NAILED IT: following SPARK’s campaign, led by 14 year old activist Julia Bluhm, Seveenteen Magazine has committed to NEVER altering the faces or bodies of girls in their magazines and to showing true diversity in their pages. This is a HUGE DEAL for the US magazine industry and now two other SPARK activists, Carina and Emma, are asking Teen Vogue to follow suit and start building a better media landscape for girls. 

We’re excited to see how these changes manifest in the pages of Seventeen, and we’re counting on the girls who read these mags—the girls who demanded change!—to really hold them accountable for these promises. 

ETA: Since this has come up—we know that Seventeen is saying that they “never have and never will” digitally alter girls’ bodies, but fifteen minutes with any issue of Seventeen will prove that that’s just not true. Dang, sometimes you don’t even have to open the magazine to see it! If the images in the magazine and on the cover don’t change, it’ll now be much, much easier for readers to hold Seventeen accountable to their promises. That’s important, and also excellent news—because at the end of the day, magazines SHOULD be accountable to their readers, not to advertisers or the beauty industry. 

“Cosmo, Seventeen, you gotta shape up—and not in the way you usually mean it, but uh, in ethical and journalistic standards, you gotta shape up.”

“We’re not saying that models are ‘too skinny,’ we’re saying it’s kind of unrealistic and kind of annyoing that magazines only show skinny models.”

“We’re not saying that it’s bad to have a certain body type. That’s what the media’s saying.”

Our executive director just found a huge bag full of Seventeen Magazines from the late ’80s in her childhood bedroom closet. Join her as she travels down memory lane and compares the teen mags of her youth—complete with Seventeen Wedding Guide—to their modern day counterparts. 

SPARK has been up to some business, and our friends at the Women’s Media Center posted a great roundup so we didn’t have to! Check it out: 

On Friday, 14-year-old SPARKteam girl activist Julia Bluhm presented Seventeen Magazine with her Change.org petition: Give Girls Images of Real Girls! The petition asks:

For the sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up. I know how hurtful these photoshopped images can be. I’m a teenage girl, and I don’t like what I see. None of us do. Will you join us by signing this petition and asking Seventeen to take a stand as well and commit to one unaltered photo spread a month?

The petition has garnered over 49,000 signatures (and counting!) and the media has been eager to cover the story. Read the SPARK blog post on the event here.

Here are some of the media pieces on the SPARKteam meeting with Seventeen Magazine:

New York Times: A Real Girl, 14, Takes a Stand Against the Flawless Faces in Magazines

5/3/12: “As of Thursday evening, the petition had been signed by 46,000 people. Julia and her mother, Mary Beiter, came to New York this week from their home in Waterville, Me., for a demonstration organized by Change.org and Spark outside the offices of Seventeen in Midtown.”

The Guardian: Thousands join girl in urging Seventeen magazine to publish unedited images

5/3/12: “Seventeen magazine said it had invited Bluhm to its offices after seeing her petition. It said in a statement: ‘We’re proud of Julia for being so passionate about an issue – it’s exactly the kind of attitude we encourage in our readers – so we invited her to our office to meet with editor in chief Ann Shoket this morning.’”

New York Daily News: Teens ask Seventeen Magazine: “Where are the girls like me?”

5/2/12: “Outside the headquarters of the teen magazine known for its skinny models, a group of girls dressed in plain old jeans and jackets posed in front of a white backdrop Wednesday holding up signs that read ‘Where are the Girls Like Me?’”

ABC Nightline: Are Airbrushed Ads Dangerous?

CBS New York: 14-Year-Old Takes On Altered Photographs In Seventeen Magazine

5/2/12: “While kids are being bombarded by what they see in ad campaigns and magazines, what they hear at home hits just as hard. Child psychologist Dr. Jennifer Harstein said parents obsessing about their own diet and how they look is often passed down.”

Today SPARK went to Seventeen Magazine headquarters to deliver over 24,000 signatures asking Seventeen to start running at least one un-retouched photo spread per issue. (Since this morning, the petition has gotten up to 32,500 and rapidly growing!) Excuse me while I clutch this photo to my chest and sob with joy at how amazing our group of young activists is. Julia, the girl who started the petition (second from the right in that killer ballet stance) is only 14! We’re so proud of her and what she’s started—including what looks like is going to be a fantastic ongoing conversation with Seventeen about how to support and represent girls!

This has been a busy week here at SPARK! Hot on the heels of our fantastic meeting with LEGO is a new petition (gotta love ‘em) started by SPARKteam girl activist Julia Bluhm. This fab 14 year old is calling out Seventeen Magazine on their overwhelming usage of photoshop. Julia is asking the magazine to commit to one photoshop free spread per month to celebrate real girls, because we all want to see regular girls that look like us in a magazine that’s supposed to be for us.

And (what a shock) we’re not the only ones who think like that! Julia’s petition has 13,000+ signatures already and it’s moving fast! How’s that for girl power?!

The petition has raced past every goal we’ve set and the press is taking notice (Huffington Post & The Daily Mail, anyone?!)

But we’re not stopping there. Once again, SPARK has started something amazing! We’ve got our bold, girl-supporting partners standing with us. We’re going to make sure Seventeen Magazine listens to us and we need your help!

Here’s what you can do:

First, if you haven’t signed the petition, get to it! Then ask all your friends, family members and obscure, distant relatives to sign it too. Tweet it, Facebook it, share it on Tumblr, the whole shebang. If you want more info on Seventeen Magazine, check out this blog by SPARKteam-er Izzy Labbe.

Next, head on over to our fantastic partner, Powered By Girl, to spoof this month’s Seventeen Magazine cover. Download your spoof to the PBG gallery and share it on Facebook. Don’t forget to tag SPARK Summit, so we can admire your culture jamming skills.

Then, check out our You’ve Been SPARK’d post-it action. Grab your post-its, a marker, and let Seventeen know what you think. Don’t forget to take a picture and post it to our Facebook page! The more images they see and voices they hear the better!  Love this action?  Please support our Indiegogo You’ve Been SPARK’d campaign!  Donate, donate, donate!  We can’t continue to do this work without your support. There are some awesome prizes up for grabs, so check it out!

Last but not least, for all you New Yorkers, or dedicated road-trippers, come join us and Julia as we visit Seventeen Magazine headquarters and demand that they listen to our request. We’ll be there at 11 o’clock, Wednesday morning May 2nd.  The more the merrier!

As Julia says, “For the sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up.” So are we. Join us!

Seventeen Magazine: Give Girls Images of Real Girls!

Girls want to be accepted, appreciated, and liked. And when they don’t fit the criteria, some girls try to “fix” themselves. This can lead to eating disorders, dieting, depression, and low self esteem.

I’m in a ballet class with a bunch of high-school girls. On a daily basis I hear comments like: “It’s a fat day,” and “I ate well today, but I still feel fat.” Ballet dancers do get a lot of flack about their bodies, but it’s not just ballet dancers who feel the pressure to be “pretty”. It’s everyone. To girls today, the word “pretty” means skinny and blemish-free. Why is that, when so few girls actually fit into such a narrow category? It’s because the media tells us that “pretty” girls are impossibly thin with perfect skin.

Here’s what lots of girls don’t know. Those “pretty women” that we see in magazines are fake.They’re often photoshopped, air-brushed, edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life.

That’s why I’m asking Seventeen Magazine to commit to printing one unaltered — real — photo spread per month. I want to see regular girls that look like me in a magazine that’s supposed to be for me.

For the sake of all the struggling girls all over America, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up. I know how hurtful these photoshopped images can be. I’m a teenage girl, and I don’t like what I see. None of us do. Will you join us by signing this petition and asking Seventeen to take a stand as well and commit to one unaltered photo spread a month?