always willing to get better and learn from our mistakes.”
This letter only stoked the fury of mothers who don’t think their daughters should need a cute swimsuit to make them “feel confident”.
Margie Siewert wrote: “I think you are confused. . . . Girls do not need swimsuits to make them confident. Why would you assume that a 9 year old girl would need an article to help her pick a swimsuit? This just perpetuates the belief that girls can’t be comfortable in their own skin unless they look a certain way! The goal should be for a girl to pick a swimsuit because she likes it, and not give a thought to her body shape as she makes her selection!”
Another mother named Bobbi Bartle-Clar wrote: “Fire your editor. If this article is so contrary to your mission, how did it ever get to print? Who proofs the magazine before it is printed? This apology is weak. Girls who are the age of your readers shouldn’t even be thinking about their bodies in this way. You won’t be getting a subscription from me, ever.”
Even women who work in the publishing industry, such as MSNBC reporter Irin Carmon wrote: “Why does the publisher make it seem like she didn’t read her own magazine and this article just “happened” to them?”
Others, such as British writer Rhiannon Cosslett wrote, simply, “Weeping for my future daughters . . .”
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Our new study, Young Women of Grace, was designed to combat exactly this kind of negative impact on the minds and hearts of our girls. They don’t need to look (and act) like Kim Kardashian to be beautiful! Let’s empower them with the truth – they were born beautiful simply because they were born to be daughters of God! Read more here.
