PARIS – Girls need to know what it means to be female and beautiful in the world today, Aileen Fortune believes.

Fortune is coordinating a poster contest by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service to “creatively challenge many of the current media messages that tell girls they need to be prettier, thinner and sexier to be beautiful, or to simply be OK,” Fortune said.

To get the word out about the first statewide Turn Beauty Inside Out poster contest, Fortune, of the extension service’s York County office, is enlisting the help of other extension services in the state, and any number of groups that work with girls, she said.

“We want to create a new cultural definition of beauty as ‘good hearts, great works and activism,'” she said.

Fortune said the posters should motivate and support girls to feel strong and confident in their bodies and their lives, and empower them to know that their voice and leadership are important.

Some of the winning posters will be used in the extension’s public awareness campaign. They will also be on display at the annual meeting of the Maine Women’s Fund.

Any girl age nine to 18 can participate, with cash prizes to be awarded in three age categories, 9-11, 12-14 and 15-18. Deadline for submission of a poster is March 26. The posters should be sent to: The University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 41 Shaw’s Ridge Road, Sanford, ME 04073.