Beit Shemesh mom ‘joins forces’ with Amy Schumer to combat teen sexism
Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll takes to social media to call out magazine’s gender stereotyping; message goes viral thanks to Hollywood celebs
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Sometimes it takes an American-born mother of five in Beit Shemesh to gain the attention of comedian Amy Schumer along with actresses Blake Lively and Katie Holmes.
Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll, a branding expert and Times of Israel blogger, took to Facebook recently to call out the all-female editors of Girls’ Life after an acquaintance pointed out the vast differences between the topics covered in the teen magazine and Boys’ Life, a publication of the Boy Scouts of America.
“Your cover has a lovely young lady with a full face of makeup and you invite your readers to ‘steal her secrets,'” she wrote. “The Boys’ Life cover has in bold letters ‘EXPLORE YOUR FUTURE’ surrounded by all kinds of awesome gear for different professions — doctor, explorer, pilot, chemist, engineer, etc. subheading — HERE’S HOW TO BE WHAT YOU WANT TO BE. Could there possibly be two more divergent messages?”
“We have all these messages that we’re inundated with and when something becomes the norm, it becomes your norm too,” said Keats-Jaskoll. “Lipstick is okay and jeans can be cute but this isn’t who we are.”
She originally saw a Facebook post about the two magazine covers, in which Matt Frye, a Kansas City native and father of three, snapped a picture of the magazines lying side by side in his local library.
“A sad microcosm of what our society says being a girl vs. being a boy means,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “With three girls to raise, this breaks my heart. I’ll fight like hell for my girls to not exist in this reality.”

Keats-Jaskoll reposted his post with a quick comment, and one of her friends pointed out the “Girls’ Life” masthead full of female editors.
“He said, ‘If you’re pissed, do something,'” said Keats-Jaskoll.
“I sighed, knowing he was right,” she said. “I could’ve written this in so many ways, but I wrote, ‘Dear ladies, what the hell are you doing perpetuating this craziness. It took me 15 minutes to write and I had no inkling, never thought in a million years, that this would happen.”
The “this” that Keats-Jaskoll referred to began with more than 6,000 likes on Facebook, a hefty chunk of media attention, and then Schumer saw the photo and reshared it on Instagram, commenting with a simple but eloquent “No.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKmMaSAhoij/?taken-by=amyschumer
One hour later, Lively chimed in, “Wow. Amy Schumer, I second that emotion. Ladies, lets not let this happen anymore.” Holmes then joined, adding “#thisneedstochange.”
“I didn’t say what anybody else wasn’t thinking,” said Keats-Jaskoll. “I didn’t feel the letter was anything noteworthy other than people don’t say it.”
The media had already reached out to her before the celebrities picked up the thread, although, admitted Keats-Jaskoll, she had to be reminded of who Blake Lively was.
She’s not complaining, however.
“I always believe in the power of the people,” she said. “Anything that I’ve ever accomplished from writing is to make people aware and then galvanize. We can change part of the world, it’s up to us.”
The soapbox stance is nothing new to Keats-Jaskoll, who said she has always been something of an amateur activist.
She always stood up to class bullies in her hometown of Lakewood, New Jersey, and credits her Holocaust survivor grandparents, who were an active presence in her life.
“The horrors of the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if people had stood up and said no,” she said. “Being 40 and looking back, that’s been a guiding force. Why do I bother myself? I can’t see something and look away.”
As friends encourage her to take her message further, Keats-Jaskoll said she wouldn’t say no to an appearance on talk show “Ellen,” but she’d really like to see the celebrities offer a more concrete message.
“These women do have influence, and they can get together and say, if you want us to grace your pages, listen to our voices,” she said. “Let Amy Schumer and Blake Lively and Katie Holmes guest edit the three top teen magazines, and shift the conversation in an extremely real way.”