BEYOND THE SELFIE

Young women receive a lot of messages through popular culture about who they should be, and often the message amounts to “always be physically attractive.” The pressure and unrealistic expectations that message creates can damage self-esteem and even lead to tragedy. That’s why Springfi eld photographer Kari Bedford started Girls in Focus, a nonprofi t organization teaching young women to go “beyond the selfi e” in telling their own stories. “In their relentless pursuit of the perfect ‘selfi e,’ ” Bedford said, “young women are evaluated often solely on their beauty, weight, body type, taste in clothing, and ability to uphold ever-changing and impossible double standards.” Through an eight-week program, Bedford plans to teach young women to think critically about the images they create and the images the world creates for them. They’ll learn about the history and techniques of photography, and they’ll have loaner cameras during the course so they can explore photography for themselves. “Girls in Focus believes that young women have so many other stories to tell, if we simply provide them with the tools to tell those stories and then listen,” Bedford says. For more information, visit www.girlsinfocus.org.