Last year I helped plan a Girl Scout Brownie meeting on Inner Beauty for my younger daughter’s troop.  This meeting was the service project that my older daughter and some members of her 6th grade Cadette troop performed to complete the requirements for their Media Journey.  I’m sharing our plans for the meeting in case another Girl Scout troop is looking for ideas for a meeting about media images, inner beauty, or healthy body image.

Inner Beauty Discussion

We started the meeting with one of the Cadettes presenting some thoughts on inner beauty while the Brownies had snack.

• In the media, models can influence what you want to look like
• Media includes TV, movies, magazines and other advertising
• All kinds of media show unrealistic influences
• The models in magazines don’t really look that way
• Photos are “airbrushed “to make models look perfect
• True beauty is inner beauty
• Inner beauty is your personality, who you are
• Ex. kind, friendly, funny, caring
• Inner beauty is what really matters
• Nobody’s perfect
• Ex. Someone could be beautiful but really mean, or unattractive by the media’s standards but kind and caring

Next the Brownies brainstormed lists of characteristics of inner beauty.

After they cleaned up from snack, the Cadettes organized the Brownies in a flag ceremony to officially open the meeting.

Inner Beauty Flowers

Before the meeting the Cadettes cut strips and circles from bright colored papers so that each of the Brownies would get a set with a circle for the flower center and strips for the flower petals.

One of the Cadettes explained the project, then each of the Brownies received a small baggie with enough petals (all of the same color) to make one for each of the other girls in her group. The girls wrote on the petals (labeled on the back with the recipient’s name) a short description or complement which referred to her friend’s inner beauty.

After they had written on each of the petals, the Cadettes distributed them to the Brownie whose name was on the back.  Each girl then decorated her flower center and assembled it with their petals into a flower with multi-color petals.

True Colors Song

For the last activity, the Cadettes taught the Brownies the song “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper (also recorded by the Cast of Glee), available with lyrics on YouTube.

Closing

We closed the meeting with a friendship circle, singing Make New Friends.

I believe that teaching about inner beauty helped reinforce its importance to the Cadettes and learning it from older girls made the message stronger to the Brownies than if it had been presented by an adult.  A great experience for all the girls!

Additional Resources

Dove’s The Real Me: Activities to celebrate your daughter’s inner beauty,  Role of Media,  Growing Up and Body Image and more related topics.

Real Girls Video – As their Media Journey Take Action project, a Cadette troop created a video about real girls.

Real Beauty: 101 Ways to Feel Great about You (American Girl Library)

Please feel free to share more ideas for teaching inner beauty in the comments!