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Wednesday 21 May 2014

#freebeingme

You may have seen my tweets recently (@kathroooon), where I have been covering the work I'm doing with my Brownies at the moment. 

This in itself is not unusual. 

What is unusual, is that what I'm doing with them, is relevant to you all. 

It's the GirlguidingUK latest badge - the Body Confidence badge.


Their "Free Being Me" scheme has been put together in association with Dove, and is a 50 page document full of ideas, conversation starters and the like.

I know some of my Brown Owl contemporaries won't feel comfortable dealing with the topics in this themselves, and it is meant to be delivered by older girls in the movement. But I'm ace and so I jumped right in!

The first activity was to explain to the girls what we were doing, and to their parents. So these little cards came in handy:


We then set about making our Compliment Jars. Which are exactly what they sound like: jars to put compliments in. From each other. How perfect do they sound! We're adding to them every couple of weeks, and they will get theirs to take home at the end of the badgework! 


HOW CUTE!!

This took the entire meeting, getting the jars coloured in, and the compliments to go in them!!

We then tackled the princess issue. 

The wonderful princess who ends up with the handsome prince at the end. So we came up with the words we would use to describe the princess ideal. 

(Can you spot the ones I came up with?)



I then held this up next to my face, and asked the Brownies the differences between the two of us. A rather scary moment, I'm not going to lie! 

They came up with words like "real", "independent" (okay, that one was coaxed a LOT by me), and "happy" - which are words not associated with the princess above!

Next up: Other Cultures. No, not the English GCSE Anthology! 


Beauty from other cultures - with feet binding, leg extensions, tanning, mono brows, whiteness, curves, and bootilicious women. Including this photoshopping from Elle:


Where they decided she looks so much more beautiful without photoshopping! (Which made my heart soar!)

I'll be honest, and I turned this into a game for them, where they were in two teams, and I read out what they were looking for. They then ran to the table they were laid out on, and picked up the photo (or photos), that I was talking about. It was a great way to get the message across without being too preachy. 

I was also very mean, and gave my girls homework. I know, I know, they get enough from school, but I really wanted them to think about who their Real Role Model (someone they know from real life - I know, I dislike the title too, like Gabourey Sidibe isn't REAL!) was! 

And this happened:


I was her "Real Role Model"!! Me. And I got rather emotional. 

This project was something I got super excited about when it was announced, and I am so glad I started it with my girls. But this just makes me so happy to be a part of this movement that allows me to be a role model to girls. We all need someone to show us we're amazing as we are, and how helpful they've been, or how much they make you laugh. 

I'm only half way through, but this has been amazing. 

After half term, I'm taking my makeup before the meeting to see if anyone notices. It's the week of the photoshop spot the difference too, so it seems appropriate. 

Much love my lovelies, 


K x





5 comments:

  1. This is amazing and the sort of thing that need to happen. you should be so proud of your self for the good it will do these girls! x

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  2. This is such a worthwhile thing to do. Well done all involved in this. x

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  3. Fantastic idea, I agree that rolling this out across schools would be a brilliant idea x

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  4. this is absolutely brilliant and i love you loads xxx

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  5. Ohmygosh I use to volunteer with Girlguiding! I covered the Guides! Such a brilliant idea x

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