Positive Tween Role Models in Celebration of International Women's Day

Today is the 100th International Women's Day, and in honor of it, here's our list of positive role models for tween girls - please add to it!

• First Lady Michelle Obama for fighting childhood obesity and role-modeling positive parenting
• Vicki Abeles for shining a light on the "Race to Nowhere"
• Rosalind Wiseman for teaching girls how to resolve conflicts with grace and power
• Rachel Simmons for a million reasons but especially her guidance on Formspring
• Sheryl Sandberg for speaking frankly and positively about work-life balance
• Taylor Audette for her Say It 2 My face movement to take a stand against cyberbullying
• Willow Smith for making her new single, "21st Century Girl" fun and empowering
• Geena Davis for her work in raising awareness of how girls are portrayed in the media
• Liz Funk for her work in exposing the overwhelming stress girls are under
• Amy Poehler and Tina Fey for making us all laugh out loud
• Lauren Bush for showing how we can raise awareness of and help to solve hunger in everyday choices
• Tavi Gevinson for making her own path and encouraging other tweens to do the same
  

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Is Willow Smith the New Gamma Girl?

We've just seen Willow Smith's newest video, "21st Century Girl" and can't help but wonder if she's a new Gamma Girl role model. You can check out the video below and on YouTube.

The song is a sort of dance-y mantra for girls going their own way and living life on their own terms. Unlike a lot of music videos out there, "21st Century Girl" features totally positive images of girls doing everything from dancing to skateboarding to riding BMX bikes to just rocking out. It's just been released and reviews are still coming, but we think your tween will really flip for it.



Ms. Smith was just honored by the NAACP and is opening for Justin Bieber's European tour (they perform in Dublin tonight), so she's got a lot going on at the moment. We can't wait to hear what else she's got to say about girl power.

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Willow Smith Wins NAACP Image Award For Outstanding New Artist

Willow Smith has just been awarded the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist. She beat out Bruno Mars, Jason Derulo and BoB for this award, which was no small feat. Her hit single "Whip Your Hair" has been a breakout hit and the basis for the award.

Tellingly, Ms. Smith was not able to accept her award in person because she is touring with Justin Bieber.



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Fashion at The Grammys

The Grammy Awards are a night for fashion as well as music. Here's some photos of favorite tween stars from this year's show:

Justin Bieber wore a white tux from D&G

Lea Michele from Glee wore Emilio Pucci

Selena Gomez wore J.Mendel

Willow Smith wore her usual inventive ensembles

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Tweens and Fashion Week: The New Tween Style Stars

Fashion Week kicked-off in New York today, and there's a ton going on. We couldn't help but notice that a slew of tween movie stars are now being dressed by MAJOR designers, and this is going to seriously expand the exposure tweens have to big-name fashion (more so than even Project Runway).

Here's a Who's Who of who's wearing who among tween celebs:

• Chloe Moretz, age 13, has recently worn Stella McCartney, Proenza Schouler, Christian Dior, and Chanel (!)
• 9-year old Willow Smith has accompanied her parents to European fashion shows for years now. She was interviewed this week by Teen Vogue about her style (we call it fierce!) and cites Dolce and Gabbana as a favorite.
• Elle Fanning is only 12 and already wearing Marchesa and Rodarte.
• Hailee Steinfeld is now 14 but already Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress for "True Grit" (did you know that she's in EVERY frame of that film?). She's been dressed by Prabal Gurung and Prada.
• Kiernan Shipka of "Mad Men" fame is 11 years old and favors the young silhouettes of Papo d'Anjo.
• First Tween Malia Obama wore New York designer Chris Benz to the Chinese State Dinner earlier this month.

The above list is for red carpet occasions only as tweens generally keep it cool, casual and comfortable - but it IS interesting to note how much more attention is being paid to tween fashion of late.

Which other tween stars have great fashion sense?

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New Tween Style for Back to School? Willow Smith as Trendsetter With Lady Gaga Ear

Is this a sign of a new tween trend?: at The Karate Kid premiere in Paris, Willow Smith, star of the American Girl movie, "Kit Kittredge" and sister of Karate Kid movie star Jaden Smith, sported a silver painted ear. An homage to Lady Gaga perhaps?

Her avant garde haircut and stunning visage already sets her apart from the crowd - and we *heart* her rocker-chic fashion choices (did you catch her Carrie-esque ring?). Unique style must be what happens when one follows the beat of your own fashion drummer and don't cow to group-think - Willow and Jaden Smith are home-schooled.

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R.I.P. Cookie Mag

Last week we heard about the abrupt shuttering of Gourmet magazine (after decades in print and despite the amazing Ruth Riechl at the helm), but Conde Nast also closed Cookie - one of our all-time favorite magazines (Twixt used to stock Cookie for sale in the boutique). Daily Babble, a parenting blog, has as one of its lead stories today a rant against Cookie calling it "irrelevant" and chastising it for depicting an unattainable image of motherhood.

Magazines exist in large part to offer an aspirational view of life - be it Vanity Fair, Vogue, or Elle Decor - why should a parenting mag be any different?

Cookie filled a void in the marketplace as a resource for and voice of modern motherhood - it acknowledged that its mom-subscribers worked full-time outside the home and didn't make excuses for it, had lives in addition to (not in spite of or only about) their children, and had varied interests (ranging from travel to cooking to public policy issues). It sponsored community events (Washington DC enjoyed a Gourmet and Cookie Kids' Restaurant Week in June this year), highlighted independent and emerging home and fashion designers/restaurants/hotels (this is actually how we found one of our family's all-time favorite restaurants in DC, Eamonn's), and celebrated family life in general. It didn't speak down to its readers - it understood that we are a more cosmopolitan/urbane lot - and provided an antidote to the often cloying magazines on motherhood (which seem to assume an unending supply of both patience and time on the part of moms).

We had wished that Cookie would expand its coverage to include trends/reporting/research for parents of tweens - not to disappear entirely. It was the rare magazine that just seemed to "get it". Cookie will be greatly missed.

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