Unmask

Vital Stats

Lindsey M

Broken Arrow, OK

people helped2500
People Doing It 20

The Problem

The media is a constant part of a person's life. In the past few decades in particular, the media has begun to focus on the increasingly valuable teen market. Because of this, they often use deceptive and unfair practices to manipulate teens into thinking that they would somehow personally benefit if they choose to buy media-pushed products and services. Because of this, teens obsess over maintaining a media-created image of how a teen should look and act in order for them to be accepted by their peers. This is an extremely unhealthy mindset and leads to a slew of other issues that young people face today, such as distorted body image, drug and alcohol abuse, and sexual promiscuity. The organization that I am involved in, Youth Philanthropy Initiative, has recognized this issue in Tulsa, OK and has developed a program, Unmask, in order to begin solving the problem.

Plan of Action

After deciding to focus on how the media manipulates teens, I was instrumental in the creation of a presentation to be given to teenagers, adults, educators, and community leaders on the effects that the media has on teenagers. So far, I, along with a presentation teen, have given this presentation over thirty times to groups ranging in number from 15 to 2000. We have spoken to schools, church youth groups, parent organizations, and community groups. Along the way, a project website was created by other team members and currently a franchise committee is working on packaging our presentation in order to send it to other states so that it can live on in the coming years. This is provide us a way to make a continued impact all around the country similar to the impact already made in the Tulsa community.