In Honor of Girls:
Adolescent Girls and Self-Esteem
An Annotated Bibliography
Prepared by
Karen Lippert
Reference Librarian
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, Oregon
***
Home Especially for Girls Web Resources
Apter, Terri and Ruthellen Josselson. Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships. New York: Crown, 1998.
If Only I Had a Real Friend, I Knew You'd Understand! Promise You
Won't Tell, and I Never Thought This Would Come Between Us are some
of the chapter titles in this insightful book. Terri Apter and Ruthellen
Josselson noticed that there has been little research done on the subject of
friendship between girls, and thus the authors try to bring this subject to
light. By exploring what happens in girls' and women's friendships, they
say, we can learn a lot about the development and socialization of young
girls. This book celebrates these friendships. At the same time, it
takes "an honest look at the perils and dangers inherent in them, the pitfalls
and places where girls and women can stumble and lose faith in themselves and
in relationships" (xii). How do adolescent girls deal with
rejection? How do they react when their best friend gives them the cold
shoulder or spreads gossip about them? How do they treat each other when
one loses favor with the group? Why are best friends a major factor in
learning about relationships? With real accounts from girls young and
old, Apter and Josselson try to show how absolutely necessary girl-girl friendships
are for girls who are trying to find out who they are and where they fit in the
world. From dealing with betrayal to loving each other unconditionally,
girls' friendships teach them coping and loving skills that are important
lessons for life. For it is a fact, as one contributor says, that
girlfriends outlast the comings and goings of husbands and lovers.
Brown, Lyn Mikel and Carol Gilligan. Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1992.
Brown and Gilligan spent ten years researching this book, and they came to
some poignant conclusions that surprised them. They knew that adolescence
can be considered a crossroads: it is a meeting between girlhood and
womanhood. But they were not prepared for how important meaningful
relationships between girls and women are in order for girls to remain
emotionally healthy and thus turning into strong, independent women. It's
a cycle: one leads to the other. Brown and Gilligan spent their ten
years of research in private schools for girls, inner-city schools, co-ed day
and boarding schools, urban high schools, and boys' and girls' clubs in
culturally diverse neighborhoods. They looked at the psychological
dimensions of why adolescent girls lose their vitality, resilience, and often
become depressed. By using firsthand accounts, the authors tell about the
relationship between adolescent girls and women's psychological development.
Brown, Lyn Mikel. Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls' Anger. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1998.
While almost all adolescent girls struggle with identity and self-esteem
issues, some girls are able to retain the strength and voice that have been
part of their personalities while growing up. In her book, Brown focuses
on the experiences of two groups of girls: one group from working class
families, and one from middle and upper middle class families. These
girls discuss the changes they've experienced in adolescence; many
acknowledging the fact that they pretend to be what they are not in order to
fit in to the expected, feminine molds of society. They see this as
hypocrisy in themselves and others. Brown also finds that some of these
girls resist these pressures and expectations, and are able to resist openly
and loudly, with a strength and confidence that often gets lost during this
confusing time. In particularly, Brown relays stories of girls' anger,
and how this anger enables them to fight sexism, discrimination, and the
pressures of popular culture. Whereas some girls disconnect from
themselves and others during adolescence, other girls fight back to keep a
strong sense of self. What allows some girls to find this strength while
it gets lost in others? What part does race and class play? In her
refreshing and enlightening book, Brown attempts to answer these questions and
provide some clues into the diverse personalities of young girls.
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House, 1997.
Girls today are having a more difficult time handling the process of sexual
maturation than they did a hundred years ago. This time is particularly
dangerous for young girls now, more so than ever before. Why?
Brumberg explains that certain changes in recent history have "resulted in
a peculiar mismatch between girls' biology and today's culture"
(xvii). Girls are maturing at a younger age than ever before, but there
are fewer protections set up for them. They can easily be seduced by
popular culture and peer pressure. And these seductions lead girls to see
their body as the ultimate project, an all-consuming project that shapes their
self-image and self-esteem. In this wonderful book, Joan Brumberg creates
a timeline of growing up female in America and what pressures adolescent girls
have faced in each stage of recent history. This timeline builds up to
the present, where she discusses the importance of menstruation, eating
disorders, sexuality, body image, and popular culture in the lives of girls
today. Brumberg includes photographs and advertisements that illustrate
how certain issues have always been concerns for adolescent girls.
Edut, Ophira, ed. Body Outlaws: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity. Seattle, WA: Seal, 2000.
This book is made up of a fascinating collection of essays written by young
women who definitely have something to say. Shout, in fact. The
theme of this book is self-acceptance, and each essay has something unique to
say, whether it be about being a minority in American, having a large derriere,
remaining celibate, or choosing to keep a Jewish nose over having plastic
surgery. Insecurities are thrown onto the table, analyzed, made fun
of, cried over, and overcome. And many of the essays discuss these
insecurities in conjunction with that all-American icon, Barbie. Barbie
has not been helpful to us, folks, so let's change our ideals. This book
is a must for people who are interested in beginning or continuing that journey
toward self-acceptance and love. The essays are humorous and insightful,
and left me feeling inspired. "We are entitled to love our bodies at
any size. We are entitled to speak, act, create and feel wherever we
go." Exactly.
Gray, Heather M. and Samantha Phillips. Real Girl/Real World: Tools for Finding Your True Self. Seattle, WA: Seal, 1998.
I wish I had had a book like this when I was a teenager. This book,
with its real-life stories from adolescent girls, relays the message that beauty
plus a perfect body do not equal perfect happiness. It also tackles
important issues including: Why do girls get bad reputations and boys
don't? Why do adolescent girls have such poor body images and how can we
build up our own image? How destructive are eating disorders? What
is sex for the first time really like? What problems/issues/realities
will I face as a lesbian or bisexual girl? What are the facts about birth
control and STD protection? In each chapter, relevant accounts from
teenage girls are interspersed with useful, practical explanations of each
topic. The authors also include a list of contacts and organizations for
each section. This book is a wealth of information for adolescent girls,
and it can also be a helpful guide for adults who want to understand what girls
are going through, or who want to discuss some of these sensitive topics with
the young girls in their lives.
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene. Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity. New York: Oxford UP, 1996.
"If you want to be valued, as a potential spouse, as a coworker, as a
friend, then get thin" (4). This statement, Hesse-Biber says, is a
truth that society imposes on women, and a truth that women respond to with
eating disorders. American women are members of "the cult of
thinness," a cult that places a slender figure above all else on the scale
of self-worth. For her book, Hesse-Biber interviewed sixty female college
students, and surveyed 395 male and female college students, to try to
discover, in specific terms, why so many young people are obsessed with body
weight. It's as if, she says, weight is the primary measure of a woman's
worth and identity. And what is the end reward? According to one young
woman who Hesse-Biber interviewed, it's who can attract the most men, and then
keep the one you want. Not a pretty picture, but true for many young
women who have eating disorders. In order to find out the reasons behind
this way of thinking, Hesse-Biber explores the diet, fitness, and cosmetic
surgery industry. She also shows how mass media influences preteen girls
so that they are early "recruits" to the "cult." The
personal testimonies in this book make it a fascinating read -- and sometimes
difficult to read. And by comparing the cult of thinness to a religious
cult, Hesse-Biber puts the whole issue of body image in a new perspective.
Hubbard, Ruth Shagoury, Maureen Barieri, and Brenda Miller Power. We Want to be Known: Learning from Adolescent Girls. York, ME: Stenhouse, 1998.
This book is an important one for educators who teach adolescent
girls. It is made up of essays written by teachers who are very aware of
the problems that girls face during adolescence: they become quiet, stop
raising their hands in class, are hypersensitive of their appearance, and often
suffer from eating disorders. Many of the chapter essays are either
preceded and followed by a poem or essay written by an adolescent girl, which
gives the book real relevance. What do girls feel, go through? And
what can teachers in middle school and high school do to help them? The
author of the first chapter uses entries and drawings from her own junior high
and high school journals to illustrate the low self-esteem, friendship problems,
and unhealthy body image that adolescent girls face. It is a powerful
chapter that makes these issues real, and yet also shows how a teacher can use
his/her own experiences to be aware of the important concerns that their
students deal with on a daily basis. Some of the other chapters
are: "What does she like?": Choosing a Curriculum for
Girls; Putting the Heart in Mathematics: Adding Stories About Girls;
and The Lowdown on Life, Sex, and Your Bod: Learning from Girls'
Unofficial Literacy. The authors also provide a good list of
resources, including: You've Got to Read This! Recommendations
by Girls, for Girls; Books for Girls; and Books Starring Girls
and Women. With humor, honesty, wit, and caring, this book addresses
the important issue of helping adolescent girls in the classroom, and it gives
teachers useful information on how to be more aware and sensitive to girls in
this precarious time of their lives.
Inness, Sherrie, ed. Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth-Century American Girls' Cultures. New York: New York UP, 1998.
In the introduction of this book, Sherrie Inness claims that there has been
a startling lack of scholarship on the subject of girls and "girls'
culture" until only the last twenty years. This is a major part of
American culture that has been ignored, she claims, and its importance in
understanding girls and their issues is clear. "The aim of the
essays in this collection is to demonstrate how American girls' culture in its
many forms has played and continues to play a vital role in shaping our
culture's girls into women" (2). The essays in this book paint a
portrait of girls' culture in the twentieth century, starting with Making a
Girl into a Scout, and followed by Rate Your Date: Young Women and
the Commodification of Depression Era Courtship, Little Girls
Bound: Costume and Coming of Age in the Sears Catalog 1906-1950, and Can
Anne Shirley Help Revive Ophelia? Listening to Girl Readers.
These and many other essays bring to life girl culture through the last one
hundred years. With impressive scholarship, the authors explore how girls
manage to make their own culture, and how mass media dictates what girl culture
should be. It is interesting to see how the actions taken in the previous
decades are directly related to girl culture today.
Johnson, Norine, Michael Roberts, and Judith Worell, eds. Beyond Appearance: A New Look at Adolescent Girls. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Assn., 1999.
While many books focus on the problems associated with adolescent girls,
this book tries to focus on healthy girls, their strengths and
resiliency. How are strong girls shaped, and what can we do to help
them? Of course one cannot talk about the strengths of young girls
without discussing the problems that they face and conquer. This book is
broken up into chapters that focus on these challenges and how they are linked
to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation and physical
disability. Then we see how the development of self, adolescent girls of
color, and relationships connect to these issues and thus form a part of the
adolescent girl's journey into adulthood. This book is comprised of
several essays that try to fill in the gaps of adolescent girl research.
Leadbeater, Bonnie J. Ross and Niobe Way, eds. Urban Girls: Resisting Stereotypes, Creating Identities. New York: New York UP, 1996.
When we think of "urban" adolescent girls, it is pretty safe
to say that many of us see images of common stereotypes: school dropouts,
teenage welfare mothers, drug addicts, and victims of domestic abuse or
AIDS. In this book, Leadbeater and Way have provided a collection of
research that delves into these stereotypes and looks at the real girls behind
them. While addressing common adolescent issues, such as identity,
family, relationships, sexuality, health risks and career choices, the authors
try to take their research a step further in order to explain the reasons why
so many urban girls live the lifestyles they do. The chapters try to answer
the following questions: How can urban adolescent girls adapt to their
situations in a healthy way? How does family poverty figure into girls'
future career aspirations? How does violence and sexual harassment in
inner-city schools affect girls' perceptions of their competence and
futures? How can families, peers, and adult friends help to encourage
positive identity choices for girls? How does society create the
foundations of development for urban adolescent girls? These questions
look at how girls are affected by situations. The articles in this book
also look at the girls themselves, and how young, low-income urban adolescent
girls define the goals that shape who they are becoming and the choices they
make toward claiming adult identities. Often these are success stories,
as the struggles these girls face pay off. This is a much needed book --
one that fills a gap, looks at different groups of urban girls, and tells their
stories.
Loomans, Diane and Julia Loomans. Full Esteem Ahead: 100 Ways to Build Self-Esteem in Children & Adults. Tiburon, CA: H. J. Kramer Inc., 1994.
This book was written by a mother-daughter team and is a helpful guide for
raising the self-esteem of anybody: girls, boys, children, teenagers,
adults. It offers concrete activites that can build self-esteem.
Chapter titles include: Esteem Each Day, Esteem Each Night, Learning
Esteem, Playful Esteem, and Esteem Extras. People, young and old, will
learn fun ways to give the people they care about a boost. The book also
has a serious side, in which we learn how to be “empathetic” rather than
sypathetic. There are certain reactions that people need from others, and
these reactions have a great impact on self-esteem. Learn how to listen
and react in ways that are helpful to others. From leaving love-notes in
pockets to creating a “laughing board,” this book goes into great detail on how
to make simple, caring, self-esteem enhancing gestures a part of everyday life.
Mann, Judy. The Difference: Discovering the Hidden Ways We Silence Girls: Finding Alternatives that can Give Them a Voice. New York: Warner, 1994.
Girls and boys are different -- where do these differences come
from? In her book, Judy Mann acknowledges the fact that it is
politically incorrect to discuss an actual difference between boys and
girls. But, she asks, why are girls more sensitive? Why do boys
enjoy getting dirty and falling down more than girls? Why do parents, who
raise both sons and daughters, notice such absolute differences between the
two? Are these characteristics part of the make-up of boys and girls, or
do we force them into these roles through gender socialization? These are
the questions that Mann tries to answer in this thought-provoking, refreshing
book. Not only does it make the reader think seriously about how he/she
interacts with girls and boys, it invites the reader to be more sensitive to
gender stereotypes that may seem innocent, but actually send very distinct
messages to children. Mann goes on to discuss what happens to girls
during those "dangerous" early teenage years, which can often change
a happy, smart, confident girl into somber, closed, sad young woman. She
also states that we will not be able to create a world safe for girls until we
start raising boys who are not hostile toward women. This book inspires a
lot of familiar, yet new thoughts, and it is easy to admire Mann for writing
about an issue that people may often feel afraid to talk about.
McCarthy, Tara. Been There, Haven't Done That: A Virgin's Memoir. New York: Warner, 1997.
While this book is a memoir, and thus different from the other books on this
list, it reflects an attitude that is both common and unusual in young women
today. McCarthy relates her story of growing up emotionally and
sexually. She takes us through, in not too-vivid detail, her first
curious explorations with sex, and the many, MANY men with whom she has had
flings/relationships. Her story is probably very similar to the
experiences of many young girls and women except for one thing:
throughout her whole experience, she has remained a virgin. McCarthy's
story is very relevant because it does not preach abstinence, it does not
preach anything. It simply tells of a woman who respects herself,
respects her body, and while holding her virginity dear, still succeeds in
becoming a vital and fulfilled being. Her story is brutally honest, and
McCarthy's strong voice might raise some eyebrows. But her sense of self
and individuality also command respect from the reader, no matter what the
reader's situation.
Orenstein, Peggy. SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
SchoolGirls opens with the story of a sixth grade exercise, in which the
students imagine growing up as the opposite sex. After taking part in
visualization, the students write down lists describing how their lives would
be different. These lists show that by the sixth grade, both girls and
boys have learned to equate "maleness with opportunity" and
"femininity with constraint" (xiv). Peggy Orenstein delves into
the reasons behind this subconscious developmental phenomenon. Why, at
the onset of adolescence, do girls suddenly falter in math and science?
Why do they lose confidence, feel inadequate, and become fiercely critical of
their bodies? How do boys, and girls' attitudes toward boys, play a role
in this downward spiral? Orenstein uses the eye-opening study done in
1990 by the American Association of University Women, which shows that the self
esteem of girls plummets at the onset of adolescence, as a basis for her own
study. She then spends the 1992-93 school year observing girls at two
economically and ethnically different middle schools. It is with these
interviews and personal testimonies, and a bit of self-reflection, that
Orenstein tries to answer the questions behind girls' self esteem in this very
important book.
Peiss, Kathy Lee. Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture. New York: Metropolitan, 1998.
For those of us who have ever wondered why women are slaves to make up and
images of beauty, this book explains the history behind the "beauty
culture" mentality that exists today. It traces back to the
beginnings of make up, and the implications it had on those women who chose to
wear it. For a time, only "loose" women wore make up, but by
the 1920s, make up became a source of freedom and expression. Make up and
the pursuit of beauty have been controversial ever since: a way to repress
women or build up their self-image? Peiss has written a fascinating,
detailed account of an important part of women's history, which greatly
explains the society in which we live today.
Phillips, Lynn. The Girls Report: What We Know & Need to Know About Growing Up Female. New York: National Council for Research on Women, 1998.
This report, produced by the National Council for Research on Women,
"strives to present a balanced picture of the status of adolescent girls
today. Its goals is to provide useful information about what we do and
don't know about adolescent girls that can guide future research, policy
decisions, and programs designed to improve the climate and life possibilities
for all girls, regardless of where they live, their racial or ethnic
background, or their social or economic status" (xi). This book is a
wonderful resource that describes the current issues facing adolescent girls,
explains the current research, and also acknowledges where research is
lacking. Interspersed throughout the chapters are quotes from girls,
which bring the book to life. Each chapter ends with a list of key
research findings, and also a list of what research and programs are still
needed. Phillips provides an impressive bibliography and list of
resources which includes organizations and relevant web sites. This book
is for anyone -- teachers, parents, health practitioners, policy makers,
activists -- who want to advocate for girls and make the world a
healthier, safer, and brighter place for them.
Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Ballantine, 1994.
“Something dramatic happens to girls in early adolescence. Just as
planes and ships disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the
selves of girls go down in droves (p. 19).” Before girls reach puberty,
they are interested in sports, nature, exploring, can bake cookies or build a
kite, are “tomboys.” But once these girls, who have been excited about
life and affectionate to their parents, hit adolescence and junior high, they
are faced with the pressure to put aside their real selves and transform into
something with which they are unfamiliar and uncomfortable. They give up
their interests which make them individuals, and look for acceptance by their
peers. Why does this happen? Pipher believes the fault lies not
with parents, but with the culture in which the girls of today are brought
up. They experience a social pressure to create a false self which only
shows a fraction of their talents. Pipher tells the stories of several
girls who have faced a variety of storms: the divorce of parents, alcohol
and drug abuse, self-mutilation and suicide attempts, sexual violence, and
depression. Each case brings forth insight into the identity of each girl
and the pressures and insecurities she faces. This book is one of the
first to tackle such an important issue, and it has been instrumental in
helping many young women.
Rutter, Virginia Beane. Celebrating Girls: Nurturing and Empowering our Daughters. Berkeley, CA: Conari, 1996.
This book is for mothers, grandmothers, aunts, big sisters, and anyone who
wants to celebrate girls and build up their self worth before they reach
adolescence. While many of the ideas in the book can also be used to
raise boys, the focus is on girls, because girls, Rutter says, are at such risk
of losing their core selves during adolescence. This book, with chapters
including: Holding: Assuring Physical Self-Confidence; Adorning:
Meaning, Spirit, and the Arts; and Storytelling: Teaching
and Learning, encourages the adults in girls' lives to celebrate their
rights of passage, so that girls often hear the message, "You're growing
up and changing, and we're proud of you!" Rutter also explains that
valuing femininity also builds a strong identity. While this book is a
bit different from the other books that I have included in this bibliography, I
think it is an important one because it offers suggestions on how to prepare
young girls for adolescence by making them feel strong and capable and
celebrated. When girls are praised and are confident in our faith in
them, they have a better chance of making a smooth transition into the preteen
years and adolescence with growing independence, self-confidence, and
self-esteem.
Shandler, Sara. Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
This book is a wonderful companion piece to Reviving Ophelia. Sarah
Shandler, at age sixteen, read Mary Pipher's book, and felt that Pipher was
speaking directly to her. Well, almost. While Shandler identified
with the girls Pipher wrote about, she felt that Pipher was writing from the
"outside," as a middle-aged woman looking through the window at
adolescent girls, and speaking for her. Shandler wanted to hear Ophelia
speak for herself, and so she sent out a call for essays, journal entries,
stories and poems written by girls that describe and show the adolescent-girl
experience. She received a variety of entries, and eventually organized
them into chapters which discuss the trials that teenage girls face today, such
as body image and eating disorders, family relationships, friendships, love and
sex, school pressures, depression, and differences of race, faith, and sexual
orientation. I found these pieces beautiful and meaningful because of the
honesty behind them. A few of the writings, mostly about body image and
eating disorders, I found to be so brutally vivid and real that they were
incredibly difficult for me to read. But I read on, of course, and found
real insight into the adolescent girl's mind and experience. This book is
stunning.
Siegler, Ava L. The Essential Guide to the New Adolescence: How to Raise an Emotionally Healthy Teenager. New York: Dutton, 1997.
This is an important book for parents of both adolescent girls and
boys. Ava Siegler breaks down adolescence into “five developmental tasks”
that are necessary for adolescents to go through in order to grow into healthy
adults. She also explains old concerns of adolescents, with which we can
all identify, and new concerns, which are faced by adolescents and their
parents in today’s complicated society. She addresses the fears that
young people go through, and illustrates various “faces” of adolescence, such
as anxiousness, rebelliousness, depression, withdrawal, and over attachment,
with real life situations. Siegler has written a very relevant book, in
which parents will find insights on why their teenagers are acting the way they
are. They will also learn how to communicate with their kids and
hopefully gain some understanding of the adolescent world, which is quite
different today than it twenty years ago.
Sohoni, Neera. Burden of Girlhood: A Global Inquiry into the Status of Girls. Oakland, CA: Third Party, 1995.
Most of the books in this bibliography are devoted to American girls and
their experiences throughout adolescence. In this book, Sohoni paints a
more global picture, and describes the ways in which girls are brought up
around the world. Her research shows that girls around the world not only
suffer from gender discrimination, but also age discrimination,
and it is thus doubly difficult for girls to grow up with a sense of
worth. Many girls are so discriminated against that they do not even
receive the same means for health and safety as do boys. Childhood is a
place where there is no dignity, no sense of self. She also mentions
amniocentesis, the "sex test," which is used in some countries to
determine the sex of unborn babies, which then leads to the abortion of many
female fetuses. Sohoni traces these important issues in chapters such
as: Culture, Socialization, and Girls; Early Marriage
and Its Impact on Girls; Health and Survival Capability of Girls; Exploitative
Work and Girls; and Violence Against Girls. In the conclusion,
Sohoni offers some concrete suggestions for how to change the current global
status of girls. She states, "Only the calculated, concerted,
courageous, and sustained action of parents, cultures, religions, nations and
multi-national bodies will make a difference in the present and future of
girlhood, globally" (ix). This thorough book begins to fill the gap
in the body of research about the situation of girls throughout the world.
Tanenbaum, Leora. Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation. New York: Seven Stories, 1999.
Everybody remembers those girls who were labeled "sluts" in junior
high and high school. Or perhaps we were one of the unfortunate ones who,
for some reason or other, had the "slut" label attached to us.
Leora Tanenbaum was a freshman in high school whose reputation, after one
twenty-minute make-out session, turned from intellectual to slut. Rumors
spread the next day, and suddenly Tanenbaum had a new reputation that followed
her throughout her remaining three years of high school. In this book,
Tanenbaum uses her own story, as well as stories from other girls who were
branded "slut," to explain the damage that this kind of sexual
harassment and sexual double standard does to young women. She points out
that while boys don't have to worry about their reputations being ruined if
they engage in sexual encounters, girls are in a lose-lose situation.
They are sluts if they do and prudes if they don't. Tanenbaum also
explains that most of the "sluts" have done little or nothing to
deserve this reputation. They are simply early developers, different from
the in crowd, or they have been raped. At the end of the book, Tanenbaum
gives some concrete examples of things girls can do to stop this kind of
harassment. She also explains that teachers and school administrators
need to be educated so that they stop treating these situations as
"normal" for high school students. This book will definitely help
girls who are dealing with the curse of a bad reputation, and it will also be
balm to those who survived the "slut" torments while in school.
Thompson, Sharon. Going All the Way: Teenage Girls' Tales of Sex, Romance and Pregnancy. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Thompson explores the views and experiences of adolescent girls with sex,
romance and pregnancy. By using interviews that she collected around the
country, she looks at the questions: Why are so many adolescent girls
having sex? What process leads them to it? What do they hope to
gain by it? And how does sex at such an early age actually affect their
lives? Visions of true love seem to entrance girls into situations that
they are not ready for, situations that have dangerous and/or life changing
results. Thompson wants her readers to gain an understanding of the
real-life pressures and passions that these young women experience.
"To really understand what motivates the actions of girls, we have to
consider sex and romance from their perspective… (11)." She brings
to life the excitement an adolescent girl feels when she is retelling a
personal story brimming with romance, significant looks, and first experiences
with men and women. Women young and old will be able to identify with the
voices of these vibrant and searching girls.
Vida, Vendela. Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Gang Drive-Bys, and Other Initiations. New York: St. Martin's, 1999.
Why do college freshmen girls go through rush? Why do young girls join
gangs, become witches, or attend debutante balls? Taking part in
sororities, gangs, covens and balls are all ways in which adolescent girls can
be initiated into the adult world. They are symbolic rituals that say,
"You have reached an age in which you command more respect, are sexually
mature, and should be thinking about your future." In her book,
Vendela Vida explores some of these rituals and how they are (or are not)
important to the development of young women. In today's society, says
Vida, young women do not have the structured rituals of the past -- they do not
have the "coming out" parties, the rituals found in many cultures
that celebrate a girl's first period, or even the safe, cohesive family unit
that was more common fifty years ago. With the coming of feminism, many "feminine"
rituals disappeared, and rightly so. But ever since, adolescent girls
have found themselves in a confusing society, in which it is difficult to find
their place or know what is expected of them. Thus, Vida explains, girls
have created their own rituals to represent their need for family, acceptance,
and their emergence into womanhood. Vida looks at several of such
initiations in chapters such as: Sorority Sisters, Debutantes,
Gang Girls, Witches, and Young Brides. This is a
fascinating book that begins to explain the ways in which adolescent girls find
a place for themselves in a confusing society.
Especially for Girls
An abbreviated version of the bibliography which includes books that are
especially appropriate for adolescent girls
Created on March 7, 2000
Last updated December 12, 2002
Please send comments and suggestions to Karen
Lippert
Copyright 2002 Oregon Health & Science University
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd. Mail Code: LIB, Portland, Oregon 97239