The White Girl Syndrome

For our Take Action Project (pre-Gold Award Project) we became interested in the idea of the "Missing White Woman Syndrome" due to all the news coverage about the disappearances of two young San Diego women (from our home town). Have you heard of the Missing White Woman Syndrome? Probably not. Much research has been discovered stating that thousands of teenage girls/women go missing each year. However, not all of them get the same coverage. The Missing White Woman Syndrome suggests a form of bias by the media that concentrates on, you guessed it, white girls and women only. Our goal is to make people more aware of this phenomenon because every life matters whether you are Caucasian, African American, Asian or of any other ethnicity. Everyone should get an equal chance to be found. To educate the public about the disparity in media coverage we made a short informative video drawing attention to the situation. Feel free to browse the links below for more information. This way you may form your own opinions on the subject.
Please comment below; we are interested in your thoughts!
Thanks,
Claire and Giulia


Here's our video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru6ae6ooxDk


And here's some additional information:
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/03/diagnosing-missing-white-woman.html

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/media/missing-white-woman-syndrome/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

For our Guide It! Project, we decided to do presentations on our respective sports. There is a lot of things one might not know about Tennis or Crew, and we hope to show you all how our sports have really taught us valuable lessons and made a very positive impact on our lives.







So my sport isn't like Football or Lacrosse. You wouldn't think it to be intense, but easy-going and girly. In fact, tennis is VERY intense. Have you ever seen the sweat and tears of a never-ending game where every point matters? Have you ever seen girls fighting with all their strength to win? Not letting a mere point get away? Tennis isn't about how well you hit the ball. (I mean it is) but at the same time it is a completely mental game. To play you must have confidence in yourself and others. You have to be able to trust yourself and stay calm to be able to beat the person with whom you're playing (singles). And in doubles you have to trust your partner to help you carry the team, because it is not just you playing them. It's both of you against them. However, mainly believing in yourself and your ability is the key to playing well.
-giulia







Rowing is a strange sport to some people. Since it is very time-consuming and a bit elitist, many people have no idea what kind of a sport it really is. It is probably one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports out there, with workouts being up to an hour and a half without stopping, pulling your guts out with every stroke. But this isn't just an arm workout, with all major muscle groups being engaged, and it's not just the physical rewards that make crew a great sport. You make lifelong friends by getting through things like early Saturday morning practices and six kilometer tests together. Crew is a great sport, and has really taught me volumes about myself as well as how to work together with many different types of people.
-claire

Collages

Giulia's

Claire's

In the Girl Scout Journey booklet "It's Your World-Change It", Girltopia is described as a girl's ultimate world. Giulia and I created a representation of what we thought Girltopia is for each of us in two collages for the Create It portion of the Journey. This is our first project in the Journey, and we had a lot of fun. Next up? More journaling and the "Guide It" Project, which we will work on in our next meeting in about three weeks.