If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, please check out my friend and fellow member of the Confidence Community (TM) Johanna Kandel’s new book, “Life Beyond Your Eating Disorder: Reclaim Yourself, Regain Your Health, Recover for Good,” which just came out today.

Johanna struggled with her eating disorder for ten years before finally getting help. She founded the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness in 2000 to do community outreach, education, awareness, and prevention of various eating disorders, to share the message that recovery from these disorders is possible, and make sure that those suffering from eating disorders don’t have to recover alone.

In her powerful new book, Johanna offers tools and insight for those with eating disorders so they can:

• Stop self-sabotage and sidestep triggers
• Quiet the eating-disordered voice
• Strengthen the healthy, positive voice
• Let go of all-or-nothing thinking
• Overcome fear and embrace change
• Stay motivated and keep moving forward

Complete with inspiring true stories from others who have won their personal battles with eating disorders, this book provides the help you need to break free from your eating disorder and discover how wonderful life really can be.

Congratulations to Johanna on bringing this very important book into the world!

I was thrilled to hear the news last week that for the first time in the history of West Point, the top two honors in the graduating class went to women! Elizabeth Betterbed and Alexandra Rosenberg were named the overall cadet and class valedictorian of the prestigious U.S. Military Academy, respectively.

President Obama was on-hand to congratulate the women as he gave the graduation address last Saturday:

“This underscores a fact that I’ve seen in the faces of our troops from Baghdad to Bagram - in the 21st century, our women in uniform play an indispensable role in our national defense. And time and again, they have proven themselves to be role models for our daughters and our sons - as students and as soldiers and as leaders in the United States armed forces.”

Though the Academy was first open to students in 1802, women were only admitted for the first time in 1976, when 119 females started as freshman. Today, women make up about 15% of cadets starting the four-year program.

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Alexandra on their incredible achievement!

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Are you interested in learning more about a career in the military? Check out my interview with Coast Guard Lt. Leanne Lusk in my book In Their Shoes. Leanne talks about what she loves about the job, describes her personal career journey, and walks readers through a “typical” day in her world (there’s actually nothing typical about it).

When I interviewed Leanne for the book, I asked her what it was like being a woman in the military since so many perceive it as a male-dominated career path. Here’s what she had to say:

“Out of all the armed services, the Coast Guard has the highest percentage of women. And I love busting stereotypes about what women can and can’t do. I’m not someone that people would look at and think I’m a federal law enforcement officer…I really like breaking out of that mold. I know that I can get dropped in a country anywhere in the world and survive…I know how to take care of myself.”

On this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I wanted to share with you the new website, Inconvenient Youth, which stems from The Climate Project, Al Gore’s climate change leadership program.

This new venture is aimed at teens with a goal of creating a “a community of teenagers taking action to address the climate crisis.” On the website, you can create your own profile, and then join in the discussion sharing your ideas for addressing global warming, as well as post specific actions you’ve already taken to do your part.

Also - be sure to visit the official Earth Day website, where you can share what you plan to do in the coming year to lighten your carbon footprint on the earth. Thousands of people have already posted their pledges to do things like:

• shop at a local farmer’s market and buy local / organic food
• use reusable bags and bins when grocery shopping
• start composting
• unplug chargers when not using them
• take the stairs instead of the elevator
• shut down computer when not using them
• use environmentally-friendly cleaning products

For me, I’m going to try to walk even more than I already do, shut down my computer every night, and plan more opportunities for our family, including my 5-year-old son, to take part in environmental clean-up volunteerism.

What are YOU going to do differently?

Tomorrow is the first day of Banned Books Week, an annual event started in 1982 where hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events.

Books might be banned by libraries, schools, and bookstores for any number of reasons - sexual or violent content, the use of profanity or slang…even positive portrayals of homosexuals. Over the years, books ranging from The Gossip Girls series, and TTFN to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Judy Blume’s Forever have been targeted.

One of my favorite authors, Ellen Hopkins, has faced censorship issues with nearly all of her hard-hitting books. Her latest book, Tricks, about teen prostitution, is no different.

The Kids Right to Read Project recently interviewed Ellen about the issue of book banning and censorship. Here’s some of what she had to say:

My books speak to real life. My latest book Tricks is about teen prostitution. To write it requires having sex in the book, and not pretty sex. It has to include sex. In Identical which is about sexual abuse by a parent and I take my readers right into the bedroom. Why not shut the door? Well, a lot of books do that and we need to really look at what is going on. What do perpetrators really look like? We expect them to be a certain way – and we need to explore our ideas of who sexual predators are to access the way to protect ourselves and our children. As adults we want to believe things like this, or drug use, are not happening anymore, or happening less and less, but that’s not the case and we need to acknowledge that in order to help the victims. We can’t make life prettier for youth, but we can arm them. In high schools today there are youth who cut, there are those who commit or think about suicide. We have to give our kids the tools.

I don’t back-pedal and I don’t sugar-coat things for my readers. Crank and Glass were both based on true stories- fictionalized of course to give space to my daughter and those that the stories are based upon. I don’t feel as an author I need to tip toe around addiction, sex or anything else. In my books my characters experience things as they are. Kristina for instance feels meth is like riding a roller coaster the first few times she does it. The point is obviously kids should just say no, but they should do so because they understand the consequences of saying yes on their lives. My books allow youth an honest look at important issues affecting them.

I couldn’t agree more. It’s no fluke that Ellen’s books have connected with teens in such a huge way - her writing is raw and and real and she has a willingness to talk about things that frankly aren’t so pretty. If anything, Ellen’s books are realistic portrayals of what could happen and can serve to deter someone from going down a dangerous path. They also have the potential to be important conversation starters. I mean, shouldn’t we be talking and getting real about difficult issues like sex and drug abuse and incest instead of sweeping them under the rug? Censorship is never the answer…discussions, frank conversations, and openness is the only way to go

Do you want to take a stand against book banning? Here are some ideas from the Kids Right to Read Project for getting involved and making a difference:

• Send a letter to local newspapers and magazines, or write an “op-ed” article.
• Write to any and all public officials involved in the situation, including the mayor, city council, and other city officials, superintendent of schools and school board members, members of the library board, and state education officials. Find your local representative on this website.
• Attend school board, library board, and PTA meetings and raise the issue. Bring your friends to voice their support.
• Start a petition or letter-writing campaign. Organize a local anti-censorship group, and publicize your activities on the Internet.
• Spread the word online: start a Facebook group, a blog, a Twitter account to connect your friends to the issues you care about and to find other people who share your concerns.
• Work with community groups, especially professional and civic organizations, and religious groups, to call attention to the problem.
• If the censorship incident is in a school, get affected parents and students involved. If a teacher is targeted for criticism because s/he used “controversial” materials, it is particularly important to support the teacher—if you ever expect any other teachers to stick their necks out in the future. Circulate a petition in support of the teacher or the materials. Solicit help and support from other teachers and educators.

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Book Giveaway Contest

Where do you stand on the issue of book banning in schools? Leave a comment explaining the reasoning behind your position on the issue and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Ellen Hopkin’s brand new book, Tricks. A winner will be chosen at random on October 7, 2009. And to read Ellen’s recounting of the current censorship battle she’s fighting over a canceled school visit in Oklahoma and a local news anchor’s public call out for her books to be banned, read her blog here.

I just learned about this website from someone I’m following at Twitter, and had to share it with you! It’s the website of About-Face, an organization that aims to equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image. Through their site, workshops, and action groups, About-Face hopes to “imbue girls and women with the power to free themselves from the burden of body-image problems so they will be capable of fulfilling their varied and wondrous potential.”

What I love about this site is it calls out the media messages - specifically advertisements - that are super offensive when it comes to portraying women and girls in a negative and harmful light. Their Gallery of Offenders features highlights of the top ten worst ads out there. Included in their current list of top ten offenders are ads from AskMen.com, Elizabeth Arden, Carls Jr., and American Apparel. But About-Face doesn’t just point out the offensive ads and explain why they are so harmful - it provides contact information for the companies behind the ads, and encourages readers to let these advertisers know just how offended we are by their portrayal of women.

It’s not all bad news. About-Face also celebrates media that is doing it right, and brings attention to their faves through the Gallery of Winners.

I just watched The Story of Stuff, a powerful online movie about the real costs of our consumer driven culture. Narrated by activist Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff tells the story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began.

The 20-minute film definitely makes you think differently about the “things” in our lives, and reminds us that there is a cost to everything we purchase, beyond the money out of our wallet. The true cost is society, our natural resources, and the planet.

Watch the teaser below for a clip from the film, or go to The Story of Stuff’s website to watch the whole thing!

Today is former South African president Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday! In honor of his birthday, today has been declared Mandela Day in South Africa, and the former president has called on his fans and supporters around the world to spend time time “doing good” today.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid, the institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa which lasted from 1948 - 1994. Mandela was released from prison when apartheid ended and became the president for one term in 1999.

Mandela Day organizers are encouraging people around the world to devote at least a minute for each of the 67 years Mandela campaigned against apartheid to community service.

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When I was a teenager, I watched the movie Cry Freedom (1987) starring Denzel Washington which tells the story of Steven Biko, an anti-apartheid activist who was killed in police custody in 1977 for standing up for his beliefs. The movie made a huge impact on me when I watched it, and has stayed with me today. I highly recommend netflixing it!

To find out more about the work Nelson Mandela is doing today, visit the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Ever seen this image before? If you don’t recognize her, this is cultural icon Rosie the Riveter, who represents the women who took on previously male-dominated jobs during World War II. The woman’s image here is based on a real woman, Rosalie Kunert, who passed away last week at the age of 86.

Rosalie Kunert played an important role in redefining how women were perceived by proving that women could do “men’s work.” According to this obituary, Rosalie was proud of being a pioneer in creating an entirely new image of women in American society and setting the stage for future generations.

In her memory, Smart Girls Know would like to acknowledge Rosalie and all the other “riveters” who were bold, strong, and fearless in going where no women had gone before and who played a crucial role in opening doors and creating more work opportunities for women everywhere.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to highlight a camp created in Rosie the Riveter’s honor, Rosie’s Girls. Rosie’s Girls is a three week camp for girls entering 6th-8th grades that encourages participants to develop and strengthen their capacities and confidence and helps them expand their perception of the range of educational and career options that are attainable in an atmosphere that is fun, supportive and positive.

Camps are located in Vermont, Ohio, South Carolina, and California. To find out more, visit the camp’s website here.

USA Today just ran an article called Cosmetic Surgeries: What Children Will Do to Look Normal that talks about the growing trend of teenagers getting plastic surgery to improve their appearance.

In 2008, more than 160,000 children under 18 years old had cosmetic surgery, and I’m not just talking about those who had true physical abnormalities like cleft palates or the occasional nose job. Cosmetic surgeries on teens today include everything from breast implants and liposuction on ankles and calves to highly controversial procedures like what’s known as “Asian eye” surgery to widen the appearance of eyes in people of Asian descent.

The article quotes plastic surgeon Gerald Pitman, who says, “The kids I see, their desire is almost uniformly to be normal, non-deviant. Kids don’t want to stand out in a negative way.”

Is it just me or is this growing trend of teens wanting to look “uniformly normal” make Scott Westerfield’s Uglies hit a little too close to home?

While I embrace the idea that we can all create the life and reality we want, the truth is, there is nothing “real” about plastic surgery. When People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” issue is full of people who became beautiful under the knife, one has to wonder where these standards of beauty are coming from in the first place?

My biggest concern with the fact that increasing numbers of teens are going down the plastic surgery route is the fact that once you make the choice to start altering your body, you can’t go back. Here’s a quote from the article from one teen who regretted her decision to have breast implants at such a young age:

Heather Locke says being a flat-chested cheerleader from Dallas was stressful at the time, so at 17, with her mother’s blessing, she had her breasts augmented — from a 34A to a 34D bra size. “Now, looking back, I realize boobs aren’t that big of a deal,” says Locke, 23, “At that point in time, I thought that is what boys found very attractive, but now I know guys could care less. I am not unhappy, but I should have waited until I was older.”

Is it true that someone with a large nose might find themselves having more self-confidence after they’ve had a nose job? Yes. But this fact points to a bigger problem of our self-esteem being rooted in physical attributes instead of the things that make us truly unique and wonderful, like our values, our passions, our talents, our visions, and our personalities.

For more on this controversial topic, read the full article here. And to read about one girl’s struggle to find beauty in herself despite her disfiguring port wine stain birthmark, read Justina Chen Headley’s fantastic novel, North of Beautiful.

I’m a self-professed volunteer addict, so I was excited to hear that MTV has just joined forces with Huffington Post, Google, Craigslist, YouTube, FanFeedr, and UCLA to create a search engine that will allow people to search for volunteer opportunities to participate in.

The initiative, called All For Good, came about as a result of President Obama’s call for Americans to find ways to do good and volunteer for the organization of their choice.

For its part, MTV just launched Serve.MTV.com, a site that brings volunteer opportunities directly to young people. The network is airing a series of on-air PSAs in the hopes of getting viewers to the site and encouraging them to find a way to give back to the community and lend their time to make a difference. MTV will also be creating a series of viral Web videos, featuring celebrities and artists sharing their experiences in volunteerism and discussing the benefits of integrating civil service into their lifestyle.

I love it!

Let me know if you use the site to pinpoint a volunteer opportunity near you!