Teen Tour Shares Secret To Self-Esteem (NAPS)—The Secret to Self- Esteem Program haskickedoff its third year of helping girls become strong women with the launch of the Teen Esteem Tour. The tour carries the self-esteem message to thousands of seventh and eighth grade girls and their parents and mentors nationwide from January to May, 2001. R&B superstar Mya, a strong advocate of self-esteem for girls, and Ann Kearney-Cooke, Ph.D, an author and leading authority on adolescent issues, will visit junior R&B singer Mya addresses high schools to address issues of local concern. teen girls during a stop on the Teen Esteem Tour. Teen Esteem Tour, a full day symposium at the University of Texas issues the survey showed to be During the first stop on the at Austin, more than 400 teen girls and their parents and mentors learned the importance of healthy self-esteem in young women and how to achieve it. They also had the opportunity to personally interact with some of today’s most accomplished and inspiring female role models, such as L.A. Sparks Center and mem- ber of the gold medal winning U.S. 2000 Olympic Basketball mostprevalent in that city. The Secret to Self-Esteem Program isthe result of a collaboration between two major organizations. In 1998, Secret Anti-perspirant and the Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia University cre- ated the program with the objective of providing teen girls with practi- cal skills and solutions to build healthy self-esteem. The program was developed in the wake of Olympic gold medal winner Laura studies showing that teenagegirls experience a loss of self-esteem which has been linked to teen pregnancy, high dropoutrates, eating disorders and even suicide. ner Michele Smith; 1992 Olympic silver medal track star Sandra tors can access the “10 Tips for Healthy Self-Esteem” on the team Lisa Leslie; diver and 2000 Wilkinson; Houston Comets Forward Tina Thompson; 2000 Olympic Softball gold medal win- Farmer-Patrick; and Director of NASA’s Equal Opportunity Office Estella HernandezGillette. Dr. Kearney-Cooke shared the results of the program’s third annual Seventeen magazineselfesteem survey, in which more than 2,200 teen girls participated via the Internet. Findings include: e Nearly one in two girls between 11 and 19 have considered cosmetic surgery; Nearly two out of three are dissatisfied with their weight; 33 percent of girls surveyed struggle with overeating behaviors. At each stop on the Secret to Self-Esteem Teen Esteem Tour, Dr. Kearney-Cooke will focus on the All teens and parents or men- Secret Anti-perspirant Web site, www.secretstrength.com. Secret Anti-perspirant is the numberoneselling brand of antiperspirant and deodorant for women. A Procter & Gamble brand, Secret stands for feminine strength and continues to embrace helping girls build healthy self- esteem. The Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia University is a collaboration between academic medicine and the private sector, devoted to the study of gender-specific medicine. This growing area of expertise is the science of how diagnosis and treatment of disease differ dueto gender.
