On 13 March, we in the Sixth Form were all very excited to attend the Wollstonecraft lecture that we thought would present a great opportunity for discussion about events that directly affect teenage girls. We welcomed Emilie Lawrence, a UCL PhD candidate, who gave a brilliant lecture on the portrayal of women in social media.

Emilie explained to us the important significance of Twitter in it's ability to create a community of women who can help to change the standardised image of beauty and encourage others to be confident in who they are. In addition to this, we learnt that social media is a great platform for peoples’ voices to be heard by brands and big companies which was effectively seen after the cosmetic brand, 'Benefit’s', inclusion of #MakeAMovieAFatty. Emilie's research has also considered how some use social media to target and attack women because of their appearance and she has monitored how women are resisting these attacks. We learnt that if more role models of all shapes and sizes are represented in the media, it will help many girls and women to feel more confident and be happy within themselves, a message which I think will spark powerful change. 

Maiya, Sixth Form