Celebrity Icons
Who should teens admire?
By Sarah Asante
Young girls have been forced to look up to celebrities as their icons. Their future, their hopes and dreams. Eyes open full of wonder saying “That’s what I want to be when I grow up!” In Britain recently female youngsters were told that we would have to look up to Footballers WAG’s that is (Wives & Girlfriends). The Learning & Skills Council told us that this was the new thinking. Yes, the same women who are pictured in our newspapers falling out of nightclubs half drunk, shopping for designer clothes and sunning themselves in the tropics; not known for their intellectual abilities. Apparently we are told that these are people that young women want to emulate in every way. Not only in body have weight and looks, but also with an athletic, rich boyfriend in tow of course. There is a saying “Prettiness may |
be in vain but knowledge is worth far more then corals”. As Lily Allen lamented “What happened to looking up to your mother and aunts?” Where I currently work, a prestigious University in London the Regional Director is a woman, many of my colleagues and Managers are women and it really is a joy to see bright women who are generally older then me being so active and knowledgeable, running households, working in careers to be admired, and having fun. Who should teens admire? Teens should look up to their mothers, Teachers, Aunts and Grandmothers, the ones who worked hard to teach us to live a decent lifestyle, and brought us forth into the world.
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