About-Face equips women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image.

Description:
To fulfill our mission, we lead media-literacy workshops in schools and groups, teach girls and women to take action, and maintain a resource-filled web site.

History:
About-Face was established in 1995 with a poster campaign by Kathy Bruin, who doctored a Calvin Klein fragrance ad featuring model Kate Moss. The poster, which previously read “Obsession,” was now emblazoned with “Emaciation Stinks” and was plastered all over San Francisco. Bruin’s personal rebellion received national media coverage and an overwhelming response from women who wanted to speak out against starvation imagery in media.

Since that first poster action in 1995, About-Face has put up three other large, full-color posters all over San Francisco and surrounding areas: “Bodies Are Not Fashion Accessories: Question the Motives of the Diet Industry” (1996), “Please Don’t Feed the Models”(1998), and “Fashion Plate” (2002), and choreographed numerous protests and other actions.

In 1997, About-Face began speaking engagements—precursors to our current media-literacy
workshops—at schools, universities, and other groups. In 2001, Kathy Bruin handed over leadership of About-Face to long-time member Jennifer Berger, who remains About-Face’s Executive Director today.

Contact people:

Jennifer Berger, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Alyza Jehangir, Program Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

P.O. Box 77665 San Francisco, CA 94107

Directions:

We are a virtual organization and do not yet have a public office.