Girls’ Print Resources

Just for Fun

• The Daring Book for Girls. Buchanan and Peskowitz, 2007.
  This how-to, adventure guidebook, is perfect for girls looking for new and creative ways have fun.  The Daring Book for Girls encourages girls to be curious and brave.

• The Double-Daring Book for Girls. Buchanan and Peskowitz, 2009.
  This book building on the Daring Book for Girls, gives girls even more great ideas, games and stories, and ways to find bravery, curiosity, and fun in their own backyards.

Wise Words

• GirlWise: How to Be Confident, Capable, Cool, and in Control. Julia DeVillers, 2002.
  Focusing on finding confidence and independence, GirlWise gives advice on everything from how to create your own style, to how to unclog a toilet.  Tips on how to maintain a healthy body image, and be a considerate friend are offered as well in this guide for girls.

• Girl Pages: Handbook of the Best Resources for Strong, Confident, Creative Girls. Charlotte Milholland, 1999.
  This great resource guide compiles information on useful books, programs, web sites, movies, periodicals and camps.  Websites, locations and phone numbers are provided wherever possible.

• Career Choices: A Guide for Teens and Young Adults. Mindy Bingham, Judy Edmondson, Sandy Stryker, 1990.
  Not sure what career you’re headed for?  This guide is written for young adults and aims to help youth figure out who they are, and what sort of jobs and job environments they are looking for and will thrive in.

• 33 Things Every Girl Should Know: Stories, Songs, Poems, and Smart Talk by 33 Extraordinary Women. Tonya Bolden, 1998.
  From Rebecca Lobo, basketball analyst and former WNBA player, to Vera Wang, renowned Chinese America fashion designer, a wide range of amazing women give personal advice to girls on self-esteem, self-respect, and the importance of keeping an eye on the future.

• I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World. Eve Ensler, 2010.  Through a series of monologues written for girls, I Am An Emotional Creature explores identity, friends, violence, body image, love and much more.  Eve Ensler looks at problems ranging from effects of war on girls’ globally, to everyday hurdles of growing up as a girl in the US.
• Girls Speak Out: Finding Your True Self.  Andrea Johnson, 2005.
  Girls Speak Out captures girls’ experiences in workshops exploring everything from prehistoric images of women and understanding sexism, to learning to speak out through writing, discussion, and games.

• Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy. Rachel Simmons, 2004.
  Rachel Simmons presents the social world of girls, from the perspective of those who have been bullies, victims, bystanders, and girls who have simply known the hurts of jealousy or change in their friendships. From her experience in workshops with teens, Simmons offers girls’ voices and her own perspectives on their situations.

Awesome Women and Girls: from History to Herstory

• Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women. Catherine Thimmeah, 2002.
  From liquid paper to spacecraft and space exploration technology, Girls Think of Everything not only describes revolutionary inventions, but also the stories of the girls and women who created them.

• Gutsy Girls: Young Women Who Dare. Tina Schwager & Michele Schuerger, 1999.
  Gutsy Girls features 26 women’s stories of their amazing and daring accomplishments; tips on goal setting, following your dreams, and maintaining fitness and staying safe; and extra resources to help you along the way.

• Girls to the Rescue: Tales of Clever, Courageous Girls from Around the World. Edited by Bruce Lansky, 1995.
  Girls to the Rescue features adaptations of traditional stories, and original stories, with fun clever heroines from around the world.
  Available for free for Kindle.

• Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters. Kathleen Ragan, 2000.
  From clever young girls to female warriors, this anthology offers the stories of 100 heroines who use traits like intelligence, creativity and caring to help others.

• Girls who Rocked the World: Heroines from Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes. Amelie Welden, 1999.
  From Sacagawea to Sheryl Swoopes, Girls who Rocked the World tells the inspiring stories of women who accomplished significant feats before they reached the age of twenty.

• Girls who Rocked the World 2: Heroines from Harriet Tubman to Mia Hamm. Michelle Roehm, 2010.  Expanding on the first volume, Girls who Rocked the World 2 offers even more true stories of women achieving their goals and dreams under the age of twenty.
• Cool Women: A Thinking Girl’s Guide to the Hippest Women in History. Dawn Chipman, Mari Florence, Naomi Wax, 2001.
  From Catwoman, to Amelia Earhart, to Cleopatra– complete with color illustrations and photos– this creative guide to women in history is sure to provide inspiring role models that can help encourage readers toward their own dreams and goals.

• From Indian Corn to Outer Space:  Women Invent in America. Ellen H. Stowell, 1995.
  Including first hand accounts from modern inventors and biographies of                 important inventors of the past, this book is fun, interactive, and great for young adult readers.

• Herstory: Women who Changed the World. Edited by Ruth Ashby & Deborah Gore Ohrn, 1995.
  This collection of biographies, intended for young adults, acknowledges women from prehistory through to the present, who have made significant contributions to modern day society.

For Parents, Educators, and Anyone Working with Girls

Girls’ Peer Groups, Media Use, and Sense of Self

• Queen Bees and Wannabees.  Rosalin Wiseman, 2009.
  Wiseman offers insight into the social world of female adolescents, patterns of aggression known to be common among teen girls, on how to talk to girls about the issues they may be facing, and tips on supporting teenage girls.

• Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture.  Peggy Orenstein, 2011.
  Peggy Orenstein, a journalist, mother, and known writer on girls’ issues, writes about by the rise of pretty-in-pink, princess culture among young girls.  She investigates how it relates to sexualization of girls and impacts girls mental health and risk taking behavior later in adolescence.  This book raises important issues and questions for anyone and everyone working with today’s girls.

• The Lolita Effect: Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It. Gigi Durham, 2008.
  Through debunking popular media myths, offering discussion questions for parents and children, and giving suggestions for parents to help move beyond these myths, Durham draws attention to the negative impacts of young girls’ sexualization and call readers to action against it.

• Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls’ Anger.  Lyn Mikel Brown, 1998.
  Based on her work with adolescent girls, Brown uses girls’ own stories and voices to illustrate how pressures to conform differ for girls across class, and how girls are finding ways to challenge what is expected of them.  Brown encourages parents, and all who work with girls, to support them in using their voices and in challenging what is expected of them.

• Venus in Blue Jeans: Why Mothers and Daughters Need to Talk About Sex. Nathalie Bartle, Ed.D, 1998.
  A practical guide to talking with daughters about sex, Venus in Blue Jeans offers personal experiences, as well as suggested strategies, on the how, what, and when of talking to one’s daughter about sex. Bartle focuses on fostering conversations between mothers and daughters that both build trust, and communicate positive values and valid information.

• The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. Rachel Simmons, 2009.
  Simmons uses stories from her work with girls in workshops and in schools, to illustrate how girls come to see being the well-liked “good girl” as more important than being their authentic selves.  Along with these first hand accounts, Simmons offers strategies, self-assessments, and tools for parents and those working girls, to help girls build confidence.

• Girl Wide Web 2.0: Revisiting Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity. Sharon Mazzarella, 2010.
  Girl Wide Web 2.0 explores the different ways in which girls make use of the internet, actively produce internet content, and negotiate their identities on the web.  This book is written from an international and intercultural perspective.
• Mediated Girlhoods: New Explorations of Girls Media Culture. Mary Celeste Kearney, 2011.
  In Mediated Girlhoods, everything from girl-made Youtube videos to teen magazines, and online surveillance to the impact of rural life on girls, are considered as Kearney’s analyzes girls’ representations in the media.

Harassment in Schools: Information for Educators

• Flirting or Hurting: A Teacher’s Guide on Student-to-Student Sexual Harassment in Schools (Grades 6-12). Nan Stein and Lisa Sjostrom, 1994.
  Looking to foster a safer classroom environment?  Flirting or Hurting? offers a curriculum on understanding and preventing peer to peer sexual harassment, complete with lesson plans and accompanying materials to engage students in effective discussions and activities.

• Hostile Hallways: Bully, Teasing & Sexual Harassment in Schools. Commissioned by the AAUW Educational Foundation, 2001.  Available online.
  This study examines students’ experiences of bullying, teasing, and sexual harassment, as well as students’ knowledge of these behaviors and the impacts they have had on students in the US.

Teaching for Gender Equity

• Equal Educational Opportunities and Nondiscrimination for Girls in Advanced Math, Science, and Technology Education. A Report of the US Commission on Civil Rights, July 2000. Federal Enforcement of Title IX.  Available online.
  Focusing on the activities of the Office for Civil Rights’ related to Title IX and advanced science, math and technology education for girls, this report examines some of the barriers and inequities that lead girls away from these fields in school, preventing girls from engaging in them at more advanced levels, and pursuing resulting opportunities to an equal degree.

• Gender Equity Expert Panel:  Exemplary and Promising Gender Equity Programs. Booklet by the US Department of Education, 2000. Available online.
  Identifies eleven excellent programs that aim to promote gender equity through education.  Gender equity in vocation/technical education and school-to-work programs; gender equity in math, science and technology; and prevention of violence and harassment in higher education are explored.

• Gender Equity Right from the Start. Jo Sanders, Janice Koch, Josephine Urso, 1997.
  This booklet provides instructional activities and background information on gender equity for students and teacher educators in mathematics, science, and technology.

• Gender Equity Sources and Resources for Education Students. Sanders, Koch & Urso, 1997.
  Intended as a student companion for Gender Equity Right from the Start, this booklet contains the student materials needed for those activities, as well as a variety of other resources.

• Gender Matters: Training for Educators Working with Students with Disabilities. Harilyn Rousso & Michael Whmeyer, 2002.
  Gender Matters is a training program aimed to help teachers and other professionals working with students with disabilities become able to both recognize bias and create gender equitable classroom environments.

• How Schools Shortchange Girls. The AAUW Report, 1992.
  This American Association of University Women report analyzes how gender-insensitive curriculum, testing and policies have held our female students back.  Based on research of girls from Pre-K to 12^th grade, the effects of gender inequities on a variety of girls, from those in vocational programs to those bound for college, are discussed, along with recommendations for schools to promote gender equity.

• Lifting the Barriers: 600 Strategies that Really Work to Increase Girls’ Participation in Science, Math, and Computers. Jo Sanders, 1994.  Available online.
  Hundreds of tested strategies to engage girls’ participation and interest in science, math and computers are offered in Lifting the Barriers. Most of the suggestions offered are inexpensive, and all are based on the experiences of K-12 educators.

• The Scientist Within You. Rebecca L. Warren & Mary H. Thompson, 1996.
  Featuring women scientists, mathematicians and engineers from the first century AD up to the mid 1990s, The Scientist Within You uses experiments, activities, and biographies to present the historical contributions these women made to their fields.