Mom2.0 Summit: Moms matter
Last week, Responsibility.org participated in the Mom 2.0 Summit in Atlanta, Georgia as the official cause sponsor. The team, including the Talk Early Parenting Bloggers, shared strategies to guide a lifetime of conversations at this conference for influential mom bloggers and female entrepreneurs who create online content.
Throughout the event the keynotes, panels and evening conversations focused on one major theme: the importance of moms and parents to lead real conversations with children and within their online communities. As we approach Mother’s Day, the importance of this message is clear: moms matter. Moms make a difference through their actions, through their behavior and through their words.
The theme of Talk Early, to engage in frequent and honest conversations about healthy habits and underage drinking was interwoven throughout the conference dialogue. Dove, the title sponsor, opened the three-day event to 600 social media influencers with a prompt: Beauty Is? Too many young girls question if they are pretty underscoring how crucial it is for girls to see their moms own their strengths, but also their flaws.
Haley Kilpatrick, Founder and Executive Director of Girl Talk, shares that teenage girls need consistency and authenticity from their moms. Girls also need to understand that failures provide opportunities for learning. The idea that our flaws and differences make us who we are and give us value in the world echoed through the Mom 2.0 Summit keynote as a reminder that these issues are the foundation that our children rely on later in life. Further, Haley’s message is featured as we encourage moms to #RefreshYourFunny on social media.
Karen Walrond – an award winning photographer, blogger and influencer – searches for differences as beauty when she looks through her camera lens. Her photographic journey led her to her own beauty realization, “If I see beauty in the photographs I take, there must be beauty in me.”
The “Beauty Is” campaign highlights the necessity of programs like Talk Early and Ask, Listen, Learn. Moms have the potential – through honest and intentional conversations – to help girls “Stand up, stand proud and they will never stand alone.” Whether children are dealing with insecurities or decisions about underage drinking, parents are there as role models and as sounding boards every step of the way.
Imagine the difference in self-esteem for both moms and girls if we ended each day with one simple question by Dr. Robyn Silverman, “What did your beautiful and amazing body do for you today?”
Moms want to help their children lead happy, confident and healthy lives – no matter where they live. As attendees engaged with the Responsibility.org team, the interwoven messages of the conference came through. Guiding a lifetime of conversations is not just important – it is critical. Who better than to lead these conversations than our moms?
Elena Sonnino
Elena Sonnino blogs at LiveDoGrow.com and is a blog ambassador for the #TalkEarly program.