On November 12, my social justice group and I had an interview with Denis  Ahlgrim, the designer of the “I’m a Girl” Campaign. The goal of this campaign, created by Samantha Levine, who works for the Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is to make girls feel comfortable with the way they look. On the posters there are pictures of all kinds of girls, the main goal was to get a variety of different looking girls that don’t look too much like models.

Denis told us about the process of how they chose the girls, he said that most of them volunteered. He said that he spent a lot of time trying to figure out what angle to take the photos from, the setting, and what the girl in the photograph should be doing. He said that he didn’t want the  photos to be too posed, that he wanted it to look natural. I learned a lot about my civil/human rights topic through this interview.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/girls/images/features/ad18-large.jpg

From left to right: Eve van Rens (me), Bella Reid, Daria Richman Price, Denice Ahlgrim, Sophia Cook, Lexi Jones.

I learned about how affected girls can be by women’s representation in the media, and how important it is to make a difference. I really enjoyed getting to hear an adults perspective on women in the media, it’s good to hear that they understand girls feelings. I want to remember what I learned in my teach-in, and see this group of adults taking action as inspiration to make a difference too.

This fieldwork really showed me how big of a difference seemingly little things can make, I never would have thought that a poster could have so much meaning and importance. I was so impressed with how much effort and thought went into those posters. Hopefully  my group can do something like that, and create a difference in the world.

We have just scheduled an interview with Samantha Levine, and I am looking forward to hearing about what inspired her to create this campaign. I am fascinated and impressed that adults would put so much effort in trying to make girl’s lives better. It has been a great motivation for me, and has made me want to make a change even more than before.