Every week this March, we’re going to be highlighting a theme from Kate T. Parker’s photographic salute to the strength of girls, Strong is the New Pretty. First up, we celebrate confidence—a quality all young women should be encouraged to cultivate and keep.

Confident Is Strong

In the workforce, women earn an estimated average of just seventy-nine cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. In sports broadcasting, female athletic competitions represent 5 percent of the allotted airtime. And in film and television, female protagonists make up only 12 percent of cinematic roles. Tell that to Kekai, with the determined stare or Caroline, with her unwavering poise as she balances on pointe. These girls are intelligent and clever, talented and strong—and they know it. They are confident. And they offer hope, too—hope that the inequity will disappear as this generation of girls grows into adulthood.

The confidence that they display in these photos will push them through the times when they feel hesitant or unsure or nervous. Confidence will push them, period. The challenge is in holding on to this power, this confidence, so they can help fuel the change that the world needs.

Do them a favor and remind these girls of their strength. Remind each other of your strength. Often. Write it down if you need to: the ways in which you are smart, the ways in which you are qualified, the ways in which you are strong. Put them on your wall, say them out loud—internalize them. Believe them. Remind these girls of their strength. Don’t let them waste any precious time wishing they looked like anyone else. Your daughter, your niece, your sister, your cousin—she looks and acts and sings and walks and talks and works and plays like herself.

About the Book

Girls being fearless. Girls being silly. Girls being wild, stubborn, and proud. Girls whose faces are smeared with dirt and lit up with joy. So simple and yet so powerful, Strong Is the New Pretty celebrates, through more than 175 memorable photographs, the strength and spirit of girls being 100% themselves.

Real beauty isn’t about being a certain size, acting a certain way, wearing the right clothes, or having your hair done (or even brushed). Real beauty is about being your authentic self and owning it. Kate T. Parker is a professional photographer who finds the real beauty in girls, capturing it for all the world to see in candid and arresting images.

A celebration, a catalog of spirit in words and smiles, an affirmation of the fact that it’s what’s inside you that counts, Strong Is the New Pretty conveys a powerful message for every girl, for every mother and father of a girl, for every coach and mentor and teacher, for everyone in the village that it takes to raise a strong and self-confident person.

Buy the Book
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