This Is Me–Girls and Self-Esteem

2009 Apr 13

Activism and Advocacy, Paradigms, Social Change Add comments

written by Sherri Joubert

I ran across this song while doing one of the Thirty Day Challenge Plus lessons, and Ed Dale is right; spot on. Ed has 3 daughters himself.

“This Is Me” from the Disney movie “Camp Rock“, sung and performed by Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas, is an extremely important song for teenage and preteen girls to hear, know, and most importantly, believe in and live by. Too many girls have low self-esteem because they don’t believe they are good enough just as they are right now, this minute.

If you ask almost any woman if she could live life over, what would she change. My answer is that I don’t want to do it over. It would mean going through puberty again, and being a teenager with low self-esteem that took a lot to overcome. That’s not something I ever want to repeat. I’m sure I’m not alone here. I would have liked to figure out I was gay then, and maybe that would have changed some things, but gay wasn’t cool 30 years ago. I didn’t even know what gay was. I didn’t know anyone who was gay then.

Songs like “This Is Me” are giving girls a positive role model to follow, and to teach them that they are just fine exactly the way they are. They must learn being authentic is who they are supposed to be. It doesn’t matter whether she’s average, a band geek, a cheerleader, an athlete, a math and science nerd, valedictorian, skinny, not-so-skinny, straight, lesbian or bi, or even the lesbian athlete who becomes homecoming queen. She’s got to know in her soul she is someone to be very proud of.

Have a listen:

Here are the lyrics:

I’ve always been the kind of girl
that hid my face
So afraid to tell the world
what i’ve got to say
But i have this dream
bright inside of me
I’m gonna let it show, it’s time
To let you know, to let you know…

This is real, this is me
Im exactly where im supposed to be now
Gonna let the light shine on me
Now i’ve found, who i am
There’s no way to hold it in
No more hiding who i wanna be
This is me

Do you know what it’s like
to feel so in the dark
To dream about a life
where you’re the shining star
Even though it seems,
like it’s too far away
I have to believe in myself,
it’s the only way…

This is real, this is me
Im exactly where im supposed to be now
Gonna let the light shine on me
Now i’ve found, who i am
There’s no way to hold it in
No more hiding who i wanna be
This is me

You’re the voice i hear inside my head
The reason that im singin’
I need to find you
I gotta find you
You’re the missing piece i need
The song inside of me
I need to find you
I gotta find you

This is real, this is me
Im exactly where im supposed to be now
Gonna let the light shine on me
Now i’ve found, who i am
There’s no way to hold it in
No more hiding who i wanna be

This is me
(You’re the missing piece i need the song inside on me)
This is me, Yeah
(You’re the voice i hear inside my head, the reason that im singing)

Now i’ve found, who i am
There’s no way to hold it in
No more hiding who i wanna be
This is me

Copyright to Walt Disney Records
Category: Music
Tags:
camp rock this is me jonas brothers demi lovato full hq lyrics

The most important thing about this song in particular is if you search “This Is Me” on YouTube you get around 100,000 hits, and several hundred to a few thousand videos are self-made by ordinary girls performing this song. They are at one of the most fragile emotional and self-identity states in their lives, and yet they are putting themselves out there on YouTube, in public, and taking the good, the bad, and the ugly that comes with it. They may be scared, but they’re out there playing, singing and paying their dues.

Here is one of my favorite amateurs, Savannah. You can tell she has spent a huge amount of her life on music; singing and guitar lessons. She must have very supportive parents:

Savannah’s video has been viewed about 1.5 million times and voted on several hundred thousand times. There are nearly 14,000 comments.

Think back. Could you see yourself at 15 recording yourself performing in any way, and then putting it on something like YouTube for literally the entire world to see and comment on? For me, clarinet solos while the rest of my high school band played the background was scary enough. The criticism of my peers and mentors was hard enough to take. I can’t imagine getting some of the hateful comments these girls have gotten, even though the very negative ones are far fewer than the very positive ones. But when you honestly feel you’re okay, and the only thing that really matters is what you think of you, what everyone else says roles off your back like water off a duck.

In ten years, I expect to see a new explosion in music composition and performance that we haven’t seen since maybe the 1960′s. In ten years, a lot of these girls will be the next Janet Robin, Jen Corday, Nancy Wilson of Heart, or her sister, lead singer of Heart, Ann Wilson. They started when they were very young learning to play the guitar and sing. Ann’s original instrument is flute, but she is quite good at guitar now, though she is no Nancy. Of course, Nancy is no Ann when it comes to vocals. But I digress…

If you go back to Heart’s albums from 30 years ago and compare them to their performances today, it’s amazing to see how much they have grown and matured musically and professionally. My favorite comparison is “Dog and Butterfly” from the album “Dog and Butterfly” in about 1978 and “Dog and Butterfly” from their “Live in Seattle” performance in 2003, or even their “The Road Home” performance in 1995. These sisters are in their 50′s now, still performing, going on tour, and are better than ever.

Ann and Nancy Wilson, Janet Robin, and Jen Corday are an inspiration to what these young girls can achieve if they don’t give up on themselves, are willing to pay their dues in practice and rejection, and still stay strong and true to themselves.

But girls also need role models to help them see themselves as okay, at that age, just the way they are.

If you’re a mom or dad of a teenage or preteen girl, or you are a mentor of teenage and preteen girls (teacher, coach, scout leader, etc. I’m a teacher.) I hope you are doing everything in your power to help them through this difficult period of their lives while helping to build their self-esteem and keep it intact. They may need tough love, but they’ve got to know it’s love and support they can depend on.

Be Sociable, Share!