Meet the real 'Bubbles': Jen Cowitz wins national contest to become a real-life 'Powerpuff Girl' Meet the real 'Bubbles': Jen Cowitz wins national contest to become a real-life 'Powerpuff Girl' (January 19, 2005)

By Marjorie Mader

Almanac Staff Writer

Jen Cowitz, a sophomore at Woodside High, has a double life.

She's also the first real-life model for "Bubbles" -- one of the three Powerpuff Girls, animated "super heroes" on cable TV's Cartoon Network.

She and two other girls were chosen in an online contest to serve as Powerpuff Girl models in catalog and magazine ads launching a new Powerpuff clothing line.

About 1,500 girls entered the contest, and 200,000 votes were cast online.

"All girls, 21 and under, know the Powerpuff Girls," says Jen, reeling off their names: "Blossom," "Buttercup" and Bubbles."

"Sugar, spice, everything nice. These were the ingredients to create The Powerpuff Girls -- super heroes who save the day in Townsville," says Jen, intoning the intro to the TV program.

During last summer's lull, Jen, 15, decided on a whim to enter the contest after seeing an ad online. The model search was open to "all powerful girls," ages 6-16, who are "community heroes in real life."

The three winners won a four-day trip to Atlanta, where they participated in photo shoots and were introduced on the Cartoon Network.

Each girl won $1,500 to give to a favorite charity.

Jen's immediate choice: the Institute for Cancer Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. She plans to personally deliver the check to the director, Dr. Irving L. Weissman.

Jen, who has coped with Type 1 juvenile diabetes since she was 6, says stem-cell research offers great promise to people with serious disorders, including cancer and Parkinson's disease, as well as diabetes.

"I'd do anything to help anyone with juvenile diabetes," she says.
Saving the day

The contest required Jen to write two 100-word essays, telling which Powerpuff Girl she most resembled, and how she helps save the day in her community.

"I most resemble Bubbles," she wrote. "I am one of the more comical, bubbly members of my circle of friends, and try to keep everyone upbeat and laughing."

"Sometimes, when necessary, I can be strong, but I believe in inner prowess above physical might," Jen wrote.

She says she's "very independent," and while she excels academically, she puts close and reliable family and friends above homework.

Jen contributes to her community in many ways. She's a trained conflict mediator and mentor to younger students and her peers through Woodside's S.O.S (Students Offering Support) program. As a member of Woodside High's Octagon Club, she takes part in service activities such as staging a "Halloween Spooktacular" at Red Morton Park and collecting food for Second Harvest Food Bank.

Jen packages "Until There's a Cure" bracelets at a Woodside home, and works on beach-restoration projects at Half Moon Bay. She volunteers at the Cancer Society's Discovery Shop in Menlo Park, steaming clothes and washing donated glasses.

"Jen just made it happen," said her mother, emphasizing that she and Jen's dad, Jeff Cowitz, had nothing to do with her winning the contest.

Both longtime teachers at Woodside High, the parents were invited to join Jen on the four-day trip to Atlanta in September.

They stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, dined at a rooftop restaurant, and toured Atlanta by night in a horse-drawn carriage. Limousines took the girls and their parents about town, including on a shopping spree and to a movie premiere.

"When the chauffeur asked for the girls' autographs for his daughter, I knew I was out of our league," says Sue in an interview with Jen at Buck's restaurant in Woodside last week.

The photo shoots at Ted Turner's TV studio were exciting, says Jen, who recalls how the girls laughed as they practiced saying, "Hamtaro Ham Ham Halloween," through clouds of dry-ice smoke while filming the introduction to the Powerpuff Girls' Halloween spectacular.

"It was a chance of a lifetime," says Jen. "Being there was the real reward. We met some amazing people."

Photos of Jen and the other two girls modeling fashions with the Powerpuff Girls label have appeared in magazines that appeal to young girls.

"It's bizarre," says Jen, when asked about her reaction to seeing her photo in a magazine. "It's also after the fact. It was much more fun doing it."

Back at Woodside High, "not much has changed," says Jen. "One person called out in a teasing way, 'How are you doing, 'Powerpuff,' but that was it."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.