Too Old for Webkinz; Too Young for Facebook

Personalized Lockers, Online “Junior High” Helps Girls Navigate Tween Years

While most kids have fled the schools for the summer, one group of girls is clamoring to decorate their lockers, meet new classmates, and sign up for clubs and teams. The new Beacon Street Girls’ safe social networking site and online club (Club BSG) provides girls 9-13 with a myriad of online activities designed to satisfy their ever-growing need to create and communicate with each other.

Addie Swartz, CEO, B*tween Productions and the Beacon Street Girls (BSG) brand, explains the company’s vision for the site: “Lockers are a symbol of the complicated social landscape kids face in junior high. At first, there is the fear that you’ll forget your locker combination or lose the key. But soon you realize that lockers are a blank canvas, inviting creativity and personalization.”

Club BSG lockers provide girls with the tools to personalize their own private online space. Girls who use wallpaper, magnets, mirrors and photos to decorate their real lockers can now do the same thing online. Plus, ‘meet me at my locker to hear the latest news’ is an invitation no one can resist.”

Tied to the literary world of the award-winning Beacon Street Girls book series, now published by Simon & Schuster, the free online club provides a fun and exciting online community for preteen girls around the globe. And like the books, its positive and healthy messages help girls feel empowered to be their best selves.

Social networking for tweens – is it safe?

Tweens, to their parents’ consternation, are very interested in MySpace, Facebook and other social networks even though those sites aren’t COPPA-compliant (the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act which governs websites for kids under the age of 13). Parents realize that these sites are designed with adults and older teens in mind; and understand that these sites don’t provide necessary safeguards for a child’s personal information.

“Born with a mouse in her hand, today’s tween is more comfortable online than ever before. Some kids learn to use the Internet before they can read,” said Swartz. “Meanwhile, our preteen fans tell us that other virtual pet and online doll and dress up sites can seem childish and more appropriate for younger children.”

Virtual world and toy industry analyst Sean McGowan, Needham & Company LLC, sees the Beacon Street Girls as uniquely positioned between Webkinz and Facebook, and recognizes the growth potential of the site. “Sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz are giving children a taste of social networking, whetting their appetite for the more sophisticated fare Club BSG serves, creating a ready-made feeder system. The Beacon Street Girls brand offers experiences that run the gamut from totally real to totally digital, with the online junior high serving as a bridge to the real world. And, because the Beacon Street Girls exist as a multi-platform brand – books, website and licensed products – the online-offline connections and opportunities continue to multiply.”

Safety is paramount on the Beacon Street Girls site. While Club BSG mimics the “friending” and social networking conventions found on teen and adult sites, the Beacon Street Girls’ website controls do not allow any direct contact between strangers. Girls build their profiles by making selections from pre-defined menus. All comments are reviewed by adult monitors before they are published to the site. Only posts that follow all the “Club Rules” are allowed. No personal information is collected.

Expert guidance and link to literacy key to parent trust

The online world of the Beacon Street Girls provides girls with a friendly format for receiving real-world advice and guidance from a panel of leading experts in adolescence. These experts work with B*tween to cover a variety of tween-specific issues which include body image, online safety, diet and healthy lifestyles. Elizabeth Wharff, PhD, of Children’s Hospital Boston is one of several experts who work with the Beacon Street Girls team to infuse the company’s content (both print and online) with the latest research on adolescent behavior. “Preteen years are a time for exploring and trying on different personalities,” says Wharff, who works with BSG as a mental health consultant. “Beacon Street Girls online is a safe resource for young girls to express themselves and find answers to difficult questions they may face in adolescence.”

Meanwhile, the related literary world of the Beacon Street Girls books provides credibility with parents, while adding to the sense of fun and excitement for the girls as they follow the adventures of Charlotte, Avery, Maeve, Katani and Isabel at Abigail Adams Junior High School. Books feature issues around friendship and growing up and portray socially responsible values in a contemporary setting. ”By getting to know the Beacon Street Girls characters online, girls are more likely to actually pick up a book and read about their friends,” says Swartz.

Marianne Ferrucci’s 12-year-old daughter is a fan of the Beacon Street Girls. “My daughter is enjoying your new web site very much. She especially enjoys the locker whiteboards. She has even had some of her friends join too! Thanks for providing a fun and safe web site.”

A beta version of site is currently available. The BSG’s website is free to all girls under the age of 17. Club members:
Design and decorate their own locker and personal space
Select a personal avatar/icon that identifies all their contributions
Safely “friend” the Beacon Street Girls characters and other Club BSG members from around the world; get and give each other advice.
Connect with a variety of celebrities, role models, literary figures and experts
Get advice and guidance from the BSG panel of adult experts
Join special online clubs, team and special interest groups.
Get the inside scoop on the latest BSG news with the Club BSG e-newsletter

About The Beacon Street Girls

The Beacon Street Girls® brand (BSG) is specifically designed to celebrate the potential in every tween – those girls between the ages of 9 and 13 who are “between toys and boys™.” The Beacon Street Girls, whether online at BeaconStreetGirls.com or in the widely popular book series written under the pen name of Annie Bryant, are shaped by leading experts in adolescent development and current research on how to positively impact girls’ self-esteem. The Beacon Street Girls offer a fresh, exciting and healthier media alternative to today’s MTV-style world. Fans from 174 countries and their parents have embraced the Beacon Street Girls as role models who are “just like me.” The Beacon Street Girls world and Club BSG can be found online at http://www.beaconstreetgirls.com

B*tween has partnered with leading children’s books publisher Simon & Schuster, adding the Beacon Street Girls to their tween imprint Aladdin M!X®. Random House’s Listening Library® is distributing audio books. More than 585,000 Beacon Street Girls books have been sold to date. Beacon Street Girls books are available wherever books are sold.

Contacts

For The Beacon Street Girls
Bobbie Carlton, 781-863-8228, x201
bcarlton {at} btweenproductions(.)com