Ypulse: What inspired the Boy Scouts' rebranding efforts, particularly the emphasis on technology?

Bob Mersereau: Our inspiration was the milestone of our 100th anniversary.  We realized this was our once in a lifetime opportunity to remind the nation in a big and bold way that Scouting has never been more relevant or needed than it is today.

YP: Can you describe one or two of the new initiatives that demonstrate this new image? Which ones and why?

BM: The BSA has made significant strides in using technology to reach and engage young people. We’ve gotten active on social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter and have incorporated really fun and even cutting-edge technologies into our programming routine including:

• The 12th edition of the Boy Scouts of America Handbook is available via an iPhone app plus there is an accompanying website that is designed to enhance the overall experience.
• Over the next year, we are introducing three new technology-oriented merit badges including Robotics, Inventing and Geocaching.
• During our centennial celebration in Washington D.C., the BSA hosted Scout Quest, its first digital scavenger hunt using smart phones, QR codes, Facebook and Twitter.

YP: What myths or misconceptions would you most like to clear up about the Boy Scouts?

BM: It’s important for people to understand how robust and impactful the Scouting program is. We show young people a lot of fun and adventure, but they also learn a lot about life. Scouts learn how to work as part of a team, and how to lead. They learn about the importance of service to others, and personal achievement. They come to understand integrity and respect, and all in the context of a healthy, active lifestyle.  We have millions of alumni still using the skills and living by the principles they learned in Scouting years ago.

YP: What challenges do you face in reaching new scouts and how do you hope to address these?

BM: We run the risk of becoming irrelevant if we don’t adapt to things that attract kids today, but we run the run the risk of losing our way if we abandon the principles of the Scout Law. The world in which our members live is changing rapidly, and as we enter our next 100 years, our greatest challenge is to adapt to the new issues and trends our members are facing. These include:

• Competing for youth’s time and attention when they have more choices than ever before. We believe our program is unique in its robust offerings — we not only take young people on an adventure through Scouting, but we teach them lifelong skills, how to make ethical choices, and live lives with character.
• Ensuring the organization remains relevant in an increasingly digital world, through our increased use of technology as mentioned above.
• Making sure the organization represents the changing demographics of our country, through focused efforts such as our Hispanic Initiative, Multicultural Outreach, and Scoutreach program.
• Addressing the critical challenge of youth wellness including physical fitness, healthy eating and emotional well-being. This is an increasingly serious national issue and the BSA is in a unique position to be part of the solution. There are few other organizations better positioned to offer high-energy, outdoor activities that also build character and set kids on a solid path for success.

YP: Why is the Boy Scouts experience still valuable today? How do the values and skill set scouts take away now compare with the past?

BM: One of the greatest things about Scouting is that we have stayed true to our mission for one hundred years.  The fundamentals of Scouting — service to others, respecting and embracing the outdoors, doing your best, achieving your potential — are timeless. As long as our country needs strong leaders and healthy young people, it will need Scouting.

Although, we do recognize that more than ever we must be nimble and flexible in the ways we reach out to young people and parents in today’s fast-paced, high-tech world. In addition to the emphasis on technology, our merit badge program is another great example of how the BSA is constantly adapting to best deliver our mission.  We strive to develop new areas of study. Today’s Scouts work on 21st century subjects like composite materials, nuclear science, and oceanography, while Scouts of the past earned merit badges in bee farming, blacksmithing, and signaling.

YP: Anything else Ypulse readers should know?

BM: While our 100th anniversary has provided us with the opportunity to reflect on our past, we are looking to the future. We are reintroducing Scouting to the next generation of young leaders and reconnecting millions of alumni with the BSA. We invite the young people of today and tomorrow to join the more than 114 million who have already shared in the adventure of the a lifetime and learn what Scouting can offer them today…and for the rest of their lives.

And, the Boy Scouts of America isn’t just for boys anymore.  The organization has a co-ed program called Venturing that emphasizes high-adventure experiences for young women ages 14 to 20.  Come see what we’re all about.

For more information about the the Boy Scouts of America's new initiatives, visit www.scouting.org.

Ypulse: What inspired you to create a social network for kids that directly involved parents?

Mandeep Dhilllon: My kids were the real inspiration behind Togetherville. When my two oldest were 4 and 2, I was sent on an assignment in India, and we brought our computer for them to watch movies on. Instead of just using it as a media device, my son really adopted it as way to communicate with our family in the US via Skype. Even more, he was using it to create pictures and then wanted to share those pictures with me and his friends and family.

That got me thinking about the way kids use technology and the internet, and how much or how little their parents allow them to interact online. For the most part, my own friends were leery of letting their kids use the internet because of the potential of seeing something age inappropriate. I wanted to build a site that focused on the child, giving them a place where they could experience all the great things that the online universe has to offer in a kid-friendly way, and where parents can also be involved in those activities. We started developing the site almost immediately, and Togetherville is now a place that encompasses all those original goals and more.

YP: Could you describe how research on kids and tweens today and input from kids helped shape the site?

MD: As we have been working on Togetherville over the past three years, one thing became clear – there are very few people who really understand how kids will engage with technology. So we decided to consult the experts – the kids themselves. One challenge with this audience is that they cannot tell you what they want, but they are very good at telling you what they like and don't like. We have been very actively testing our product with kids of all ages to understand broad strokes and nuances about how children want to engage with technology, and it is ever-evolving.

Today adults are actively networking or surfing the web at both work and home, and kids in these homes are picking up on these behaviors – they want to be able to surf and network as well. However, it became very clear that the web for kids did not equal the web for adults. Our kid testers during our 6 months of private beta really helped us understand how to make our product more compelling for kids.

To further understand how to deliver a more compelling online experience for kids and their adults, we've worked with several advisors, whose expertise range from child safety and child design to leaders in the social internet. Our advisors have provided such great perspective, and we've gained tremendously from their knowledge and experience. With our advisors' guidance and our kid testers' unabashed opinions, our team has been able to develop an amazing site for kids and their grownups.

YP: What do you think is the biggest misconception out there?

MD: I firmly believe that the Internet is the single greatest learning tool ever created, but we do our best to keep kids off it until we feel comfortable with them being online. Kids today have technology influencing their daily life, and I think there is a misconception that kids will abuse the privilege of being able to access the Internet and will be looking at inappropriate material if they are allowed to roam the web. While this may be true in older kids and tweens, young children can benefit greatly from a little guidance on what kind of material is ok, like their choice of sites, and then giving them some independence in exploring those sites.

YP: What types of challenges are raised by co-marketing a site to tweens as well as parents, particularly with underage users sneaking onto Facebook regardless of restrictions?

MD: Prior to Togetherville, there was no age-appropriate equivalent to Facebook, but there was a real need because kids so desperately wanted a social network like their parents. The biggest challenge we faced was creating an experience that was easy for both kids and adults to understand, and to make sure parents felt that their kids were safe. We spent a lot of time at the drawing board trying to figure out the best way to weave parents and kids together, and considerable testing and research went in to the final design to determine the acceptable level of parental involvement while still maintaining that the site was for kids and about kids.

We believe we have found a great starting point, and will continue to work with adults and kids to broaden and deepen their online experiences over time.

YP: Aside from safety, what tools does Togetherville hope to provide as "social-networking training wheels for families"? Why are these skills important to develop?

MD: Today's kids are the first generation to have computers and the Internet influences every aspect of their life, but we are not giving them the very important lesson of how to use these tools appropriately. We do a great job of telling them what they can't do online from an early age, but we don't tell them what they can do and how to interact with others online in a meaningful way. Togetherville gives kids more than just a social network; it teaches kids positive online behavior so they can be good digital citizens. And kids will learn this from watching how their parents and other trusted adults interact with their neighborhood on the site. Today's children will always have an online aspect of their lives – teaching them to be good digital citizens should have the same importance as teaching them values and "citizenship" in the real world.

Social networking may be intuitive for adults who have learned how to interact with each other online and off, but kids are just starting to learn how to behave in social situations. We need to help kids learn how to interact with each other without having social or facial cues to tell them how someone feels about what they’ve said or done. By teaching kids positive online behaviors early, we can help them as they grow and join other social networks, start blogs, or post comments. Their online identity will follow them for the rest of their life, and by educating them to be good digital citizens, we’ll help them avoid falling into online traps or posting information that could negatively impact them as a teen or adult.

YP: How do you see growing up on social networks affecting the family dynamic now and in coming years?

MD: Today's online environment has virtually erased the distance between family members both down the street and across the globe, and the increased level of transparency online — through the sharing of information, whether thoughts, pictures, creations or emotions — is unprecedented and can bring more people closer. Because of this, my kids will never lose touch with their family and friends, and they can maintain a very personal, shared relationship despite the distance of miles or years. While I believe this will lead to the need for better management of information and sharing, I also believe that social networks will create greater awareness of people who have things in common, whether their classmates, family or friends.

In a survey of nearly 3,000 Americans ages 8 to 24 conducted last year by Harris Interactive, 94 percent said they had at least one close friend. But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying.

But a "close friend" isn't really the same as a best friend. I remember when I was in grade school, I had a best friend for awhile, until she decided another girl deserved the coveted spot more than me. It was sort of comparable to being dumped by a boyfriend. From there on out, I decided to save myself the friendship heartbreak and only have friends — close friends, but not one singled-out best friend. It was a learning experience, and I like to think it gave me some early insight into how quickly a tweenager can go all "Mean Girls" on you (faster than you can say "Regina George," I learned).

“When two children discover a special bond between them, we honor that bond, provided that neither child overtly or covertly excludes or rejects others,” said Jan Mooney, a psychologist at the Town School, a nursery through eighth grade private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. “However, the bottom line is that if we find a best friend pairing to be destructive to either child, or to others in the classroom, we will not hesitate to separate children and to work with the children and their parents to ensure healthier relationships in the future.”

Getting ditched by a friend is no fun, but is it healthy for an adult to step in to "prevent" any potential best friend breakups? And is it even necessary? The New York Times posted a follow-up on "The Learning Network" blog, and most of the comments are from teens who don't have a best friend (or, in the words of one commenter, a "bff"). It's possible that because this generation of tweens and teens are in constant communication with half their class via texting and chatting, the desire to have a best friend to begin with has disappeared. After all, as another recent article in the Times tackling modern-day friendship showed, it's boring to just text one person all the time.

About Casey

Casey is a freelance writer, longtime blogger, and recent journalism graduate from Missouri. At 14-years-old, she created TeenFashionista.com and continues to write about pretty dresses and pop culture there. (Now 22, she's no longer a teen, though she often still feels like one.) Casey has written for numerous publications, interned at several magazines, including Teen Vogue, and worked as a Ypulse assistant editor and contributor. Most recently, she wrote a book about turning your dorm room into a stylish dwelling. Dorm Living, published by Globe Pequot Press.

As always you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com…or just leave a comment below.

Growing Up And Out Of Tween Social Networks

Beginning from a young age, I've spent a lot of my free time online. While now that time is mostly spent on Facebook, back then I used different social games and another social network. Here's how I got from there to here..

As many of you might know from popular sites like Club Penguin, and Webkinz, a lot of virtual world communities aimed at kids operate in the same way: A player gets an avatar and a house, and then plays games to earn currency to purchase more outfits, and furniture. While this might sound boring to adults, it can be appealing for a child who doesn’t have real world purchasing power, especially when combined with addicting casual games. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, kids spend 45 minutes a month on Club Penguin.

Another key to many of these worlds is the toys. In games like Webkinz, the more real toys a child buys, the more virtual currency they get. Personally, I tried many of these types of sites as a kid, and grew bored of them pretty quickly. Unfortunately for the parents who end up footing the bill, there are a lot of different types of sites (some with real world components, some without), and there will probably be one to cater to most kid’s interests. For, tweens who like celebrities and fashion there's Stardoll, for little girls who like fairies, Disney has created a social network revolving around their Tinkerbell franchise. Nick also created their own virtual world, as did Cartoon Network though Cartoon Network’s is more like an online RPG [role-playing game].

Personally I only went on one social network regularly when I was younger: Virtual Magic Kingdom (now closed). This was a temporary network created for Disney’s anniversary. It took a similar approach to games like Webkinz, except it was integrated into the theme parks. You could win prizes for your avatar by visiting the park and taking on quests. I actually learned about the game from a visit to Disneyland. We had annual passes at the time, so I visited pretty frequently and when I was at home I would go on the network a few times daily. Although I can't remember exactly, I would estimate I used it from about ages eight to eleven. The site was aimed at kids around that age, but adults and teenagers populated the world too.

Most were there just to play games and hang out, but there was also some pushing of boundaries. The truth is despite moderators, chat filters, and only being able to use certain words, there was occasionally  underground activity. Players could visit each others’ rooms, and some of the things that went on were not appropriate. Even when Disney limited it to certain words, it was easy to get around filters. For instance, if you wanted to tell someone your age, you added “on” and “to” until you got to the correct number. It wasn't all that difficult to create a code. Some sites now have started to limit phrases, and only let kids use a set of pre-made sentences, but I personally would leave the game if this was done. It makes it difficult to say anything at all. For example, if I was a tween girl, I couldn’t ask another player if she watched ICarly, even though that's a harmless question, because that would not be included in the set phrases. Who really wants to have a conversation using sentences like “What is your favorite color?" and that's it? I can’t imagine this is too fun for kids. Super filtering chat just takes out the fun and most kids aren't looking for trouble (they have enough street smarts not to give out their address or last name).

Another challenge for these communities comes as  kids grow older. For me it was around age 11-12, when I made the transition from using sites like I previously mentioned, to sites like Facebook. Even back in 2008 Chief Marketer data surveying 10-14 year olds shows 72% have a profile on at least one social networking site, 64% visit social networking sites at least once per day, and 34% spend four or more hours per week on social networking sites. 54% have a MySpace profile, and 35% have a Facebook profile This matches my personal experience. I had a friend who played Webkinz in middle school, but she was too ashamed to admit it to anyone but me. Tweens are so eager to become teenagers they tend to start using sites like Facebook early on.

My opinion that it doesn’t matter how safe developers try to make these games, kids will still experiment with what they can say and do… and eventually grow up and leave them for free-range networks like Facebook. Each generation has matured earlier on, and Gen Y is no exception.  On the whole, I'm guessing what's important to kids today is what was important to me — playing fun games and exploring a fantasy world.

About Julia

Julia is a freshman in high school in Claremont California. A self proclaimed Otaku (anime obsessive person) she strives to complete her immersion into the world of Japanese pop culture. In between school and homework she watches the latest Japanese anime on the internet, reads manga, plays video games, and practices Japanese. Though she is not a fabulous writer by nature, Julia does enjoy writing fan fiction related to said interests and occasionally immersing herself in online role-play sessions. In addition, she loves mashing up anime and game clips into anime music videos which she posts on YouTube, participating in her school’s debate team in novice LD, and of course reading. Julia is incredibly excited to be on the Youth Advisory Board, and able to express her opinions, which she has plenty of.

What it is.. According to their own description, "Togetherville is a social online community for families where parents create safe online neighborhoods for their kids (under 10) to play and connect with the real-life friends and family they already know and trust." Translation: A co-marketed social network that looks to appeal to kids/tweens with all the elements of Facebook, plus a few kid-minded extras.. and their parents with the ability to participate and closely monitor that environment.

Who it's for.. The closed social network component is targeted towards kids under 10 (roughly 6-10) — too young to make the cutoff for Facebook, but old enough to want to partake in posting/commenting, collecting apps, playing edutainment-type games and other social activities like sharing videos or buying virtual gifts (virtual good sales are also the main revenue stream for the site..). Parents logging in to TogetherVille are invited/required to use their own Facebook log-ins to create an account, which then identifies the friends and family already on TogetherVille. From there, parents can send their kids virtual gifts, review their activities and admire the works of virtual art their child has created.

What works for us… Safety comes first, but it doesn't set the tone for the space. What I really appreciate about TogetherVille is the fact that parents aren't just monitoring for the sake of monitoring, but actually invited to become active participants in the space in their own rite through gift-giving, wall postings, etc. While slightly hard to imagine as a "digital native," for a generation that grows up expecting to find parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and everyone else they know in these digital spaces, normalizing that type of online interaction and building on it (reading about parents checking out virtual art totally made me imagine virtual fridges) makes sense. I have to chalk some of the credit for that balance to the great team of advisors the site recruited including longtime Ypulse friend Anne Collier of ConnectSafely.org and Ann McCormick, founder of the Learning Company; Cory Ondrejka, co-founder of Second Life among others.

Challenges.. While that type of harmonious co-existence may be in the not-so-distant future of parenting online, I still wonder whether the tween spectrum of the target audience (the 8-10 year-olds) wouldn't bristle at this degree of parental supervision. The same type of inclusiveness that draws parents into Togetherville, might take some warming up to for those kids who have had more exposure to sites with more free reign.  The fact is a lot of these pre-teens already are on Facebook (some with parental consent, some not) and learning about digital citizenship as they go (see this recent study). That and the fact that so many other social networks are jumping on the tween/kid bandwagon, might make it all the more important that the other fun elements pack something special. I have no doubt that's the idea, but I'd love to hear some testimonies from real tweens who have compared what's out there. Overall though, we have to salute a site built on the idea of imparting (but not pushing) lessons about positive online behavior and what it means to be a good digital citizen.

Ypulse: Can you describe how content is created for Take 180? How much viewer input is involved?

Chris Williams: We start with our audience (primarily females 13-17) and ask them to participate in authentic ways. For example, on “I <3 Vampires,” our main characters run the biggest fansite for a fictional book series, which gives us a device for having them speak directly to the audience through vlogs that are incorporated into the show. When they get into trouble, they ask the audience for help, with the winning responses actually dictating the plot of a future episode. Sometimes, video responses from the audience literally appear within an episode. On “Electric Spoofaloo,” we ask the audience if they have a question for a (fake) celebrity, and for ideas on how to spoof movies or TV shows, and those ideas are produced into episodes. We go from audience participation to selecting a winner to producing a video in a matter of weeks.

YP: What unique advantages and disadvantages are there for web series compared with traditional broadcast television shows?

CW: Since we all use the internet as a two-way communications platform, the main advantage for a web series is that we have an amazing opportunity to create deep and highly engaged relationships with the audience. In today's cluttered media environment, those relationships are absolutely critical to growing and monetizing audiences. That clutter probably represents the main disadvantage to web series, as well. The web is the greatest distraction machine the world has ever known. That's why we're all about creating engagement, forging relationships through participation, and developing series that create value for existing communities, such as vampire fans.

YP: How do those advantages and disadvantages apply specifically to a teen audience?

CW: Teens are most open to web series, since they spend so much of their free time online and are used to engaging with content. On the flip side, breaking out of the clutter is the greatest challenge facing any company developing web content.

YP: Why do you think networks have had so much trouble translating web series into long form content on TV (quarterlife, College Humor Show)? Are there any plans to take any of the Take 180 shows to another platform?

CW: Frankly, translating anything to television is tough. We have seen that the web audience favors different attributes in a web series, such as developing a personal connection with someone on-screen, which is more difficult to foster on TV.

T180 has plans to engage audiences via mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone and on social networking platforms, specifically Facebook.

YP: What has changed on the Take 180 site since the official launch last year? Can you describe some of the new developments you're most excited about?

CW: We increasingly think of Take180 as a network rather than a site and have focused a lot of our resources on our YouTube channel, which now has over 200,000 subscribers. We've also made participation more essential to our content so that its impact is more than superficial. We’ve really started focusing on two primary franchises, one dramatic, “I <3 Vampires” and one comedic, “Electric Spoofaloo.” Within each franchise, we produce a range of segments and other content. For example, with “Electric Spoofaloo,” which we want teens to think of as SNL for their generation, we have created a variety of segments such as “The Faux-1-1” and “Fake Celebrity Auditions.” With “I <3 Vampires” we’ve expanded the universe by creating numerous spinoff shows. Because the main show is about two fangirls of a fictional book series, the audience demanded that we make the book real. We obliged and are releasing the chapters one by one online.

YP: Do you think we'll see the dialogue around branded entertainment change between studios, brands, and talent or do you think we'll still see brands struggling to get on board?

CW: The dialogue is constantly changing, and the consumer leads. In the end, whoever produces content that engages an audience will ultimately lead the conversation.

YP: Anything else Ypulse readers should know?

CW: Yes! Last year, we focused on audience growth through high quality content and are proud to announce we just received three Official Honoree designations in this year’s Webby Awards and are now generating over 5 million video views per month across our network. We’ve also begun telling our story to outside brand marketers. As part of The Walt Disney Company, we started internally with several campaigns in support of other Disney business units that have been major successes. For example, a series of Spoofaloo episodes sponsored by Walt Disney Pictures’ “G-Force” last year produced our most viewed video ever, “Guinew Moon,” with over 7 million total views. The campaign demonstrably moved the needle with the teen audience's desire to see the movie.

About Take180

Take180 is a new online network targeting teens that features broadcast-quality shows made with audience participation. With its official launch in April 2009, members of Take180 contribute videos, stories, photos and artwork in response to specific challenges from the show producers. Winning submissions are featured in future episodes, and the winners of each challenge receive various prizes. Much of Take180’s original web content revolves around pop culture and what’s happening now in youth culture.

What it is… According to their own description, "a new class of C.O.P.P.A.-compliant social networking technology tools, targeting tween girls and boys ages 8 to 13. Everloop provides a world-class social networking experience for the tween demographic, who are deemed too young for sites like Facebook, MySpace and other major social networks or utilities." Translation: Facebook with training wheels, i.e. different degree of parental controls and heightened security measures including a patent pending Privacy Panel that makes sure members’ privacy is protected

Who it's for: As mentioned, the site is targeted towards 8-13 year old boys and girls who aren't eligible for older sites like Facebook or MySpace [though 13-year-olds can join MySpace and Facebook]. Parents are involved by setting the security controls at either the high, medium or low level and then, at 13 (assuming the tween doesn't graduate to Facebook?) can make the choice to stop monitoring altogether.

What works for us… From the bright, splashy blue homepage to the simplicity of the Everloop logo, nothing about the site itself screams "kids!" or worse yet, "kidz!" in the way that some tween platforms do. Instead, with profile customization options like themes and stickers (enter brand involvement from the likes of Nike among others) the site allows its users to determine how sophisticated they want the environment to be…or not if they choose to indulge in the sillier features like interactive Goobs that allow users to pull virtual pranks like T.P'ing each other's profiles and whatnot. By only slightly embellishing on the MySpace and Facebook models with offerings like an original tween hosted web series ("Top 10 with Dani"), universal currency (Evercredit) and an arcade, the site makes gestures to its tween users without condescending to them.

Challenges: As refreshing as it is to see an inclusive online space for tween girls and boys, the main challenge I see is drawing them there in the first place without a clear hook. This isn't the first independent under-13 social networking site to set out to conquer the tween market (Imbee, anyone?),  and like CEO Hilary DeCesare notes in her video interview on Venture Beat there is "always the next one that comes out tomorrow that has cooler features" and "the things that kids want today." Although I can see the logic in countering those flash-in-the-pan niche sites with a more blank slate approach that offers "everything Facebook has.. and more!" without crossing over into virtual world territory , I wonder how many tweens might prefer to either wait or just lie about their age to get on to the real Facebook or MySpace instead. My sense is that it depends on who gets turned on to the site in the first place (parents vs. peers), and who starts spreading the word.

For more coverage of the tween space, check out the Ypulse Tweens Channel.

Ypulse: What are some of the new developments at hangPROUD that you're most excited about?

Carla Alpert & Diane Prefontaine [hangPROUD]: Clearly two things. One is our off-line groups called PROUDgirls on the MOVE, which I'll speak more about in the next question and the other is our video Q&A with Berna! We're offering our members the option to go to "Ask Berna" and ask her questions about PROUDgirl Pro, Media and Life. She answers some questions by written reply on the site but then chooses one a week to answer in her video reply. She has won over our viewers with her keen wit and infectious personality on video, and is also able to project this same sense of imagination and creativity in her written answers. Berna has the unique ability to mix in just the right amount of humor and sarcasm to make her irresistible. These are not to be missed.

YP: We love your empowering mission statement. What are some of the ways "you help girls and women turn negative inner dialog into positive action and make a huge difference in their community"?

hP: Our BIG message is to encourage girls to stop wasting time obsessing about all they think they are lacking and start embracing their unique beauty and individual strengths. We believe when you can use those strengths to make a difference that it creates change not only for the people you help, but also for yourself. You become PROUD of your accomplishments and the focus on yourself begins to shift.

We set the stage for our readers to this by offering articles on how to Pay It Forward, so our readers can get ideas on how to make a difference right now! Also we do workshops with girls and sometimes their moms, and we now have PROUDgirl on the Move Teams who are out in their communities making change. These are groups of girls who get together and decide they want to create a team. We provide the PGOM Kit which includes a handbook, team tee shirts, access to a personal on-line facilitator, identity activities, and at completion we provide a letter of recommendation as well as a personalized surprise for each of the girls. The teams can communicate with each other and have the opportunity to upload their videos, photos, and blogs about their PROUDgives on our PGOM area found at on the hangPROUD Ning page. We are also getting close to offering scholarships. The visions is that once the member completes the PGOM program, she is eligible to apply for a corporate sponsored scholarship. For more information on starting a PGOM Team you can read about the details on the site.

YP: Can you describe some of the recent or more persistent challenges that young women face when it comes to trying to achieve that goal? How can teen media help be a part of the solution?

hP: Well, it doesn't happen overnight, and like everything it takes time to undo what you've spent years building. So if you're used to having negative inner dialog, you have to start practicing changing that one negative comment at a time. By taking action with some of the things we offer as mentioned in the previous question, this helps the process for sure. Overall we've been programmed to think we're never quite as beautiful or as good as the next girl and this is in large part due to the media as we know it. Slowly the media is shifting, but it will take a long time, if ever, to stop seeing unrealistic images of beauty in magazines or stop hearing obsessive conversations about weight and body types. We think that if girls and women continue to unite and take a stand against this, we will see more and more magazines, TV shows and other media shifting towards reality.

YP: Who are some role models you see in the public that girls and young women can look to for inspiration?

hP: We met a lot of great role models for girls at the Tween Town Hall Meeting such as Cupcakes for Cancer, Code Blue, Kids Helping Kids, Kids Who Care, Tea Party Angels and One is Greater Than None and as well, spoke to Jess Weiner and Brooke White, two inspiring women who we can all learn A LOT from. In hangPROUD's, A Day in the Life column, we like to highlight regular girls and women as role models as well. These are girls and women just like you and me who are doing extraordinary and inspiring things to make change.

YP: Could you speak to one or two takeaways from the AllyKatzz Tween Girl Town Hall Meeting?

hP: It's always a pleasure for us to be involved with AllyKatzz. The thing that strikes us the most is hearing and seeing the potential in the future generation of women. The girls who attend are so committed to making a difference and have so much to say about it. This is when we realize that change in our girls is happening. The fact that there are seminars like this to empower girls as such a young age is fantastic. If we keep having the conversation with girls when they're tweens, it will make for more confident teens and women.

YP: Anything else Ypulse readers should know about hangPROUD or PROUDgirls?

hP: We're determined to change the world one PROUDgirl at a time!

For more coverage of the tween space, check out the Ypulse Tweens Channel.

What it is: "Sweety High" has two main components. The main one is a "social world for girls" that immerses tween users in the virtual hallways of a fantasy high school where they can create characters, upload video blogs and buy an assortment of virtual goods via the "Sweety Store" with currency that can be earned, purchased or won through contests. The other part of the equation is the flashier entertainment offering: "Sweety," a clique lit-inspired, professionally produced web series (see trailer here). A premium content package is available for a monthly subscription fee.

Who it's for: A closed community for girls 9-13 (Update: Site co-founder Veronica Zelle has offered to give me a site tour. Look for further updates to this review)  To keep it that way the site teamed up with services NetModerator and Privo to monitor for age-appropriateness. Users' profiles are only visible to their friends, there are parental controls on younger users' accounts, and the site provides lots of safety tips, even offering a series PSAs on YouTube to teach girls about cyber-safety.

What works: Premise aside (see below), there's no denying that a lot of effort went into the making of "Sweety." — both in production value and talent. It's nice to see a diverse cast and tweens might even recognize a face or two . If there was any clear takeaway from Kidscreen, it was that it takes this type of quality content to get recognized in the increasingly crowded tween entertainment space. It's a smart, thoughtful strategy for getting girls to want to enter your world in the first place. Also, lots of bonus points go to the site's creators for putting such a strong, direct emphasis on safety and taking the extra step of getting the messaging out there via PSAs that feature actual tweens. Very cool.

Challenges: I've never been the biggest fan of the clique lit genre and the trailer for "Sweety" and the tone it sets for the social world struck me as slightly cringeworthy. Lots of acronyms and slang thrown around and the main focus appears to be on popularity, boys and fashion. Of course, not every site for girls needs to have wide appeal, but I hope full-length episodes see these "best friends forever" diving into some deeper waters. The whole perfect blonde-led "in crowd" set up also felt a little dated (like "Mean Girls" but not self-aware) and not exactly in synch with that whole relatable trend we've seen lately. I wonder how much tweens can do on the site without paying and whether those free features would intrigue them enough to approach Mom and Dad for the subscription fee. Will the premium content prove a powerful enough draw for full member, or will the free gaming/quiz options, trailers and clips on YouTube suffice?

For more coverage of the tween space, check out the Ypulse Tweens Channel

As always, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com…or just leave a comment below.

Why Sony Sounds Tone Deaf With 'Girlz' Talk

The female gaming community has had to overcome plenty of obstacles in the past. Unfortunately for girl gamers, sexism is still far too prevalent. Not only in the number of online games to choose from (or lack thereof), the absence of modest armor for female characters, princesses who need to be saved and other stereotypes, but also in the marketing campaigns targeting a female demographic.

A relatively recent example is Sony’s “Girlz Play Too” campaign. When I discovered IGN Joystiq blogger Andrew Yoon’s mockery of the advertisements, I became curious and decided to investigate further on Sony’s website. Sony’s commitment to “bringing a steady stream of female-friendly content to consumers” has lead to not only a ridiculously pink and lilac website (to promote their lilac PSP… because, of course, to target a female demographic everything must be pink or a similar color), but one fraught with ridiculous slang and misspellings. These “z” words, for instance, signal a trend in the cluelessness of marketers. Even as a tween I found such campaigns idiotic and a sign of adults being behind the times, rather than trendy. And now nobody I know uses “z words” anymore.

Furthermore, slang sounds fake when placed on a corporation’s website. Even my little cousin laughed when she saw a children’s menu attempting to be trendy by using phrases like “rad.” Sony’s website is more than guilty of this. After taking their “which character are you?” quiz and getting a few different results (the Hannah Montana one was a particularly bad match), I read that my “BFFs think I’m the best,” and that I was “So totally LocoRoco.” Nobody I know talks like that!

After the jump, “See fun, PSP games for girlz" (again spelled incorrectly) the heading “Games Girlz Play” appears. I have two issues with this page. First, only six games appear. I know Sony is attempting to capture more tweens, but this is the wrong way to do it. When I was at the age where I would have been targeted, I enjoyed games such as Final Fantasy X, and would have not even thought of playing Hannah Montana the game, or Petz. Most female gamers I know, and even girls who play casually do not limit their experience to games that try to target them. Though in the general minority, I know plenty of other girls who play Halo and other graphic shooter games.

I, along with plenty of other players, find it offensive that Sony’s website talks about games for girls. Who is to say what girls should and shouldn’t play? Corporate executives certainly do not have this authority. Girls can decide for themselves what they want to play and they already do. Check out the facts: Thirty-eight percent of game players are women, while forty-two percent of online gamers are female. This shows that Sony does not have to create a campaign that reinforces sexist stereotypes, and could rather appeal to females as intelligent beings who not only can spell, but do not need the games they play limited to what is “female-friendly.”

In fact the Final Fantasy series is incredibly popular with girls, despite the fact that it includes complex battle systems. Girls, myself included, prefer strong female characters and fun gameplay to games that just look at our fashion sense. The newest Final Fantasy game futures a female protagonist who is not only beautiful, but strong, and an intricate character with problems beyond boyfriend trouble. Girls can save the world and kick butt doing it, not just become a fashion designer, babysitter or cheerleader. Not that they can't strive towards those goals, too. The point is that these categories aren't mutually (or gender) exclusive.

Another issue with the Sony site is the way it portrays tween girls, or those whom they should be looking to as role models, (Everyone reading this should check out Alx’s post on role models, if they haven’t already.) The pages are filled with laughing teenagers who look similar to those in Disney Channel movies, but that does not bother me as much as some of the quiz answers. Sony assumes that girls will have celebrity magazines, and “clothes, just in case you need a fast fashion change” in their backpacks. I find this offensive. Not all girls love celebrities or fashion. Books and a PSP (surprise, surprise) are also included, but I wonder where things like sports items or homework are? Most girls I know carry those things around too. For the question about what qualities your friends value about you, your sense of style is included. Why would any company encourage girls to make friends who value fashion above character? The idea that this is even included is troubling.

When it comes down to it, I still love my PSP. However Sony’s marketing methods here are flawed and will not win over girls like me. Not by degrading our intelligence, and promoting sexist stereotypes. In the end, Sony is making not only a sexist, but a downright stupid move. Maybe if they promoted games for tween casual gamers in general they might be more successful.

About Julia

Julia is a freshman in high school in Claremont California. A self proclaimed Otaku (anime obsessive person) she strives to complete her immersion into the world of Japanese pop culture. In between school and homework she watches the latest Japanese anime on the internet, reads manga, plays video games, and practices Japanese. Though she is not a fabulous writer by nature, Julia does enjoy writing fan fiction related to said interests and occasionally immersing herself in online role-play sessions. In addition, she loves mashing up anime and game clips into anime music videos which she posts on YouTube, participating in her school’s debate team in novice LD, and of course reading. Julia is incredibly excited to be on the Youth Advisory Board, and able to express her opinions, which she has plenty of.