War On Girls: 'All I Need is Love'

“We all fail to appreciate each day just how much we already possess. 
Light, air, freedom, the companionship of friends.” 


Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 - 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 


I Want More.  This is easily a subject that can attack us all no matter your sex or age.  Christmas is just around the corner and already 'wish lists' and Father Christmas are on my children's radars.  At any time of the year I find myself holding several 'want' lists in my memory for either next month or as soon as it becomes feasible.  It is almost shocking how often our 'wants' are disguised by the word 'need'.  As a consumer I see how the newest phone releases send out the message that you need to have the newest model to keep up with with the rest of the world.  In our current day technology ages faster than ever before, but the need to want more is not a new phenomena. 

I Need More.  As a girl growing up I remember wanting the latest new thing.  I fell in love with the American Girl dolls and loved when I got a new catalog so I could circle all the new items that I just had to have.  Though an iconic toy from my childhood, they would be replaced by other material items through out my life.  As a photographer I feel as if I am always 'in need' of the newest and latest or just better item then what I have in my kit. It is not like we are going to wake up one day and realise we do not need something that we want.  It would have to be a self made choice to find happiness in life and not in the material world.  

Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 - 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

Materialism and the War on Girls.  How does this affect our younger generations of girls growing up in today world where society is heavily centered around consumerism?  When I was growing up as a teenager overseas I had moved on to catalogs geared towards clothing for teenage girls like Delia's and Alloy.  Every time a new issue would come in I would be plagued with things I wanted and 'had to have' and then would bug my parents for new clothes.  I cannot imagine what it would be like today with a teenage daughter.  Mail order catalogs have pretty much been replaced with hoards of online shopping options.  Add that with the bombardment of materialism messages sent out from online,  fashion blogs, television shows and movies, magazines, advertisements, and visual stimuli available by smart phones.  Top that off with the cherry of viewing others for what they have and you have not and it becomes a pit of never being satisfied.

All I Need Is Love.  I took the photos in this blog as part of a photographic series I did entitled 'The Secret Lies of Men & Women'.  While the woman shows you the lie written on her hand 'All I need is love'  you can see visually the truth being that she feels she really needs money and love of designer purses with the image of credit cards, cash, and purses.  When does needing material hide what we really want out of life?  Are we missing out on other areas of our life, relationships, or opportunities because we are more focused on what we do not have?  How does this affect the relationships we make and the ones that are continuing in our life?

 Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 - 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

3 SIMPLE WAYS TO HELP GIRLS IN A MATERIAL WORLD
  1. You ARE valuable.  Life  in itself is so precious.  We never know how long we will have on this life or with the people we cherish most.  Remind the girls you know, that they are valued in your life and in the world.  The focus should be on the person and not on what a person has or has not in life. 
  2. Your self worth comes from the inside.  A person's worth is not based on numbers or possessions.  Nor is a person's beauty about their place in society or how they look on the outside.  You are beautiful with our without the must have fashion item of the moment.  You are beautiful in your skin. You do not have to be deemed 'perfect' by someone else to be worth a second of happiness. 
  3. Do not believe everything that you hear.  Just because you hear an advertisement that says you 'need' this or that to satisfy _______, it does not mean you have to believe it.  If you know a young girl who feels she needs to own something to be worth something to her peers, help her see her self worth.  Encourage, love, and inspire the girls around you to love life for more than material things in the world. 
----------

Q: How do you see yourself in today's 'Material World'?


* Photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 - 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 
** Model: Lolo Leialoha Seabiscuit | Make-up Artist: Dhyana Leung


5 comments:

  1. it's so easy for this to spiral out of control and lead to very serious problems in our daily lives. i think we all need to keep focus on what's really important!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is so hard for girls these days. My friends with daughters are doing such a good job in teaching respect to themselves and others. There is a small clique of mums with daughters in my son's school, they are already spoilt, mean, judgemental and (at 5 years old!) worried about their weight. They are reflecting their mother's behaviour. I could weep!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a great post! My mother and I were just talking about this the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a fantastic concept and excellent photography. I hear so many young girls proclaiming that they need something but really, they are just mimicking what they hear their mums say. My own break with materialism only came when we emigrated. I simply never wanted to have to pack so much ever again!

    ReplyDelete

I love to interact with my readers and I try my best to respond back to all comments.

Cheers,
Bonnie Rose

Disqus for A Compass Rose

Linked Within

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...