All-girls Catholic prep school Mercy Academy in Louisville, Kentucky released a series of posters advertising their school with an interesting and unique message.
According to the Huffington Post, the posters featured messages for young girls such as, “don't wait for a prince,” “life's not a fairytale” and “you're not a princess.” The posters also urged girls to “be more than just the fairest of them all,” “prepare for real life” and “be able to rescue yourself.” One poster tells the students that “you can still rule the world,” even if you don't find that fantastical prince charming.
The school addresses the fantasy world that Disney, romantic comedies and other media create in young girls' minds and focuses instead on instilling independence, intelligence and a work ethic in their students.
“Our ad campaigns have been pretty traditional in the past, but this year we wanted to really get the message across that Mercy students have the power to write their own stories,” Amy Elstone, principal at Mercy Academy, told Yahoo! Shine. And so far, the message has been well-accepted by the students at the school. “When we showed the campaign to current students, many said they would have loved to hear this message when they were in middle school,” Elstone continued.
Although it's not certain whether the campaign will bring in it's target audience of 9-14-year-old girls, many women already stand behind the concept. Jennifer Baumgardner, author and feminist activist, said, “Many women, young and old, harbor fantasies of being saved by a prince. It’s not a literal desire for women; it’s the subconscious idea that life isn’t complete until a man is in it. And it’s never too late to reinforce the idea that women should be independent.”
And that's just what students at Mercy Academy experience – real world applications. They sit through entrepreneur courses where they think up create real businesses, donating the profits of their work to women in the Sudan. They also clean up simulated oil spills in their chemistry classes.
The girls at Mercy Academy aren't waiting for a prince – they know how to take matters into their own hands.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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