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Advocate: Liz Funk, author of Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls
Websites: LizFunk.com
About: Liz is a freelance writer and college student living in New York City. Her book, “Supergirls Speak Out,” is an investigative look at the overwhelming pressure to be perfect that afflicts many young women in her generation.

Respect Rx: What inspired you to get involved in girl advocacy?
Liz: I’ve always believed very strongly in feminism and women’s rights, and when I got into high school I found I was really interested in activism. I was constantly writing letters to the editor and opinion articles for local newspapers. I did some organizing with the National Organization for Women and Choice USA, and I really felt strongly about raising my voice and encouraging other young women to do so as well.

What strikes you as the most pressing issue facing girls today?
I think the most pressing issue facing young women today is one that’s scarcely discussed: Today’s young women have been raised without a sense of intrinsic worth. I think many girls aren’t conscious of the fact that they have real, genuine value that’s completely isolated from how they look or what people think of them or what they do. I think many young women are hurting inside because they don’t understand that they are valuable, and that’s a sensation that breeds a lot of the issues that are being talked about in the media, such as eating disorders and teens doing drugs, drinking too much coffee, not sleeping enough. They all stem from not having a sense of self value. I think this generation of young women who seek to do everything and please everyone and look effortlessly perfect are really working for this desire to be something more because they haven’t been taught that they’re good enough the way that they are.

How are you working to effect change?
I wrote “Supergirls Speak Out,” which is about something very close to my heart. My entire life, my friends have always been discussing why there’s so much pressure on young women, why they have an endless agenda of things to do. For the book, I interviewed almost 100 young women and I followed five specific girls in the summer and fall of 2007. I’m really hoping the message that gets across is that although the situation seems pretty dire now I think the conditions for young women will start to improve when we start to hold the media and society accountable for the very rigid female ideal they convey to girls.

If you could talk to yourself as a young girl, what would you say?
I think on the most basic level, I think I was very self-loathing as a teenager. I think I really needed to hear “you have real worth. You don’t need to change anything about yourself to make you you.” It was interesting to think about how two years ago when I was 17, I really thought that being tan and being blonde would be what made me a better me. Now that I’ve grown more, I sense that I was very sad. I’ve been working to adjust my own supergirl behaviors, and I think I could’ve used some sort of core-building self-esteem messages.

What advocacy accomplishment are you most proud of?
When I got the galleys of my book, it was amazing to have this copy in my hand and be like wow, I did this. And it might change something.

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