What is Media Mindful?

We’re proud to launch our girl-led campaign – Media Mindful – in partnership with the University of Strathclyde and Gender Equal Media Scotland. It’s all about supporting girls and young women to challenge how women are represented in the media.

Media Mindful aims to empower and support girls to:

• challenge gender stereotypes and negative portrayals of women and girls in the media
• equip them with the skills to be critical about what they are reading, watching and creating
• take action to ensure the media is more equal and fair

What are we calling for?

We want to see a future where the media treats girls and women with equality and values them as contributors and respects them as an audience.

That’s why we’re calling for:

• Newspapers, magazines, businesses and influencers to commit to taking a gender sensitive approach when creating content and to ditch narratives that reinforce gender stereotypes
• The media to celebrate and promote a more diverse range of women that reflects the population, particularly in reality TV and in the beauty and fashion industry
• Politicians and the public to call out gender stereotyping in the media when they see it
• Print and online magazines to stop publishing articles that compare women’s bodies and promote body shaming
• Social media platforms to urgently address the ways in which is users reinforce appearance pressures and have greater transparency on how girls and young women can be engaged and empowered to raise and report concerns where they see them

Why Media Mindful is important

The media is all around us but it doesn’t always paint a fair and true representation of women and girls. Too often, the media reinforces gender stereotypes and focuses on how women and girls look instead of their skills and achievements. It’s having a real impact on girls’ mental health, happiness and self-confidence and it’s holding them back from pursuing their dreams and trying new things.

Girls and young women tell us they want to see change and Media Mindful is all about equipping the next generation of women to take action and develop the skills to be critical about what they read, see and hear.

Our Girls in Scotland 2020 research found:

• 51% of girls aged 11-21 have seen adverts online that made them feel pressured to look different
• 43% of girls aged 7-21 felt they didn’t have or weren’t sure if they had the skills to understand what is real and not real in the news, media and online
• 68% of girls aged 11-21 feel newspapers, magazines and influencers on social media need to do more to stop reinforcing gender stereotypes
• 71% of girls aged 11-21 think diet products and weight loss clubs shouldn’t be advertised to children under 18