When I wrote A Target Intervention on Behalf of My Daughters and the follow-up articles where I went into stores and measured clothes and explained why I care so much about this issue, I was just doing what I do.
I'm a mom and a writer, so when something strikes a nerve with me, I write about it.
It just so happened that this time it struck a nerve with a lot of other people, too.
Before I knew it I was on the phone with several of the largest retailers in the country. The pictures I took on my iPhone in the middle of my local Target were all over the Internet. It became international news very quickly.
I received literally thousands of emails from other parents around the world saying that they were just as concerned as I was.
The American Psychological Association reached out to me. Glenn Beck invited me to sit on a panel of women from across North America talking about the over-sexualization of clothes for young girls.
I felt like everyone was looking at me to step up and do something. So I did.
I got together with Awarehouse Productions and Percepto Studios and we are now working directly with the APA and the task force that put together their Report on the Sexualization of Girls.
Our goal is to make a documentary called Seamingly Obvious that explores the sexualization of women via the media and fashion industries today and its long-term psychological effects on a girl's sense of identity. We will interview representatives from the fashion industry, developmental psychologists, parents, and children in an effort to discover how our current cultural attitudes affect the various stages of development.
The shorts in my original posts are just a symptom of the problem. With this documentary we want to find out how this happened, how it became acceptable to dress our children and market to them as if they are adults, so that maybe we can find a real way to solve it. I will continue to work to change the clothing options for our girls, but I also realize that this is just a band-aid. If we don't address the cultural implications of the way we allow our daughters to see themselves, then true change will never be possible.
For more information about this project, head over to the Seamingly Obvious website.
Watch the trailer here: