Beyonce and other celebs campaign to stop girls from being called ‘bossy’
Sheryl Sandberg has enlisted some high-powered celebrity friends – Beyonce among them – in a campaign to stop people from calling girls “bossy.”
It’s the other “b-word,” says Facebook’s CEO.
In a public service announcement released Sunday, Beyonce, Jennifer Garner, Jane Lynch, Diane von Furstenberg, Condoleezza Rice and NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson talk about how girls are discouraged from becoming leaders because they don’t want to be called “bossy.”
The PSA is part of a campaign by the Girl Scouts of the USA and Sandberg’s
.
People are urged to go to
and sign a pledge to ban the five-letter word.
In a
, Sandberg recalls her leadership tendencies as a little girl. “From a very young age, I liked to organize — the toys in my room, neighborhood play sessions, clubs at school,” she writes.
“When I was in junior high and running for class vice president, one of my teachers pulled my best friend aside to warn her not to follow my example: ‘Nobody likes a bossy girl,’ the teacher warned. ‘You should find a new friend who will be a better influence on you.’”
Little girls get called bossy on the playground, then they’re labeled as “aggressive,” “shrill” and “too ambitious” as women, Sandberg argues.
“We know that by middle school more boys than girls want to lead. and if you ask girls why they don’t want to do it, they don’t want to be disliked and they don’t want to be called bossy.” she told ABC.
In the PSA, “Glee” star Lynch says “I think the word ‘bossy' is just a squasher.”
Garner, the mother of two daughters, says that “being labeled something matters.”
But Beyonce has the last word, proclaiming: “I'm not bossy — I’m the boss.”
Hear that?
She said boss!
This story was originally published March 10, 2014 at 10:45 AM with the headline "Beyonce and other celebs campaign to stop girls from being called ‘bossy’."