by Jillian Zacchia

To be an Actionist™ you must be someone who takes action in your everyday life and who inspires others to do the same. The word Actionist™ was coined by international female activist (or Actionist™), Jess Weiner.

Jess Weiner had been featured around the globe helping girls boost their self-esteem.  Jess is the Global Ambassador for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, she writes a monthly column for Seventeen magazine on body image, she works with celebrities like Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, she hosts seminars for mom’s and daughters about the pressures of being beautiful, she has shared her advice and opinion on television shows such as The Today Show, CNN Showbiz Tonight, The Tyra Banks Show, The View, and Oprah and she’s been the focus of articles for The Washington Post,  and The New York Times. She’s also written two books, A Very Hungry Girl and Life Doesn’t Begin 5 Pounds from Now.

Her list of credentials goes on, but essentially what Jess Weiner does is help women and girls all over the world feel good about themselves.

Growing up Jess wanted to be an actress.  “I went to performing arts junior highs and high schools studying theatre,” she says. When she started college at Penn State and she took courses outside of acting and things changed from then on.

As a teen Jess had her own problems to deal with, “I am human” she says.  She had an eating disorder and after taking classes in the classics and child studies in college she says “my mind was opened to a whole new avenue of performance and social thought. Combine that with the fact that I was also in recovery for my eating disorders during that time and just being an actor wasn’t enough anymore.”

Jess was in group therapy in college for her eating disorder, where she discussed her problems and listened to the problems of eight other women every week.  “They all looked perfect to me,” says Jess about the women in group therapy, “but inside their stories were incredible - drug addiction, suicidal tendencies, rape and assault. And they were so powerful and raw and also bound by shame and silence. These were stories no girl ever wanted to tell.”

“One day after a particularly tough group session I went home and wrote in my journal. And I kept writing for hours and eventually a play was born called “Wake Up World” and it explored all of the issues I was facing and hearing about,” says Jess. “I put it on for people at school and they loved it. So I realized that I can take all of the painful moments of my life and others and use them to actually uplift, educate and inspire people.”

From this play Jess helped form a student social issue theatre company that performed plays on her college campus. “We had the opportunity to work with MTV on a show called ‘Unfiltered’ where I covered a sexual harassment event on campus. This led me to be featured on CNN.”

After Jess graduated she moved to Indiana and started ‘Act Out Ensemble’ in 1995, a theatre group similar to the one she helped form in college. “We ran for six seasons and traveled all over the nation together performing social, health, and educational plays for students,” says Jess. “It was during these moments, when we were live in front of an audience and I literally saw someone’s life change that I knew I had to continue on this path, even though I wasn’t sure where it would take me.”

Jess had decided to commit herself to helping young girls and women feel positive about themselves because she feels it’s important for women to feel strong and happy in a culture right now that puts girls against each other. “We are brought up socially to be in competition with each other - who has the best body, more boyfriends, better clothes. And this kind of competition can be devastating on female friendships because it emphasizes a mentality that there isn't enough to go around. Enough love. Enough attention. Enough success. But there is. There is enough to share with your girlfriends.”

Jess wants girls to look at each other as allies, not enemies.  She tells women to rise above the media’s messaging because we need more unity and less cattiness, she says.  “The only way we can change this around is if we begin to look at this issue and take action.”

Jess, a self-esteem expert, still struggles with self esteem at times, but she says what helps her rise above and work through those feelings are her great friends, and loving family.  “I lean on them to help me remember my gifts” they help her cope with emotions that once crippled her and they help her tap into her inner strength.  

In Jess’s first book, A Very Hungry Girl, there are stories from outstanding women that changed the way she looked at the world.  From their stories and her own, Jess learned that “it’s never too late to change, no matter what has happened to you or how worthless you feel. There is always hope; hope never leaves even if you push it away.”

Jess, who is a mentor and inspiration to so many people, intern has many of her own role models.  One of her earliest influences was her 5^th grade teacher, Mrs. Stetson. “She just let me read my creative stories in class and in turn it gave birth to the writer in me. It was simple but it opened the doors to my creative spirit and let me see myself as a storyteller. She took a small step of action that made a big impact on my life.”  No matter how small an action may seem, the impact can be monumental.  Jess proves here that help of all shapes and sizes is important.

 Action is important, that is why Jess created the term Actionist™, and that is why the words she lives by are "be the change you wish to see in the world” by Ghandi.

Jess truly is a proud woman because of her strength, her soul, her spirit, and her ability to bounce back. “[I’m proud of] the love in my life – the people who risk their own pain every day to reach out to me, and every email I get from a fan makes me a proud woman.”  It’s a beautiful thing when women are fans of true role models like Jess and not celebrities they read about in gossip magazines. 

Jess is a celebrity in her own way because she has helped so many people and spread her message across the world however she can.  Though she’s achieved so much already this is only the beginning for her and she says her ultimate goal is to create a powerful presence in mainstream media. 

“I want to bring important stories about girls and women to the mainstream. I don’t want to be a niche business; I want to be global. I want to have programming on TV, radio, digital, and print. I want to make sure that those who feel voiceless hear themselves in the stories I tell.