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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, October 12, 2012 · 16 Disney needs to rethink the message its sending to pre-teens By Shailee Koranne Grade 11, White Oaks S.S. he first time I saw the video for the song Fashion is my Kryptonite, I was actually at a loss for words. The song's two singers -- Bella Thorne and Zendaya Coleman, T stars of Disney Channel's Shake It Up! -- are beautiful and talented and seem very sweet, but this song they were told to sing takes away any reputable qualities about them. I feel silly for over-analyzing a Disney song, but these girls sing about being "up in the club" and how style is in their veins, "cause fashion's what they breathe." What? I'm assuming when they say "up in the club" they mean Club Penguin, because these girls are definitely not old enough to get into a real club. Anyways, most of the song continues like that -- senseless, inane lyrics -- and it's only giving the impression that fashion is the most important thing in their lives. Now, that wouldn't be a big deal if they actually had careers with anything to do with fashion. It also wouldn't matter much if they weren't about 15 years old. Bella and Zendaya's fan base largely consists of little girls and this song is such a bad influence on those kids that I'm cringing at the thought of how many nineyear-old girls care about their clothes even more now. Remember when Disney would push the envelope? A season three episode of That's So Raven from a while ago called True Colours confronted racism in the world. It was inspiring, good-hearted and brave. Another episode from the show's second season called That's So Not Raven was about a picture of Raven being altered so she looked thinner for a magazine cover. Since then, there hasn't been another question-forming, self-observing episode of any Disney show, even with so many opportunities having risen. In fact, the episodes of Disney shows are getting more and more vapid as the years pass. The show Shake it Up! had an episode called Party it Up!, in which a female character, ostensibly a model, said to the girls: "I could just eat you up... well, if I ate." A joke about an eating disorder is shocking to hear in a show produced by the same company who once used to tell children everywhere to embrace their bodies. It wasn't the first time the Walt Disney Company made a joke about eating disorders. An episode of Sonny with a Chance had made a reference to bulimia, also in a skit about a fashion model. If the Raven Baxter character was still around to see the newer Disney shows, I'm sure her first words would be "Ya, nasty." The point is the Walt Disney Company is a global phenomenon and easily one of the most impressionable and memorable parts of the lives of recent generations. They have the power to be spectacular, and to shape young minds -- but the only thing they've been shaping for the last seven or eight years are the eyebrows of pre-teen actors. If you are a teacher or student interested in participating in an upcoming Kids Speak Out - School News column featured in the Beaver, please e-mail Tom Dykes at ellergreen58@gmail.com.