Active teens rewarded with gowns
A group of girls at the Yawkey Boys and Girls Club of Roxbury got brand new dresses just in time for the holiday season, but more important than the gifts was the message that came with them: The dress alone does not the woman make.
The 11 girls, ages 13 to 17, received the clothes yesterday as a reward for being active members of the club’s Girls Group program, a forum for discussing a broad range of issues, including self-esteem and healthy dating.
A Brookline-based nonprofit called Believe in Yourself asked for a list of the girls’ sizes and style preferences in advance and laid out the clothes for the members to choose from.
When the first girl went through each of the dresses and then held up the last — a white one with gold sequins — the other girls swooned.
But Merkeb Amanuel, 14, of Roslindale settled on a sleeveless blue sequinned dress and then disappeared into the ladies room, reemerging a few minutes later, looking chic enough to walk the red carpet.
“I love the dress,” Amanuel proclaimed, adding she planned to wear it to a party Saturday and maybe on New Year’s Eve.
“It fits very nicely,” she said, “and I feel very confident.”
Nia Werin, 16, of Dorchester chose a sleeveless burgundy sequinned dress, saying, “I’ve never had a sequin dress in my life. When I tried it on, I was like, ‘Wow!’”
For Sam Sisakhti, who founded Believe in Yourself in January, this was reward enough. About 10 years ago, Sisakhti started the independent fashion e-commerce website UsTrendy and got a lot of samples, which he initially gave away to celebrities.
Then, about 18 months ago, his company ran a social media contest, asking customers to post photos of themselves wearing clothes bought on the website, and he was aghast at the cruel comments some people posted.
After he started Believe in Yourself, he decided that giving away new clothes wasn’t enough; at least as important, he said, was connecting girls with mentors who would promote positive body images.
Enter Rachel Rodgers, an associate professor of applied psychology at Northeastern University, who told the girls gathered at the club yesterday that although 67 percent of women in the U.S. are plus sizes, only 2 percent of those portrayed in the media are.
“It makes some people feel very bad,” Rodgers said. “But this kind of comparing yourself to other people is not constructive . ... If we reinvest the time we spend on appearances on the things that really matter, it can have a huge impact.”