Like you, I hate writing a random letter any corporation is going to ignore. It makes me feel almost as powerless as doing nothing. But, I LOVE knowing my letter joined thousands of other letters and made a serious impact. Read all this cool stuff the CCFC has already accomplished.

From a CCFC newsletter:

Are you distressed when Batman, McDonalds, and Lego partner to sell kids on fast food and video games? When Nickelodeon features the Bratz in a made-for-TV movie? When Elmo and Barbie morph into a "Barbie loves Elmo" toy?

Are you appalled when marketers spend billions of dollars advertising toxic brands and products directly to children - and then lay all of the blame on parents for the rise of marketing-related problems like childhood obesity, youth violence, and precocious, irresponsible sexuality?

Why not do something about it? Support the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the only national organization devoted solely to countering the harmful effects of commercialization on children. With your help, we're making a difference. We rely on you because we will not compromise our commitment to children and families by accepting corporate funding.

We act on your marketing concerns. When a Boston father contacted us because Webkinz World, the leading social network site for young children, was accepting outside ads, we alerted the media and launched a letter-writing campaign. As a result, Webkinz now gives parents the option for kids to use an ad-free version of their site.

When a mom in Seminole County, Florida, alerted us to McDonald's report card advertising at her daughter's school, we made the ads a national embarrassment for the fast food giant. Our campaign for commercial-free report cards was featured on Good Morning America, The Colbert Report, and hundreds of newspapers around the country. As a result, McDonald's agreed to end the program.

We're reclaiming schools from corporate marketers. Schools around the country are are promoting reading and not consumerism with CCFC's Guide to Commercial-Free Book Fairs. With our help, legislators and educators have made South Carolina the first state to ban all marketing on school buses. Working with local activists and parents, we've successfully stopped BusRadio - a company that plans on "taking student targeted marketing to the next level" - in school districts from Connecticut to California.

We're countering the sexualization of children. After more than 5,000 emails from CCFC members, Scholastic, Inc. decided not to bring the highly sexualized Bratz brand back to school this year. When we caught BusRadio advertising 90210 - a television show chock full of teen sex and drinking - on its website for children as young as six, they began pulling the ads within hours. Our campaign to stop Children's Hospital in Columbus from selling naming rights to the infamous Abercrombie & Fitch for $10 million launched a national conversation about the ethics of public health institutions partnering with corporations that undermine children's wellbeing.

Help us stop the commercialization of childhood, advocate for policies that protect children from unscrupulous marketers, and take on the worst corporate offenders. Your tax-deductible contribution will allow us to continue to build a coalition of organizations and individuals who value children more than the bottom line.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, every contribution of $125 or more will be doubled from now until January 1st. Any amount you are able to give would be greatly appreciated. Please visit to support CCFC today.

$500,000,000,000: The amount of money in purchases that children under twelve influence every year.

$17,000,000,000: The amount of money spent to market to children, a staggering increase from $100 million in 1983.

$3,400,000,000: Revenue generated by the Disney Princess brand in 2006. There are 40,000 Disney Princess items on the market today.

1,200,000,000: Toys sold with kids' meals at fast food restaurants in 2006.

20,000,000: Baby Einstein videos sold by Disney through 2006. The American Academy of Pediatrics reccomends no screen time for children under two.

200,000: The acts of violence, including 40,000 murders, that the average child will see on television by the time they are eighteen.

25,000: Ads on television the average 2-11-year-old sees on television every year, a figure that does not include product placement.

4,151: The number of product placements on the first thirty-eight episodes of American Idol.

Amy Jussel, executive Director of Shaping Youth included me in her Seven Sisters for All Things Girl series.

She said such nice things about me that it literally made me blush. For some reason I don't get many comments so it's really, really validating and affirming to know that there are people out there reading and appreciating my work. (Several readers have told me they are sometimes struck speechless -- I choose to take that as a compliment.)

Her Seven Sensational Blogs About Girls also serves as a nice introduction so some of the other Girl, Power Bloggers out there. I think I'll hope around some of those links, subscribe to some feeds and add them to my blogroll and extend the invitation for them to respond in kind - after all, we have a common interest.

Reign of the Girl Child is preteen specific and its author Felicia Richardson-Battle is also the author of Feel Good Girl.

Girls Horse Club is a blogazine created by girls for girls. If your daughter has an interest in horses and blogging this could be her online home. The girls are coralled by LeadMare, Michelle Bushneff. Yee Haw!

What About Our Daughters by Gina, who appears to share my conviction that the current economic situation is not a surprise if you were paying attention. (It's awfully political over there, I'm on a political fast.) Gina is also running a Michelle Obama Watch website which highlights the ways in which Michelle is treated by the public and the media. That could get interesting.

I was happy to see my friend Claire Mysko on the list. I've written about and given away copies of her book You're Amazing, A No-Pressure Guide To Being Your Best Self. You will want to check out her site 5 Resolutions to Transform The Fashion and Beauty Industries.

Also my b5media friend and fellow blogger Charlene Polansky's blog Sports Girls Play is on the list. Char writes about how to raise your daughter to be a fantastic, striving for excellence athlete. Check out this handy printable training journal to help your daughter track athletic goals.
Vanessa Van Petten writes On Youth and Teens Today . She is writing to the net-generation (why didn't I think of that?) and the Dirt-E Secrets of an Internet Kid an e-book which will tell parents all the really bad stuff to watch out for when monitoring their kids' Internet usage. (I'm afraid to look.)

At Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me, I loath problems without solutions.

Thankfully, the authors of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids have not only researched he problem, but provided parents and educators with action steps.

1. Change the Laws - If deregulation of children's media caused this problem, then reregulation of children's media can fix it. A law that makes marketing directly to children under 12 illegal protects children makes sense. Marketers claim they have freedom of speech. In fact, the Constitution says nothing about protecting Corporations, marketing or advertising rights to market to children - it speaks only of people. Marketers can still sell their products - to PARENTS. Requiring that they make products that PARENTS believe are appropriate for their children. Adults are more savvy consumers and can deconstruct advertising - children can not. Marketers have a predatory advantage against children currently.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has a list of laws currently before congress. Go to the list, read the laws and use their simple links to write your representatives to pass law that protects our children's sexuality rather than exploits it. It's an election year and now is the best time to see action.

2. Get involved with children's advocacy groups. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has run a successful campaign to get Bratz out of Scholastic Book Fairs in schools and stop marketing for the new provocative 90210 on school bus radio. Sign up for the CCFC e-newsletter.

Parents for Ethical Marketing is another non-profit group with a great blog Corporate Babysitter to keep parents informed and fight predatory marketing.

Shaping Youth is encouraging marketers to sell a better message to kids.

There are others like Mediawise.org with great research and resources.

Subscribe to this RSS Feed to get my passionate and inspired perspective.

3. Screen, Filter and Ban Sexualized Content. Sit down with your kids and decide what your boundaries are. Limit the amount of marketing that finds it's way into your child's brain.

* Be aware that the rating system is voluntary, E's reality lineup, Girls Next Door, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Sunset Tan, and Dr. 90210 are rated TV-14.

* Be aware that many inappropriate shows are unrated. Commercials are not rated at all.

* Video games and Internet ratings are also currently voluntary.

* Beaware that lots of advertising is popping up at school - in report cards, reading rewards, rewards for good behavior, in text books, signage, on Bus Radio, on Channel One, Corporate Sponsorships and fundraisers, etc.

4. Know Your Kid's Media - the days when we can trust media and marketers are gone. Read their books, watch their shows, visit their websites, listen to their music and watch their television. Monitor their email and Facebook, MySpace, Twitters and Blogs. Advertising is in all of those places.

5. Get beyond "Just Say No." Saying no about every single thing has been shown to further tear away at the parent-child relationship. Marketers use this and reinforce it in the marketing. Instead, open a dialogue and negotiate boundaries with them. Explain what you find objectionable about the product and allow the child to participate in boundary making.

6. Be open about Sex. I was shocked when sex came up directly. Ainsley was only 4. Then I looked around and realized it was on the radio, on television, in commercials, at the check out - for it not to come up would have been weird. If you don't talk about sex with your kids - they will hear only the bad message from marketers.

7. Learn/Teach Media Literacy - What's the real message? Figure it out, then talk to your kids about the message. Show them how photoshop works, tell them how they are using inappropriate photos to lure children to buy items. Make them media-literate.

8. Processing Images - When children are exposed to extremely violent images or very inappropriate sexual images teachers and child psychologists have found that children have a need to process the information. Use art, drawing or painting and writing to allow your child to explore their feelings about inappropriate and frightening images.

9. Counteract Negative Stereotypes - We've come a long way baby, but the media - not so much. Sexualized media portrays boys as consumers and girls as products to be consumed. It portrays girls as the object on which to display sexual products like brand name clothing and sexual heals. When girls see themselves as objects on which sexuality is displayed, instead of inherently sexual beings, and boys view themselves as the consumer of the product, instead of inherently sexual beings that crave intimacy - no real sexually healthy identity occurs. Speak up! When you see this happening in media - point it out to your children and tell them your alternative views.

"I don't think the clothes are sexy, I think confidence and self-respect in girls is sexy,"

"I believe men want the same emotional intimacy as women," are key phrases that will help your children resist marketers objectifying sexual message.

10. Trust YOUR Instincts. Most parents know something funky is up. They didn't have the ability to articulate what was going on. I've often heard parents check their own reality - "Did they just say that on a children's show? Did that commercial just run during family programing? Can this really be happening? Am I imagining it or did this type of stuff not come up when I was growing up? Are the kids dressing worse for Halloween? Is that doll really a stripper?"

The answer is yes. They said it. They showed it. It is different. It is damaging. The toys really are sexual and the advertising really, really is that bad and getting worse every day.

Now that you know, what are you going to DO about it?

Read the rest of my So Sexy So Soon series:

So Sexy So Soon, Sexualized Childhood

So Sexy So Soon: Sex Education Quiz

So Sexy So Soon: Premature Adolescent Rebellion

Support reviews like these by purchasing So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids for people in your community - schools, churches and parents organizations through the links on this website.

Keira Knightly is taking a stand against digitally enhancing her breasts for her upcoming movie, "The Dutchess."

When she stands up and declares herself "good enough" as she is, she stands up and declares our daughters "good enough" as they are.

Every actress who resists media pressure to conform to the beauty ideal does all girls and women a favor.

"She has insisted that her figure stay in its natural state," an insider said. "She is proud of her body and doesn't want it altered."This according to the Daily Mail via The Huffington Post.

Bravo Keira! You are good enough!

Photo Source: The Huffington Post, photos of before and after digital alteration for "King Arthur."