Teen Role-Models: Where Have All the Good Girls Gone?

When I was growing up, my role models fell into two categories: those I wanted to spend time with and those I wanted to look like.

It never occurred to me, as I crimped my hair and hung myself with crucifixes like mid-eighties Madonna, that she would be someone worth being stuck on a desert island with (no cheap references to the frightening “Swept Away” of 2002.)

Lost For Words

Words like “idol” and “model” are used very loosely these days.

I know I sound archaic when I make statements like that, but ask any teenager on the street what they associate with these terms and no doubt they will refer to one - if not two - reality TV shows.

While I don’t hark so far back to the time of matinée idols and Model T Fords, I do remember the days before these words strayed from their original meanings - as descriptors of people who a worthy of imitation or adoration.

Are the celebrities that occupy ninety percent of the press’ time and energy really role-models? Would any of us willingly wish the life of the young Hollywood starlet on our own kids?

If I was a teenager today, where would I find my inspiration?

Would I have thought it an everyday occurrence to drink drive, to fight in public, to have a failed marriage in my teens and to promote myself through the media by being either a spoiled, over-sexed brat or an object to be pitied?

Why Women Need Role-Models

A paper published in the influential “Psychology of Women Quarterly”, reports on a study that found that women benefit more than men from having same-gender examples of success.

More than 63 percent of women selected a woman as their academic or occupational model. Many of the study’s female participants noted that it was important to see someone who illustrates having overcome gender barriers and stereotypes.

The author, Dr Penelope Lockwood, a social psychologist specialising in research on role models and motivation, explained, “Female role models may not only be a useful example for women who are attempting to determine their potential for future achievement, they also may provide a means of undermining stereotypes that might otherwise threaten their career performance.”

So what happens when there are no positive, successful role-models to inspire young women?

In 2001 a young writer contributed to the website “Teen Ink” with a post on this issue:

“The other day, I did an online search for sites about female role models. I went to ask.com, then searched on nbci.com, yahoo and aol with the keywords “female role model.” Basically, all I came up with were fashion sites and sites for the U.S. women’s soccer and softball teams…

I feel extremely cheated. I try to discover women to view as positive role models, but no one presents anyone other than Mia Hamm, the Williams sisters or other people who are appreciated because they have athletic talent. That is nice for girls who want to play tennis or soccer, but leaves a huge void for many girls….

Females should not have to spend large amounts of time searching for women to admire. They should be out in the open and praised without a second thought. We need to move beyond the days when your average boy could spout off a list of male intellectuals who are openly adored, yet your average girl can think of maybe one or two women, and sometimes even none at all.”

Role-Models Today

So how did the results of my own search, in 2007, differ?

Just as in 2001, there were references to sporting stars, but most of the links were to new blogs like this, questioning the dearth of modern role-models.

My search also took me to “The Best Stuff in the World” website where readers ranked “The Best Female Role Model.”

The winner with 152 votes was Angelina Jolie, second place went to Gillian Anderson (X Files) with 71 votes, 32 voted for Kate Winslet and 22 for Jennifer Aniston. Some interesting inclusions were Björk (22), Lisa Simpson (20), Oprah (19) Susan Sarandon (4), Geena Davis (2), Laila Ali (2) and Eleanor Roosevelt (2).

There may be some hope it seems, given that there is a smattering of strong, positive personalities amongst the list, but this needs to be balanced with the fact that the site also had categories for “The Best Skanky Celebrity”, “The Best Slut” and the “Best Bitch.”

So What Happened to Lindsay?

Looking at the photos of all of the badly-behaving starlets, I have to wonder if maybe it was just a different world when I was growing up.

Our mothers, after all, were products of the sixties and seventies. They had lived with, embraced and even instigated major changes in their lives and on the world stage. The role of women had been redefined in their time and so perhaps they came to the role of motherhood with a determination to breed independent, change-embracing daughters.

Looking back at the movies of the 1980s, the heroines were strong-willed individuals like Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Mary Stuart Masterson and Winona Ryder. Their big sisters were Jane Fonda, Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon and (my eternal favourite) Carrie Fisher.

Despite any of the hardships and bad choices these celebrities experienced, they were never to be mistaken as mere Hollywood concoctions, more famous for the number of arrests or visits to rehab they had endured than for the work that had earned them the public spotlight in the first place.

Your Suggestions?

There are obviously a lot of great influences that women can still take inspiration from, but how do we promote these positive influences in a way that can effectively compete with the highly publicised and often misguided modern-day idols?

An obvious answer is by finding great role-models that are closer to home and more firmly rooted in reality.

I don’t think that this translates to “be a great parent.” Great parents are already powerful influences on teenagers (even if they don’t always recognise it until well into their thirties!) but it must be said that most teenagers don’t want to spend time with or look like their parents.

Role-models need to come from their own world.

They need to be credible, relevant and accessible.

But how do we recognise and promote these positive influences, so that young women understand that intelligence, kindness, creativity and self-belief are the things that should really be admired and imitated?

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