Raising a self-assured, confident daughter that is not only comfortable with who she is as person, but also what she looks like on the outside is difficult. Let’s face it, from the time she is little she will be bombarded by cultural messages and other medias that somewhat undermine the healthy self image you want her to hold on to.
While you can steer her away from those activities and influences that can have a negative effect on her self esteem, you can’t entirely block them out. This is where self esteem activities for girls can have a huge positive effect on her outlook on life, her overall confidence levels and self esteem.
Self Esteem Activities for Girls
Because healthy self esteem is essential to long-term happiness, it’s important to help our daughters foster habits that build their confidence and self-worth. Below are seven esteem building activities that will help your daughter build and strengthen her esteem and confidence.
1. Create a Resume
One of the best ways for girls to build upon their self esteem is to take a look at their strong points. Your daughter can sit down and write out her best qualities, in a manner comparable to a resume.
It doesn’t have to be an ACTUAL resume, but instead can be a simple list with examples for each item.
This allows girls to realize how important their pre-existing skill sets are. Things like a sense of humour, creativity, compassion, intelligence and more are fantastic assets in life.
Once they have identified their positive traits, have them define reasons for each trait and why they are positive ones to have.
2. Make a Collage
We’re blessed (or cursed, depending on your perspective) with the ability to easily capture all of life’s moments with our phones now. Put all those photos to use by printing off the ones of your daughter’s proudest moments and happiest memories.
Then, have her assemble them in a collage that she keeps somewhere she will see it each day. This is a fun and easy way to remind her of her positive attributes every single day.
3. Organized Sports
Participating in organized sports has a fantastic influence on a young girl’s self esteem. In many ways, some athletic programs and organized sports help girls to feel more self confident, more in control and even less anxious.
In fact, competitive and organized sports can lead to better grades, better overall health, less stress and greater feelings of confidence and strength. Finding an organized sport your daughter is interested in taking part in, is a great way to help her build her self esteem.
4. Learn a New Skill
If your daughter isn’t interested in sports, try a different activity that will encourage her to develop a new skill and be exposed to other people and interests. Ideally, these would be group classes or activities so that she still gets the “team” experience of working with others towards a common goal.
Look for clubs and workshops at your daughter’s school, your local parks and recreation department, area churches, and your community news site or paper. Whether it’s a chorus, Lego Mindstorms workshop series, or a foreign language club, there are likely dozens of activities available for your daughter near you.
5. Perform a Confidence Makeover
We all love the movie montage scenes where the protagonist goes on a shopping spree to find the perfect outfit or gets a makeover done to go from drab to fab. It’s fun to imagine splurging on something so fun, but the main reason we enjoy those scenes is that we love to witness transformations.
Girls don’t need a whole new wardrobe or hours at a salon to give them a confidence boost. Instead, the key is to help your daughter determine the styles, colors, and hygiene habits that make her the most comfortable.
Spend some time going through her closet with her to help her find the outfits she feels best in. Experiment with hairstyles until you find one that she not only likes, but also is able to do on her own.
This makeover shouldn’t be focused on making your daughter pleasing to anyone other than herself. The goal is to help her define her own look so that she knows exactly what to do to head out feeling comfortable and confident.
6. Self Esteem Journal
Keeping a self esteem journal is a fantastic activity for girls of all ages to participate in. They can update it daily with different positive experiences they have had. Give them writing prompts each day that they are to write about.
- Today I had fun when…
- Today I felt proud when…
- Today was interesting because…
- A few things I did well today…
- Today I reach a goal I set when…
Completing these types of sentences can help to grow and reinforce your child’s self esteem daily.
An inexpensive guided self-esteem journal is another option. This one is great for younger girls (early elementary). For girls who are slightly older (8 to 10 years old), this journal is a great choice. This one is perfect for tweens and teens.
7. Perform Acts of Kindness
One of the best ways to feel better about yourself is to make others feel good. Encourage your daughter to practice random acts of kindness each day.
Because random acts of kindness can be as simple as smiling at a person in the hall or holding the door open for someone, doing them is an easy habit to develop. Your daughter will be brightening the days of others (and possibly boosting their self-esteem too), which is a surefire way for her to feel good about herself!
There are many self esteem activities for girls out there that can help to increase your daughter’s confidence. These activities can help to become more accepting of herself and tune out the garbled background noise that taunts her self esteem.
