The girls of Clifton had a party on Friday.

The occasion was a celebration of being a girl; all shapes and sizes were welcome. The party at the Boys & Girls Club of Clifton (www.bgcclifton.org) was thrown by Unilever (www.unileverusa.com).

Unilever, with its U.S. headquarters in Englewood, is the maker of Dove soap. You’ve seen their commercials featuring large (and real) size women in their underwear. The ads splashed across television and women’s magazines are in sharp contrast to the stick thin models pushing products everywhere else.

Dove calls this a Campaign For Real Beauty, www.campaignforrealbeauty.com, and it is making stops around the world at places where girls gather. Dozens of Unilever employees — women and men — were seated with more than a hundred girls from the Clifton club for the rousing presentation by Jessica Weiner (www.withjess.com), an author, columnist, and the self-proclaimed “Queen of Self Esteem.” Click here to watch the video on www.njmyway.com.

Jessica’s message is to make girls have fun and be comfortable in their own skin, and help battle the epidemic of eating disorders. Weiner speaks from the heart; she recovered from an eating disorder as a teen, and has written three books on the subject.

Some of the girls were too young to understand the issue. “I just want to win the prize,” whispered one.  They waved, and shouted out answers to Jessica’s questions. The corporate contingent coached them on.

It was, at the end of the day, a party with a theme.  Refreshingly, it was less about brand building, and more about mentoring. It might have been lost on some. But any effort to teach girls to accept themselves gets our vote for corporate good citizenship. Even if the girls themselves just wanted to have fun.