Seventeen, Demi Lovato, and The Jed Foundation Announce "Love Is Louder Than the Pressure to Be Perfect" Campaign

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Apr 14, 2011) - Seventeen magazine, musician/actress Demi Lovato, and The Jed Foundation announced today the "Love is Louder Than The Pressure to Be Perfect" campaign. The partnership will focus on helping teen girls cope with the pressure they feel to be perfect in many aspects of their lives including appearance, popularity and performance in school and other activities. A study conducted by Seventeen, The Jed Foundation and Yahoo! Shine found that 69% of teenagers and 80% of young women say they feel the pressure to be perfect in everything they do.

A story in the May issue of Seventeen (on newsstands April 19) will feature the full survey results, as well as an interview with Lovato and the stories of five other teen girls who say that the pressure to be perfect led to serious emotional health issues like eating disorders, cutting and substance abuse. An online hub for the Pressure to be Perfect campaign at seventeen.com/demilovato allows users to get involved by uploading photos, accessing resources to get help for themselves or a friend, and joining the Love is Louder movement online.

"I'm so excited to be working with Seventeen and The Jed Foundation to help other teens talk about and cope with the problems we all face," says Demi Lovato, who, as part of the partnership, will serve as Contributing Editor to Seventeen magazine. "My fans have been such an incredible support system for me -- I hope I can repay this and help other girls learn from my experiences."

In her role as Contributing Editor, Lovato will write a twice monthly post on Seventeen.com/demilovato. She will also contribute to coverage of various issues facing teen girls within the magazine throughout the year.

"Now more than ever, it's important to help teens cope with the pressure in their lives -- particularly when they are dealing with it in self-destructive ways," says Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine. "We've discovered that as girls get out of the pressure cooker of high school and are more in control of their own destiny, the pressure doesn't subside... it gets worse. The extreme stories we heard about cutting, pill addiction, and sleeplessness have become 'normal' for these girls."

"Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have joined the Love is Louder movement because it empowers them to look beyond the internal and external voices that pull them down," says Courtney Knowles, Executive Director of The Jed Foundation. "We are thrilled to partner with Demi and Seventeen to help teens and young adults overcome the unique pressures they face daily."

Seventeen and Yahoo!'s survey results uncovered:

• 69% of teen girls and 80% of young women feel the pressure to be perfect. The feeling of the pressure to be perfect only gets worse as they get older.
• 81% of teen girls (ages 13-17) and 84% of young women (ages 18-21) feel overwhelmed by life.
• The pressure to be perfect comes largely from within (74% of teen girls and young women). Second is parents (56%).
• 61% of teen girls feel most comfortable talking to a friend about the pressure they feel, followed by talking to their moms (44%). That number decreases as they get older (54% of young women talk to a friend; 37% feel most comfortable talking to their moms).
• 35% of teen girls and 48% of young women have been so depressed that they don't want to hang out with friends.
• School is the biggest stressor (71% of girls aged 13-21), followed by weight (53% of teens and 67% of young adults).
• 60% of young women have an unhealthy relationship with food, and 41% of them are constantly dieting or thinking about their weight.
• Young women more frequently turn to sex (23%) and doing drugs/drinking alcohol (19%) to relieve the pressure.
• 15% of young women have physically hurt themselves on purpose (e.g., cutting, burning, punching, or scratching).

Seventeen (www.seventeen.com) is the best-selling monthly teen magazine, reaching more than 13 million readers every month. In each issue, Seventeen reports on the latest in fashion, beauty, health and entertainment, as well as information and advice on the complex real-life issues that young women face every day. Readers can also interact with the brand on the digital front, with Seventeen mobile (m.seventeen.com). In addition to its U.S. flagship, Seventeen publishes 13 editions around the world. Seventeen is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) and one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, with nearly 200 editions around the world, including 14 U.S. titles and 20 magazines in the United Kingdom, published through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited. Hearst Magazines is a leading publisher of monthly magazines in the U.S. in terms of total circulation (ABC June 2010) and reaches 73 million adults (Spring, 2010 MRI).

The Jed Foundation's Love is Louder movement works to raise the volume around a critical message -- that love and support is more powerful than the external and internal voices that bring us down, cause us pain and make us feel hopeless. Launched by The Jed Foundation, MTV and actress Brittany Snow to build on the outpouring of support online after the lives of multiple teenagers were lost to suicide in September 2010, the movement includes online resources, a media campaign and action kits for schools, communities and organizations. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have already participated in the movement. Anyone can get involved at www.loveislouder.com.