(I dedicate the following to Moonbeam. Enjoy!)

First, a little background info on Julie from her website http://www.planetjulie.com:

Young people need our ongoing support to help them maintain their moral standards, but we often wish we could more effectively reach a broader audience and influence those who may not be exposed to positive messages.

Enter Julie Stoffer. After appearing on several Music Television Programs including MTV's "The Real World" and "Extreme Challenge" Julie has become involved in several organizations that work to promote high moral standards in today's youth. Raised in a supportive Christian home, Julie maintains strong moral values. At 22, Julie is unique for her stance against drugs and alcohol, and her belief in sexual abstinence before marriage. Her high standards are a focal point of her personality, on and off screen.

After attending Brigham Young University, a private Christian university, Julie became involved with MTV's #1 rated show, "The Real World". After filming, Julie was inducted into President Bush's Points of Light intensive training course at the University of San Diego. There she was trained to speak effectively to youth about such issues as diversity, drugs and alcohol, conflict resolution, AIDS, STDs, and sexual purity, and more. Her training, coupled with her personal standards and amazing life experiences at such a young age, make Julie an amazingly effective speaker - especially to young adults. She has since worked with campaigns such as TRUTH, Great to Wait, and RESPECT. Besides working with these campaigns, Julie has also had an opportunity to tour college campuses. She recently became the newest host on Discovery Channel's "Electric Playground".

Julie's love for music has become an intregal part of her speaking career. Julie has brought her message and her music to schools, universities, festivals, youth camps, church gatherings, and community events. The addition of music to Julie's already effective speaches creates a captivating performance appropriate for any event.

For the past year and a half, Julie has visited over 100 schools, churches, and events with her messages. She has appeared in numerous publications including People Magazine, Newsweek, and US today, and on such programs as The View, Larry King Live, Politically Incorrect, and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Her travels have taken her across Europe, to the southern tip of Africa, to Canada, Mexico, and each state in the Union.

The other night I saw Julie from MTV's The Real World New Orleans at the University of Nevada, Reno. I walked into the room a little early and was surprised to see it empty. No one stopped me at the door, and I didn't see a line outside. I found a seat and sat down with pen and notebook in hand. There were only five other people in the room: two people from the university, Julie, and two of her friends. Julie was standing with her back toward me, writing on a tablet. I didn't know it was her until she turned around, looked at me, and smiled. Then she took the stage and sat behind her drumkit, and one of her friends (Gabe) took front stage with an acoustic guitar. Another person worked the soundboard. They rehearsed a song called "Good Company" (or something like that). Gabe sang the lyrics. I think it was somewhat new to Julie and she was trying to get the drum part down, making a minor mistake here and there, smiling when she did. They played it a couple times through, and then Julie said, "Okay, I'm going to hide," and she ran into a back room. The main entrance opened and at least one hundred students filed into the main room. I have no idea where they came from because I didn't see them when I walked in. Strange. I guess I lucked out as being the only person who got to be a part of Julie's soundcheck.

As soon as everyone was seated, Julie was introduced and she took the stage with a remote microphone clipped to her shirt. She walked back and forth across the stage. Her main topic of discussion: Being Moral in an Immoral World.

When Julie and her friends arrived in Reno, someone told her that prostitution is legal in Reno. She couldn't believe it, so she asked someone on the street. They told her, "Yes, it is." (Actually, it's not legal in the city limits, but is legal in a couple of the counties just outside the city (e.g. Mustang Ranch in Storey County); though, of course, prostitutes still illegally work certain streets in Reno). She also mentioned the casinos and gambling, and referred to Reno as "sin city" and "What a better place to have this discussion than Reno?"

During the entire evening, Julie was smiling, very casual, and fielding questions. She knew that most of the students had been in class all day and her intention was not to lecture them but just to chat with them, and be open with them -- talking with them, answering questions, and getting feedback. She said, "Ask me anything you want. Believe me, I've been asked everything. Nothing you ask will shock me."

She asked the audience to define "immorality" or "morality" -- and they gave her words like: sex, alcohol, drugs, modesty, honesty, and consideration. She said, "We need to take into account other people's thoughts." Consideration. She said, "Morality is a character trait -- it is not just for one night."

She asked the audience, "Where do we get our moral codes from?" "Family." "Church." "Friends." "College." She talked about college honor codes, comparing Brigham Young University to University of Nevada, Reno. Many differences! BYU has many codes of conduct. Reno has few. (By the way, Reno's football team beat BYU a week earlier). BYU would not let Julie come back to school after her rooming with boys on The Real World. Julie dropped out as a junior and is still looking for a school to graduate from without having to start all over.

Julie talked about being influenced by friends. She said, "You might be enjoing the wild life now, but you will eventually come to a point where you will stop and need to pick your standards... setting standards that are your own [and not your friends]." She said that we still need to be open-minded and not judge people just because they don't match up to our standards or do something that we don't agree with. She said, "Mormons aren't supposed to wear tanktops, but look at me... I'm wearing a tank top tonight. Some Mormons might think I'm a bad person because I'm wearing a tanktop, but am I?" We need to be careful about projecting our own standards on other people. We still need to be open-minded.

"You can learn about yourself through other people." This statement lead into a discussion about The Real World and her living with people she'd never had to deal with before. She learned a lot from these other people and they made her question her beliefs and why she has them. "I've been told I shouldn't do certain things, but why?" She was now questioning herself and learning about herself through these other people.

Julie is a member of the National Abstinence Campaign. "You have people talking about safe sex and throwing condoms in your face. What about saving it till marriage? We need to make our decisions in the daylight hours, and not when the situation happens. You need to make your decision now and not when you're in the heat of the moment -- that's no time to be making your decision. It needs to be made in advance."

Julie talked about the evils of the media and all the garbage that can be seen on the front covers of magazines (e.g. a naked woman on GQ with whip cream on her nipples) and on television, especially MTV. She said that she cancelled her cable subscription because of MTV. "I mean, name some shows on MTV..." Someone said, "Jackass!" And she said, "Yeah... well, no... actually that's a pretty cool show, except for that one time... did you see it? He staped his... um... to himself. Name another show." "Undressed!" "Exactly... what, they have like 12 year olds having sex on that show. It's full of immorality. And look at The Real World. Is that reality? It says 'Real' but are we supposed to think that these people really act like that outside of that show? And the Real World is becoming more like The Jerry Springer show every year. More profanity, more violence, more sex, drugs..."

She talked about how her "character" was only shown during the most extreme moments -- either when she was sad and upset or when she was very happy. She said that most of the time she was very normal, but MTV would stretch out certain segments to make it look like it was a main part of her stay in New Orleans. She mentioned one scene where MTV made it look like she was making out with Jamie(?) by adding kissing sounds. "We didn't make out, but MTV made it look like we did. That was horrible piece of editing. Check it out. So fake. Yeah, if you add music behind everything someone does you can make it seem like they're in love or upset about something."

She also talked about MTV's casting for The Real World and how they always pick certain people to portray certain "types" of people: the angry black man, the homosexual, etc. "I was, of course, the virgin white girl." She said that a lot of the people on The Real World series are nothing like the way they were portrayed on MTV.

She continued talking about the media. "What's showing on TV, in music videos... Yeah, I can understand some of these rappers who're talking about how they lived [guns, violence, drugs] and that's okay, but the problem is that its put in a positive light. Be in the world but not of it." She mentioned that you become what you watch and listen to, so be careful: "Garbage in; garbage out." Young people are living wild lives because it's not catching up to them yet, but it will.

"Why do most people go out and live wild lives? What do they say? 'Well, I don't have anything else to do.' Offer them alternatives. If your friends are going to go out and do something stupid because they say they have nothing else to do, then offer them something else to do. Why do people even get hooked on alcohol. I know there is no way anyone who drank alcohol for the first time said, 'This tastes good.' Alcohol does not taste good."

She brought this part of her talk to a conclusion: "Be strong, be yourself, and make your own choices... and stay away from the media... it's evil."

Julie mentioned that she's a part of Truth -- a campaign against tobacco. "What are the tobacco companies doing? They're killing off their customer base and trying to market it to us!"

She answered several questions about The Real World. She said she decided to be a part of the show so that she could be a good example, if not to others then at least to herself. She said that she hangs out with Puck sometimes and just got back from attending his wedding. "I don't agree with a lot of things Puck does, but Puck is cool." She also mentioned her appearance in the Eminem video. "Nothing I did was anything I disagree with." She continued, "I've never met anyone like Eminem. I mean, who else can market themselves [as opposed to a fake marketing-gimick persona] and be as successful as he is at it?" She said The Real World taught her that blood is indeed thicker than water -- that family is always there. "Why do we treat the people we love the most, the worst?"

She ended her discussion with some words about supporting your local music scene. "Why do you want to sit down and watch music on television? You can't even choose your music that way. Is TRL what you really want? Why are you letting other people decide what your musical tastes are? Make decisions for yourself. You need to seek out your own musical tastes. Go see local musicians and support them. Spend the five bucks, so what?"

She ended the evening by talking about her band, http://www.bunkbedincident.com and playing drums as Gabe sang and played guitar. They played about seven songs and did very well. Gabe has a good voice and great humor, very personable. Julie made some minor mistakes, and Gabe would sometimes joke about it. He mentioned that she had only been playing the drums for four months now. She did very well nonetheless, and some of those rhythm parts were not easy.

When they ended their set, Julie made herself available for anyone to come walk up to her and talk to her. I shook her hand on my way out and gave her some words of support. She's a doing a good work.

I'm so jealous!

Was she stunning, or what?

With that smile, how could she not be? And she has a very sweet spirit. (However, her hair is shorter now -- just about at the shoulder, and the color is darker -- more natural I suppose). I got the feeling from her that we could've easily become friends.

some of her points are excellent...don't agree w/ all of it though

If churches became open discussions, where people didn't need to be ashamed of their thoughts, I would start going again.

Moonbeam said:

Moonbeam you look like julie

Why is a naked chick with whipped cream on her nipples immoral? I'm all about having a strong moral compass, but the Christians always seem to have this hate-relationship with the human body.

22?? I say... Whatever!! she was 19 when she was on MTV that was like in 89 or 1991 the latest...

AwhiteguynamedBill said:

That's Julie in my avatar! My real pic is in my profile!

IsayWhatever said:

different Julie. this Julie was in the New Orleans cast from about 2 years ago.

*ughhh*..

im gonna get slammed for this but, Julie annoys the hell out of me...she did on the couple episodes i saw and she did here...

How can one justify a show like Jackass is beyond me...stay consistent and maybe i will take your self-rightous rants seriously...

i love how she has brought her love for *music* into her act...LOL...

these real world kids need to be stuck on an island after their fifteen minutes of fame are up...that way we dont have to deal with them again...


no offense moonbeam..im assuming you must really like her (and hence the av) but... she annoyed me on the show and annoys me now...interesting, i think that was the last real world i ever attempted to watch...ive been mtv free for many years now...including jackass

SkletonKee said:

Julie really is genuine. Check out her journal at www.planetjulie.com.

SkletonKee said:[quote...ive been mtv free for many years now...:[/quote]

can u help a muthafucka out?

SkletonKee said:

but then, isn't that the premise for a show you love?

AaronForever said:

True, I can't understand being able to even stomach "Survivor" and then hating the Real World. All reality shows have followed the Real World archtype.

Moonbeam said:

LMAO!!! This is classic---moonbeam wagging his finger at some1.

Moonbeam said:

ohh noo...dont get me wrong here...i do love to watch reality tv shows...however, the minute they are off, they need to get back to reality and stop trying to milk the fame..unless they actually have something *else* to hype...like that colleen chick from the first survivor..she is trying to be a legit actress how...

and the biggest different from Survivor and Big Brother is that these people are stranged from the outside world..so you dont get the postering fake attitudes like you get on Real World..The original Real World didnt have the fakeness..but, as the show gained popularity and the tweens joining realized they could turn this into lifelong oppurtunities, they started acting Un-REAL...all of them...and at that point the producers should have ended the show...


were as on Survivor and Big Brother..the producers make it a point to filter out the Star Searching people and go for the down out dirty out for money contestants...thats why its fun to watch..they are a bunch of stupid money hungry fools...and sure, they have annoying characters oh them too..but i dont see them running around the country with a guitar trying to talk about morality when they themselves contributed to the immorality...

i liked julie on the show she was cool... but i dont agree with most of everything she says here.

I will defend Julie to the fullest...

Moonbeam said:

'
omg...dont hit me ...lol i didnt mean it...



runs away like a girl...

Christopher said:

That's right- leave her alone! ...I mean

Moonbeam said:

alright ill leave juile alone !

Christopher said:

Smart boy

Real World New Orleans is my favorite cast,because the cast
was real mature and down to earth.

I loved the wise cracking Melissa,the big pimp/R&B singer/rapper David,the soft hearted Matt,the romantic Danny,the cool breeze guy Jamie,the perky Kelly,and of course the Mormon raised Julie.

They are the best.Is this season out on DVD?

how ironic:

the ONLY thing I watch on EMPTYv is "real world" (I've seen every group except SF & New Orleans) & really, I'm kind of embarrassed to say that.


I give Julie props for sticking to her beliefs, whether anyone else "agrees" with her beliefs or not. She's right about RW: it's getting less about "real people" & more about stereotypical "characters." I just saw the 1st episode of RW/Vegas & like in that 1st episode (covering the 1st 2/3 days) 2 of the roomies are already having sex?!?!?!? The next episode this Tuesday looks like it's going to be a hot tub orgy.
Titilating, maybe.
Predictable- totally.

I'm really going to work to wean myself from "Real World"
(it's that voyeuristic part of me, I admit it) this season
because really, watching it doesn't add anything to my life..
I have enough to do, enough of my own real problems & concerns & whatnot, & watching (most of) these hormonally-charged, just-turned-"legally"-adult teenagers is hardly an inspiration to me..


Each of us-
in whatever way-
needs to aspire to something higher..


To Julie I would say:
keep on keepin' on.