Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for women and girls. She is well known for her work on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls and working to address violence against women. Mother of four and author of four books, she is difficult to pigeonhole and impossible to ignore.

Melinda puts the spotlight on a critical issue of international concern: the sexualisation and objectification of girls and women in the media, popular culture and society.
Girls and young women are growing up in an increasingly sexualised environment.  Girls are portrayed as sexual at younger ages, pressured to conform to a 'thin, hot, sexy' norm.
Clothing, music, magazines, toys and games send girls the message that they are merely the sum of their body parts. The effects of prematurely sexualising girls are borne out in their bodies and minds, with a rise in self-destructive behaviours such as eating disorders and self-harm, along with anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.
Find out what Melinda and others are doing to combat this trend.

Abortion has been presented as a simple procedure that allows women to put the crisis of an unintended pregnancy behind them. They were told they'd be able to get on with their lives after abortion. But their lives would never be the same.
Melinda has documented personal accounts of women who have had abortions and share their stories of personal suffering and loss -- stories that have often gone unheard in a society eager to dismiss abortion-related trauma.
She examines the experiences of these women, including the lack of resources and support, the misinformation and lack of informed consent, and the intension pressure and coercion often applied by partners, parents and society in general to force women into unwanted abortions.