THE REPRESENTATION PROJECT
Challenging discriminatory gender norms, transforming culture, and building a better world
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Rigid gender stereotypes have negative societal outcomes. For girls, gender stereotypes are the root cause of body hatred and shame, eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, and low leadership ambition. For boys, gender role expectations are the primary driver of depression, risk-taking activities, substance abuse, suicide, and violence. This public health crisis is exacerbated by media aimed at young people who consume an average of 10 hours of media per day. As a driving force in the 21st Century, media can also be leveraged for progressive change. By providing media literacy education and training young people to create their own media, we are empowering the next generation of media makers to create meaningful content with the power to change culture.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Education
Education:
Generate a national dialogue around issues of gender, media and representation. Educate and inspire the next generation of youth and raise their consciousness
around the harmful effects of mainstream media. Ensure that Miss Representation’s Curriculum is used in classrooms around the country. The curriculum includes age-appropriate modules for K-3 grades, 4-5 grades, middle
schools, high schools and universities. Provide resources for parents, youth and counselors to talk with each other about how to overcome the media’s messaging.
Social Action & Distribution Campaigns
TRP engages in active online outreach to shift the broader culture. Our Weekly Action Alerts, a short message from the organization about issues pertaining to the mission, launched in 2013. Currently, over 100,000 people have signed up to receive a Weekly Action Alert that features the latest research on intersectional gender issues, recommendations for positive media, book reviews, film reviews, and compelling analyses of current policy topics related to gender justice.
TRP has social media handles for each film, in addition to a namesake page (The Representation Project) on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. TRP’s social action campaigns use online organizing strategies to raise consciousness and change the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and communities worldwide. TRP partners with national, international, and community organizations to challenge the status quo on gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, and circumstance. TRP creates and disseminates its messages through education and online communications, mainstream publications, media appearances, speaking engagements, viral videos, and social media campaigns. Campaigns provide people with the tools to use their voice and consumer power to challenge and dramatically change the way gender roles are portrayed in advertising, media, and mainstream culture.
Where we work
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Using film and media as catalysts for cultural transformation, The Representation Project inspires individuals and communities to challenge limiting gender stereotypes and shift norms. As a leading gender watchdog, The Representation Project’s programmatic work includes efforts to activate the general public across the US, with a special focus on youth as a powerful generation of cultural influencers who are already using their power as leaders, media makers, and consumers to drive systemic change.
The Representation Project is working to achieve the following core objectives:
- Expand The Representation Project’s youth programs to train the next generation of underrepresented youth content creators;
- Maintain the organization as the “gold standard” for producing gender justice documentaries; and
- Continue to be the leading gender watchdog organization by exposing damaging gender stereotypes in ads and other media.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Using film and media as catalysts for cultural transformation, The Representation Project inspires individuals and communities to challenge limiting gender stereotypes and shift norms. Jennifer Siebel Newsom founded The Representation Project in 2011 in response to the overwhelming public demand for ongoing education and social action in support of her first film, Miss Representation. Since then, The Representation Project released Newsom’s second film, The Mask You Live In, and third film, The Great American Lie. The organization is well known for creating popular social media activism campaigns such as #NotBuyingIt, #AskHerMore, and #RepresentHer. The Representation Project offers robust youth programming to the next generation of media creators through school screenings, an online community for creators, summer media training academies, and annual educational summits focused on transcending gender stereotypes.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
YOUTH PROGRAMMING:
Through our Youth Media Programs, we educate and train youth to gain media literacy and media production skills; use those skills to challenge limiting gender stereotypes in media; and create content that establishes broad, authentic and intersectional representation in media. The organization’s youth programs have had a profound impact on young people’s lives in ways that will shape their future path while strengthening skills that can enhance employment opportunities.
GENDER JUSTICE FILMS:
Jennifer’s first film, Miss Representation, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It exposed the ways in which mainstream media representations of girls and women contribute to the underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence. In response to overwhelming public demand for ongoing education and social action in support of the film’s message, Jennifer founded The Representation Project (TRP) in April of 2011. Jennifer's second film, The Mask You Live In, explores how America’s narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men, and society at large. Newsom's third film in the trilogy, The Great American Lie, was released in 2019. It is the most comprehensive intersectional assessment of the causes of economic immobility— racism, corporate exploitation, and gendered societal values. She brings her unique lens to bear on the subject, revealing how inequality is rooted in “masculine” cultural values (e.g., individualism, power, money) at the expense of things we consider “feminine” (e.g., empathy, care, collaboration). Beyond the films, we offer age-appropriate curricula that provides youth with the opportunity to explore and apply the concepts presented in the films. Our tailored curricula are designed to engage youth at different stages of development through hands-on activities and guided discussions.
GENDER WATCHDOG & SOCIAL ACTIVISM:
TRP has also become the nation’s leading gender watchdog organization through active social media campaigns that hold corporations, content creators, political leaders, and others accountable. On any given week, we reach 2.5 million people worldwide with our messages online, and one in ten engage with our content, by liking, commenting on, or sharing it. Through hosting this large conversation, we provide a platform for our followers to more deeply engage with gender dynamics, tease out the intricacies around intersectionality, and build their skills for bringing these discussions offline. For example, our #AskHerMore campaign around sexist reporting and our #NotBuyingIt campaign around sexist media and advertisements have led to changes everywhere from the red carpet to the Super Bowl to the newsroom. We then amplify the drumbeat of progress by emailing 100,000+ of our constituents simple and specific ways to create change through our “Weekly Actions.”
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
YOUTH PROGRAMS
• We trained over 1,000 young content creators in our Youth Media Lab in 2019.
• Girls in our Youth Media Academy express greater interest in working in media, engaging in activism, and aspiring to leadership positions.
• Over 600 young people have received hands-on training through our annual Youth Summits. They report a substantial increase in their knowledge of the power of storytelling, racial justice issues, and using their creative voice for social change.
FILMS/CURRICULA
• The Representation Project’s three films, Miss Representation (2011), The Mask You Live In (2015), and The Great American Lie (2019) have been viewed by over 28 million people worldwide.
• Our film curricula has been used by over 2.5 million students.
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
• The Representation Project has achieved over 1.4 billion impressions through our social media channels.
• Our social media hashtag campaigns have reached 834 million people. #NotBuyingIt changed the sexism of Super Bowl ads, and #AskHerMore transformed red carpet interviews so that female celebrities are seen as more than their youth, beauty, and designer dresses.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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THE REPRESENTATION PROJECT
Board of directorsas of 02/25/2021
Joanna Rees
West Ventures
Jennifer Siebel Newsom
Founder, The Representation Project
Joanna Rees
West
Mollie Ricker
Dostart Development
Susan Boster
Boster Group
Elizabeth Naftali
Puma Development
Brenda Robinson
Swanson Martin & Bell LLP
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
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Gender identity
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