Female students attend leadership conference in Joliet

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

JOLIET — Ebony Summlion, 15, is determined to keep her head high when people tease her about her height.

Before, it upset her.

“You get picked on when you are almost the shortest person in school. If someone says a short joke, I’ll laugh about it,” said Ebony, a sophomore at Joliet West High School.

Ebony was one of 75 girls from 22 Will County high schools and junior highs to participate Thursday in the Will County Regional Office of Education’s Youth Leadership Conference.

Wearing Supergirl T-shirts, 75 girls danced, learned about bullying and got tips to boost their self-esteem and set goals so they can live their dreams.

Self-esteem can greatly impact students’ academic performance and relationships, said Delfina Contreras, school resource officer for the Will County Regional Office of Education.

Regional Superintendent Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant asked school counselors to pick girls in the middle of their class, rather than students who were at-risk or high achievers, for the conference.

“We wanted the girls who have potential, but they don’t realize it. They don’t utilize it,” she said, adding she wants to offer a program for boys next year.

Stacey Dillard, vice president of the National Hook-up of Black Women, blames the media for girls’ poor self-esteem.

On TV and in magazines, girls see stars’ clothing judged and size-0 actresses called fat.

“You look at a person who is really skinny and start thinking … I need to lose some weight,” she said.

Dillard said young girls need to realize that their body types don’t necessarily fit today’s fads. Not everybody can wear skinny jeans.

Teresa Gibson, principal at Joliet West High School, agreed.

“I think our young women are barraged with images of what is the ideal woman. Sometimes those images don’t fit with who we are. When the ideal is something that is not attainable, I think it works to tear you down a little bit,” she said.

Dillard encouraged girls to have a heart-to-heart talk with themselves and reject negative comments they receive about their looks.

“Look at yourself in the mirror and look at all your features and think about how beautiful your features are. This is what makes you. This is what makes you special,” Dillard said. “I always tell people, you have to tell yourself that you are pretty. You have to declare how beautiful you are because if you say it, you’ll believe it.”

Standing up to bullying

Gibson said the conference gives girls strategies to ensure that they don’t shred their self-esteem and self-respect. She also said students need to know that they should turn to adults when bullying happens.

Emma Hahs, 14, an eighth-grader at Liberty Junior High School in New Lenox, said the bullying and harassment lesson impacted her the most.

“I’m going to stick up for people more instead of just standing there,” Emma said. “Instead of just standing there, you can tell the person that is being the bully to stop or if they don’t listen, you can obviously go get the teacher. … You just don’t want to stand there and just do nothing about it because it could turn in some way and be worse.”