Insight

Tweenagers. They are a new market of 6 - 12 year olds that have become a growing target market for advertisers, retailers and product companies. To me girls and boys this age are children, not tweenagers. "Tweenagers" seems to be a new word invented by advertising companies to desribe a new market that they can promote products to.

Despite my thoughts on this, the label tweenagers and tweens are well used terms these days.

I have had a concern for a while, when I have stood in the queue at the supermarket and seen magazines with fully made up young girls on the cover, aimed at young girls. I have also been shocked to see bras, g-strings and bikini's, and other revealing clothing marketed towards young girls. The reason for my concern is that I am not sure that young girls should be exposed to the kinds of imagery and promotional materials that encourage them to seek products that make them appear older, or even s*xualise them. How is this all affecting young girls, the way they view themselves, their bodies, and the way they act. Come to think of it, how does this affect the way that young boys may react to young girls, and women in their future?

It may sound like I have an extreme response to this, you may think that it is solely a parents job to limit what their children are exposed to, and I do agree. I was limited from watching, buying and being exposed to things that my parents deemed inappropriate for my age. Even though at the time I didn't appreciate these limitations, I thank them now for allowing me to enjoy my childhood.

My worry is that a parents limitations and rules, may one day not be able to stand up to the strength of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Even now, I am sure that there are many parents who find it difficult to enforce rules and limitations with the constant barrage of persuasive marketing campaigns.

I am not in the advertising industry per say, but I am part of the design industry. I have been lucky not have to work on projects that oppose my morals, and I am not sure what I would do if I was faced with the choice. There are many that I would never touch, there are other less extreme projects that I may consider. It is scary though to think that decisions that I make, affect decisions that other people may make about a company or a product, that could then go on to affect the way that they live their lives.

I am glad that I watched Insight this evening, which covered this issue from varying viewpoints, including those of children, parents, phsychologists, doctors, media and advertising representatives. The transcript should be later this evening of tomorrow. Check it out if you have time.

Reflective

I have been feeling very reflective in the last few of days, to allow my brain to catch up with our new life, and all of its new challenges. My poor old brain and heart have taken a beating over the last year really, not necessarily a beating in a bad way, perhaps a description would be ‘a workout’. Yes, ‘a workout’ is definitely what I have experience in the heart and the head department in the past year.

This time a year ago I was working for a design studio, and since then I have:

• Left my job
• Dealt with various family crisis (sad face)
• Started my own business from scratch
• Got married (happy face)
• Moved into a shared office, where I learnt heaps and had heaps of fun.
• Moved out of a shared office (sad face)
• Moved across country, which resulted in losing all physical contact with my best friends, family and newly discovered design guru’s.
• Realised that perhaps I wasn’t as profitable in my business as I wished (fair go though, it’s only been 9 months since I started it)
• Realised that without work face-to-face contact and separation from loved ones, I have in fact become…a loner…oh yes.

Mmm, yes. I know what you are thinking, “poor little brain, poor little heart”. I know that I have my husband here with me in this new town, and believe me he really is my best friend in the whole world. But…each of us need other things/people in our lives other than each other. Unfortunately we have long ago left behind that completely amateur idea/reality of a relationship where all you want to do, is spend time with your partner 24/7. I know, and he knows that this is not healthy for a person’s brain, and heart. We can support and look after each other without being permanently attached at the hip.

So…do I have a plan. Oh yes! I have a plan! I am setting the wheels in motion…perhaps when the time is right I will share the details.

Retraction

Just after my birthday I received a lovely birthday card, which I wrote about on this site. The card was from my Dad. In the card my Dad mentioned that I was entering into my 25th year. After I saw the 25, my initial reaction was to jump to the conclusion that he thought I was 25, after re-reading the card at a later date I realised that this wasn’t the case at all. Just that I was entering my 25th year, which actually is CORRECT!

Initially I didn’t bother writing a retraction about the 25 hoo haa, as no one in my family was reading my site. Until I foolishly thought that I could trust my 16 year old brothers. (*Note to Self: you love your brothers but they are not yet capable of keeping all of the secrets you might like them to) I just had a panicked call from my good ole Dad, saying that he was so sorry that I thought, that he thought that I was 25! He thought that I was offended because my Bro’s told him I had written about it on this site, which I had, but hadn’t corrected myself, until now.

So I stand corrected:
My Dad does not think I am 25
My brothers aren’t capable of keeping secrets just yet, but that is only natural for 16-year-old boys who get excited when they are telling stories!

And:
Many more people now know about my website than I had initially anticipated, but I suppose that I am comfortable with that. After all, one of the reasons I started writing was so that people would read, why else would you publish written works on the Internet!

Welcome to the era of the public blog, these are exciting times! Like Dooce and many who have come before me, I have managed to upset someone close to me, my good ole Dad, who is a fantastic card writer, Volvo driver and loving and concerned parent.

Sorry Dad, love you Dad and loved your card.

Promise not to use the "L" word again!

Ok so I finally realised why my last blog was booted from the site, and that was because I used the "L" word in association with a dream I had about a certain actress. Obviously that was a little risque for Blogger, so I promise not to use that word again, until I learn how to design and construct websites and I can have my own little "L" word fest!

So now that I am back it's back to the usual rants and thoughts, that I will now vet swear words and offensive words out of...how boring!

You know sometimes I feel incredibly un-funny…in fact I always feel un-funny. The only time that people generally laugh at or with me is when I do something stupid or say something stupid, not because of an excellent joke, intelligent come-back or a fantastic twist of the English language. Lets face it I am a total goof! A totally exhausted goof!

Speaking of goofy things that make you exhausted, on Monday night a girlfriend and I went to Body Combat, a boxing/kick-boxing class at our gym, we both came out feeling extremely exhausted and have ached ever since (it’s now Wednesday night!). I have been going to the gym regularly since July, and I thought I was getting pretty fit, but I felt like I had been a couch slob my entire life when I was in that class punching/kicking the air, and bouncing on the spot. My poor calf muscles have not yet forgiven me for the torture I had put them through and they still wince every time I take a step, or press in the clutch in the car.

Straight after the class on Monday I came home. took a shower and washed my hair and I could hardly lift my arms up to rub the shampoo and conditioner in! Isn’t that pathetic!! (that’s more of a statement of truth rather than a question, hence the exclamation marks) Even re-adjusting my position on the couch still hurts my arms. I don’t know why we decided that putting ourselves through that torture was a good idea, but I suspect that we will be doing so again next Monday. I have heard that this class, apart from being killer pain producer, it also killer “toight” muscle producer. Which is something I have been trying to achieve for my butt and stomach…wait for it…this is the part where people I know all moan and tell me I am a stick insect. But guess what?! Stick insects still have flabby bits that they aren’t happy with, and my butt and stomache have flabby bits that require a bit of tightening.

You know what’s funny? I can’t remember the point at which the skin on my ass became softer and looser, and my butt began to jiggle more. It has kinda crept up on me in the last two years. The fiancée would tell me otherwise, he like others think I look fabulous, and hey I think I look kinda fabulous too, but everyone has at least one thing that they don’t like about their bodies…isn’t this normal?

There is a girl at my gym who is extremely fit, nothing jiggles when she walks, though I must admit I think she may have rented an apartment at the gym! She is always there, but she looks fabulous. I know what your all thinking, “Well, that doesn’t matter , she is probably a "b***ch”, but actually she seems lovely. She has a great honest smile, and I think that this only makes her seem more beautiful.