NEDIC Conference Journal 2018

matches the unique person you are. She was
passionate about the topic.
The second artifact was the audio of the two girls
singing Try. When asked why they chose the song,
they explained that the song was about accepting
flaws because everyone has them. Words from the
song itself state, “You don’t have to change a single
thing.” They recorded their song publicly in the main
room in an impassioned and powerful way. They
were proud to sing openly in front of the other girls
and this acknowledges their feelings of acceptance.
The third artifact was a six-page PowerPoint
created by five girls entitled Positive Body Image.
They said that it was motivated by a “real” girl who
has had a lot of surgery done to her to look like
Barbie. They were impressed also by the report
about a man who started a foundation for a more
natural doll. The girls said that their slide deck
showed women of different sizes and shapes who
were comparing themselves, and everyone is
different. The slides begin with an image of a
distorted and thin Barbie, a regular Barbie, and the
new Barbie, which is not as tall and thin, showing
uniqueness. The girls said that people think of body
image as a negative idea but that it should be
positive. Their main message was to “Stay positive
and be yourself.”
The fourth group created a 10 slide PowerPoint
entitled, Love Yourself, Accept Yourself. The girls
shared their thoughts about their project by saying
that a person’s own opinion matters the most and
that people should be proud of who they are. People
should not be ashamed of how other people see
them. The girls explained that they wanted to send
the following message to other girls: “Stop the
negative talk about your body. Our differences make
us beautiful. Embrace your unique bodies and love
who you are.” On slide #8 they wrote “Everyone has
a Perfect Body” using pictures of women of many
shapes, sizes and ethnicities. On slide #9 the girls
wrote, “It doesn’t matter; we are all beautiful.”
The fifth group created a video using the song
lyrics and music Words by Hawk Williams. The words
from the song explained the pressures they feel
which are like being a prisoner that needs to be set
free. The girls explained that they chose this song
because, “We’re too hard on ourselves and it's very
hard to draw confidence and you have to do that
from the people around you.”
The sixth artifact was a dance video that three of
the older girls created to the song, Fight Song by
Rachel Platten, and was recorded on an IPad. The
pressures this older group felt were explained in the
lyrics from the song itself. (This is my fight song –
take back my life song.) Their message was that
everyone has different perspectives but all bodies
are beautiful. Another explained that she saw that
no one is built the same and size does not matter.
The artifacts showed that the girls needed very
little support to define their pressures around body
image. They were able to deconstruct and
reconstruct media to change the message. In a very
short amount of the time, all 17 out of the 26 girls
were able produce a media artifact to share on the
website. Although some girls chose to watch other
girls create an artifact, all of the girls participated in
the creation of an artifact during the final evening.
These findings indicate that, when adolescent
girls are encouraged to think critically about their
health and body image, they can do it. The
participants in this study were comfortable and
empowered to use technology to express
themselves using digital tools. They showed
strong facility with technology – almost effortlessly
creating their artifacts using different devices
unassisted. One group used their phone, one group
used the IPad, and the others used laptops or desk
computers, seamlessly moving from discourse to
artifact creation. They were clearly empowered with
the idea of using technology to express themselves.
Their media was socially-focused. They wanted to
use their voices to encourage other girls to not worry
about how they look, to love themselves, to focus on
health not their size, and to continue to share these
messages. Their media showed a sense of their
future audience: other girls who would see these
artifacts on the website. Through their choices of
songs, poems, memes, and images they
acknowledged the pressures and they encouraged
other girls to continue sharing positive messages.
These findings indicate that the media
deconstruction and reconstruction elements
combined in this program are a model that can be
drawn upon for future interventions. Incorporating
these ideas into other prevention methods are
shown here to take very little time to do.
5.2 Findings about health
The participant girls were able to recognize the
potential harm to their health in the media
messages. In listening to their discourse, we found
that the girls saw health through a social lens (being
happy, feeling good). They were powerful
encouragers of each other. They resisted size
comparisons and sought to be comfortable in their
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