Hey Girl Powerettes,

Little Miss Sunshine might be small but she’s got serious moxy! Just like all you pocket rockets out there. Picking this month’s Colour My World: Little Miss Sunshine top three was the toughest yet, but we think you’ll agree that these entries totally rock:

Cool colours Chloe F! Your colour scheme is super neat.

You’ve captured all the colours of the rainbow Isabella, way to go!

Chloe R. your pic is spot-acular!

And the winner is…CHLOE F! Congratulations, you’ve got the skills that thrill! Little Miss Sunshine is the bright spark in everyone’s day and you’ve made her shine off the page! Awesome job, Chloe!

Stay tuned, the top three entries for Colour My World: Debby Ryan will be announced soon. You haven’t got much time so send your entries to girlpower@next.com.au OR to Girl Power, ’Colour my World’, Locked Bag 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590.Don’t forget to add your name, age and address, so if you win we can send you an amazing prize!

The GP Team will be hanging out for your super creations!

Lots of love,

The GP Team


xx

Here at GP HQ we just LOVE our besties We’re sure you do to, so we thought you might want to send them a super sweet message that could be published in Girl Power!

Just post your messages to your bestie by commenting below, or send an email to girlpower@next.com.au with the subject ‘GP Shout Outs’ and your message to your friend could appear in an upcoming issue! Don’t forget to include your name and age, plus if you’d like to attach a photo – that would be super cool too!

So girls, get commenting below or email us today!

The GP Team

So tell us all about the Oovie Schools Film Project.

Originally Oovie partnered with Dungog film festival to create the Schools Film Project for high school students. This year they’ve decided to expand it to the Cockatoo Island Film Festival in Sydney, so it’s really great. Each school pitches one idea for a three minute short film. Then those pitches are considered by a panel of industry experts and then three of those ideas are picked. Those three schools are invited to work with professional filmmakers and are given resources valued at a lot of money, $47600 dollars, and that includes a mentorship with writers, editors and producers and film equipment and editing equipment. What’s really cool is that kids get to come camp on the island for four days and make the film. Then they are premiered at the Cockatoo Island Film Festival.

That sounds like one cool sleepover!

Yeah it sounds like the best slumber party ever! It’s really cool, this year they have a theme and it’s “Island” and kids have to use that theme and work it into their pitch and if they get chosen then they are the luckiest kids in NSW and Victoria!

So did you ever make movies when you were in school?

Yeah I did. I was the first year that trialled the film studies subject so at the high school I went to I would study films and learn about how they were made and then we were given cameras and we got to go into the playground and make our own films. It was such a wonderful and fun subject to do at school. Now that kids are so much more tech savvy it teaches them skills they can use later on in life.

So you would have entered the film project if you could?

Absolutely, I was like, “I wish I could do this, it sounds like so much fun.”

What would you do if you had to make a film with this year’s theme ‘Island’?

Well, knowing now that there’s such diverse range of buildings on Cockatoo Island, there’s tunnels and you’ve got the jail, I reckon there will be quite a few horror stories and settlement stories coming out of the project because if you look around the island there are all these old industrial buildings. They recently had a festival of street artists which would make the best backdrops.

So what three things would you take with you if you were stranded on an island?

I would take a giant catalogue of books because I’d get bored. Even though I can’t play a musical instrument I’d take one because I’d figure I’d have a lot of time to learn and I’d probably take an avocado tree because it’s without a doubt the only food I could not live without. I would plant it on the island and have an endless supply of avocados.

The avocado tree is the strangest tree I’ve ever seen!

Yeah they are the weirdest looking trees. We had one when we were kids and it never had avocados on it and it took about 15 years and then all of a sudden it had so many on it! I think they are really temperamental, they are like “If I don’t feel like fruiting this year, then you’re getting nothing”.

Ha! So do you have any tips for aspiring filmmakers who might want to enter the Oovie Schools Film Project?

I think follow your own style and your own creativity, there’s no point in remaking someone elses stuff, let the judges see your personality of you and your school. Have fun with it too, the reason why people want to be in this industry is that it’s their favourite hobby and they get to do it everyday for a living. If you’re not having fun you’re not doing your job properly.

Do you have a message for any of our Girl Power readers who are thinking of entering?

Yeah, I’d just say I’d start sooner rather than later because this is a fantastic opportunity and I’m sure plenty of schools will be getting involved. Do it because if I was your age I’d be doing it and I hope someone gets to have all that fun!

Find out all about how to enter at www.cocktaoofilm.com or www.oovie.com.au. The pitch deadline is Wednesday February 29th, 2012.

There are a bunch of cool quizzes and puzzles too – find out which Aussie Diva you are, discover your Aussie anthem, play Aussie music match-ups and test your smarts with a true blue trivia quiz!

Most importantly, we’ve PACKED the mag with 18 amazing posters! There’s 4 life-size megas of Guy Sebastian, Nat Bass, Havana Brown and Shannon Noll, 4 gigantic doubles of Jess Mauboy, Cody Simpson, Stan Walker and Vanessa Amorosi, PLUS  10 super singles of Justice Crew, Matt Corby, Reece Mastin, Ricki-Lee and MORE!

For all those girls who’ve been asking, Pop Queen is available at SELECTED NEWSAGENCIES! If you can’t see it – ask your newsagent if they will be getting it in stock!

In the entertainment world, we get a sneak peek at Young Talent Time with Rob Mills and chat to the cast of Annie the Musical! There’s also a preview of the fun flicks that will hit cinemas in 2012.

It’s almost time to head back to school! Get prepped with our back to school mini mag – it’s filled with celeb school tips, reader advice and the chance to win a whole stash of stationery. Yippee!

Also – we teach you how to speak French, start a club, draw a panda, make a sun catcher and bake cute cakes for your Valentine! PLUS - Each issue comes with an uber-cute popsicle lip gloss! Yum!

So get your mitts on the latest issue – on sale now!

UPDATE: Sadly due to bad weather, this event has been cancelled You can find out more info on the Ticketmaster website – www.ticketmaster.com.au and a notification will be delivered to ticketholders who provided email and/or SMS details to Ticketmaster when they bought their tickets. For families who purchased tix, contact Ticketmaster to get your refund.

~

Here at GP, we’re always on the lookout for school holiday boredom busters! As much as we LOVE the summer break, sometimes it’s hard to fill every day with fun! Right?

So we were super excited to find out about the Paddle Pop Adventure Park! The park swings opens its doors on Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th of January. Yippee! Sydneysiders can book their tix and head on down to ‘The Lake’ at Macquarie University in North Ryde for some serious school holiday fun!

The best bit about the theme park is that it’s got the world’s longest Slip’n'Slide – it’s 188 metres long! Wow! There’s also a Jungle Vines climbing wall, an Adventure Maze, bouncy castle, bungee trampolines and more!

You can also wind down and watch Paddle Pop Begins on the big screen in the Outdoor cinema, or grab a snack at The Hungry Lion’s Den.

For more info and to get your tix to the event, head to www.paddlepop.com.au

We sure hope you’re enjoying your summer break!

Just a reminder that you have less than one week to enter our Arrietty comp! This fab flick is out January 12 and we’ve got five family movie passes to give away! To enter, email us at girlpower@next.com.au and tell us, if you could live under the floorboards of anyone’s house, whose house would it be and why? Don’t forget to include your name, age, postal address and phone number, too!

The competition closes at 9am on Monday, Jan 9, 2012.

You can read all about this wonderful movie here, plus see the trailer below!

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You’ve got to be in it to win it! Good luck!

- This competition is now CLOSED. Thanks for your amazing entries! –

Do you subscribe to our e-newsletter? It is a great way to get the latest goss from Girl Power HQ delivered to your email inbox! There’s also the chance to WIN cool prizes in each e-issue!

Subscribe by entering your email in the top righthand corner of this page, where it says “Join Our Mailing List”

To see the latest e-newsletter: click here! or check it out below!

Happy holidays!

Are you excited about all the fabulous flicks hitting cinemas this summer? We sure are! We’ve got an uber-spesh pull out movie mini-mag in this issue and it’s filled with behind-the-scenes goss! Yay! Just so you know, the GP team had a BLAST reviewing all the movies (and ate our way through a LOT of popcorn!)

Of course, the Jan issue has a bucketload of celeb news too – we profile tomorrow’s top stars, plus get the latest on Elle Fanning and Hugo star Chloe Moretz! We also got chatting to Victoria Justice this month (and we were TOTALLY starstruck!)

So buckle up and get  ready for a summer of fun, inspired by GIRL POWER MAG! Hooray!

Wishing you a happy holiday season!

Arrietty is a beautiful animated movie about a teeny, tiny 14-year-old girl called Arrietty who lives under the floorboards of a mansion. She lives with her family and they survive by “borrowing” things from the people who live in the house. When a 12-year-old human boy comes to stay at the house, Arrietty’s life changes forever. You can catch it in cinemas from January 12.

This movie is based on the much-loved book The Borrowers by Mary Norton and it’s seriously sweet. The best way to find out all about it is to watch the trailer below!

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Isn’t the animation amazing? Fun fact: It’s made by the Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli – they did Spirited Away and Ponyo! It screens in both an English language version and a subtitled Japanese version. Cool!

Thanks to Madman Entertainment, we’ve got 5 family passes to the movie to give away! Yay! To enter, email us at girlpower@next.com.au and tell us, if you could live under the floorboards of anyone’s house, whose house would it be and why? Don’t forget to include your name, age, postal address and phone number, too!

The competition closes at 9am on Monday, Jan 9, 2012. Good luck!

- This competition is now CLOSED. Thanks for your amazing entries! –