OREANDA-NEWS. July 08, 2015. “Girls can’t be brave” and “girls aren’t strong” are limiting phrases seemingly from a bygone era, but a new Always social experiment reveals that many girls today feel limited by society’s expectations about women. In fact, data from the most recent Always Confidence & Puberty Survey*, shows that 72 percent of girls feel held back by society, which they feel dictates what they should and shouldn’t do. Today, Always, the leader in global feminine care, is announcing the launch of its latest online video entitled “Always #LikeAGirl Unstoppable.” Always partnered with award-winning documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, the director of the Always #LikeAGirl viral video that launched last summer, to create this new video, which highlights how society’s expectations have a profound impact on girls confidence, especially when entering puberty. Girls and women of varying ages and backgrounds were asked if they were ever told they should or shouldn’t do something because they’re a girl. Find out their answers by watching the video here: https://youtu.be/VhB3l1gCz2E

With the new “Always #LikeAGirl Unstoppable” video comes the next phase of the Always #LikeAGirl campaign: the creation of the Always Global Confidence Teaching Curriculum, a program that will benefit millions of girls around the world. The new confidence teaching curriculum, incorporating the latest research on confidence-building, is being co-developed by Always and education-thought leaders and experts. The curriculum builds on Always’ 30 year heritage in puberty education and will reach up to 20 million girls in 65 counties per year. Additionally, TED, the non-profit devoted to spreading ideas, has committed to support Always in teaching confidence to young girls. In this first-of-its-kind partnership, Always and TED will develop and spread confidence-inspiring content through TED-Ed, a leading educational platform spreading lessons worth sharing.

“In the spirit of TED’s mission, ideas worth spreading, we are partnering with the #LikeAGirl campaign to reach young girls at a critical stage in their lives,” said Stephanie Lo, TED-Ed Programs Director at TED. “We’re excited to work with Always on developing engaging educational content to help girls around the world maintain confidence through puberty and beyond.”

The new “Always #LikeAGirl Unstoppable” video and confidence education efforts will be unveiled during the global Always #LikeAGirl Confidence Summit today in New York City. The Summit features a keynote address from young teen international actress and female empowerment advocate Maisie Williams, the 18-year-old star who plays Arya Stark on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Williams serves as an inspiring role model to girls everywhere and has joined Always to spread the word about the #LikeAGirl mission.

“I believe it’s important for young women to feel supported and motivated to pursue their passions,” said Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams. “I applaud the work that Always is doing and am proud to join them in empowering girls to be confident and unstoppable #LikeAGirl.”

As part of its mission to stop the drop in confidence girls experience at puberty, the brand is holding Always #LikeAGirl Confidence Summits in eight other cities around the world. To watch the summit live from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT on July 7th, 2015, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSkwHLnHpzI

“You would expect that girls believe things will get better but, in fact, our latest research shows that one in two girls think that in 10 years there will be the same or even more limitations for young girls,” said Fama Francisco, Vice President, Global Feminine Care at Procter & Gamble. “This surprising statistic is a wake-up call for all of us to encourage girls to smash any limitations that hold them back and empower them to be unstoppable.”

Always is inviting girls and women everywhere to join the movement to smash limitations and to share proudly how they are unstoppable #LikeAGirl. Take a picture, shoot a video or send a message using the hashtag #LikeAGirl to take a stand and show young girls everywhere that girls can do anything and everything!

Additional Key ‘Always Puberty & Confidence Wave III’ Study Findings

  • More than half of girls (53 percent) ages 16 to 24 feel they lacked the confidence to do whatever they wanted to do after puberty.
  • Almost all girls (89 percent) feel there is pressure to conform to the way they’re supposed to feel and act.
  • Sixty percent of girls believe that society’s expectations have a negative impact on their life.
  • Girls are almost twice as likely as boys to say they did not feel comfortable doing an activity in school because of their gender.

About Always #LikeAGirl

The Always #LikeAGirl movement is being fuelled by the millions of girls around the world who are changing #LikeAGirl to mean amazing things. The Always #LikeAGirl campaign launched in June 2014 was inspired by the insight that the start of puberty and the first period mark the lowest moment in confidence for girls and how harmful words can add to that drop in confidence. It demonstrated the profound effect the phrase “like a girl” can have on girls’ self-confidence and it inspired a movement, which has started to change public perception: after seeing the #LikeAGirl video, most people (76 percent of women ages 16 to 24 and 59 percent of men) said the video changed their perception of the phrase “like a girl,”* according to the Always Puberty & Confidence Wave II Study. For more information about the #LikeAGirl movement, visit Always.com.

Survey Methodology

*The Always Confidence & Puberty Wave III Study was conducted by MSLGROUP Research utilizing Research Now Panels that surveyed a total of 1,800 Americans (1,300 American females aged 16 to 24 years old and 500 American males aged 16 to 24). There was a nationally representative sample group of 1,000 females and 500 males as well as an additional boost of 150 African American and 150 Hispanic American females. The survey was implemented between the dates of April 30, 2015 through May 8, 2015.

**The Always Confidence & Puberty Wave II Study was conducted using the Research Now Panel that surveyed a total of 1,800 Americans (1,300 American females aged 16 to 49 years old and 500 American males aged 16 to 49). There was a nationally representative sample group of 1,000 females and 500 males as well as an additional boost of 150 African American and 150 Hispanic American females. The survey was implemented between the dates of December 5, 2014 through December 12, 2014.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi OkonjoIweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman. Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED or Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted.

About TED-Ed

TED-Ed’s commitment to creating lessons worth sharing is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas. Within TED-Ed’s growing library of lessons, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform. This platform also allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can then distribute TED-Ed lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student. This platform is also the home to TED-Ed Clubs – an exciting new program that aims to stimulate and celebrate the best ideas of students around the world.

About Always

Always®, the world's leader in feminine protection, offers a wide range of feminine pads, wipes and pantiliners designed to fit different body types, period flows and preferences. The Always line of feminine products includes Always Infinity™, Always Ultra Thins, Always Maxis, Always Pantiliners and Always Feminine Wipes. Please visit www.always.com for more information.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves nearly five billion people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, Wella® and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.