BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
They hug teddy bears in a room that looks like a neighborhood girls' club, but they ask grown-up questions about how their bodies and lives are changing.
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MORE INFORMATION
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What: Girls' Health video project of WCET-TV (Channel 48), sponsored by Speaking of Women's Health.
Who: Geared to girls in grades 4-6.
Information: Schools can order the five-video set ($15 for cost of reproduction) by calling 381-4033 (Ext. 566); http://www.wcet.org//edserv/girlshealth
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Ten Greater Cincinnati preteen girls star in health videos being introduced today by WCET-TV to more than 135 Tristate teachers. The videos' target audience: girls in grades 4-6.
"There's a plethora of educational material out there, but a lot of it is outdated or visually not very exciting," says Jillian Darwish, director of Girls' Health, a project that grew out of the Cincinnati-based Speaking of Women's Health program.
Girls' Health uses Greater Cincinnati teens and experts to help girls understand the changes and challenges of puberty and growing older.
Before producing the videos, WCET planners met with Tristate teachers and health educators to find out what they needed and in what format.
Teachers wanted solid health information that could be presented and adapted to a variety of schools, regardless of policies and community philosophies about sex education. They also wanted information that could be shared easily with parents.
What emerged were videos on five topics -- puberty, menstruation, visiting the gynecologist, sexually transmitted diseases and birth control - pregnancy (with a short segment on sexual violence). Teachers receive all five but can choose which ones to show to their preteen girls, depending on each school's curriculum and policies, Ms. Darwish says. Schools also can lend the videos to parents so they can continue sex education and discussions at home. Local health experts moderate the videos. Two girls from Roberts Paideia and eight from the School for Creative and Performing Arts appear as inquisitive stars.
"It's a girls' club atmosphere, and they're asking very real questions," says Joanne Grueter, Girls' Health video producer. "We did not prep them on their questions, because we wanted the questions to be honest so that other kids in the classroom could relate and say, "Well that's my question, too.' "
The menstruation video, for example, stars Linda Kollar, director of nursing at the Adolescent Clinic at Children's Hospital Medical Center. She discusses the physiology and feelings associated with menstruation, and then answers girls' questions: Do tampons hurt? How often should pads be changed? What about cramps? What's PMS?
Other videos feature, among others, Rickell Howard and Jacquelyn Byrd, teen leaders for Cincinnati Public Schools' Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) program; Sue Bradford, public health nurse for Hamilton County; Dr. Paula J. Adams Hilliard, University of Cincinnati gynecologist; and Rachel Shippy-Chima, director of Teens Against Premarital Sex (TAPS).
The goal is to give girls sound information and the confidence to keep learning on their own about their health, Ms. Darwish says. "The onus is on the girls to go out and find information and be advocates for themselves," she says. "We think this program will have positive, lifelong effects on girls."
