As part of my participation in the Silicon Valley Moms Book Club, I just read a new book by Jennifer Ashton, M.D., Ob-Gyn, called The Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You. This book is written for female adolescents and only deals with issues for that age group. In fact, the first chapter is titled: Not Your Mother's Gynecologist: You're a New Kind of Girl - You Deserve a New Kind of Medicine. Wow. The only book I remember ever finding and reading on that topic when I was a teen was the classic, Our Bodies, Ourselves. As helpful a resource as it was, it was written for women of all ages, not directly to me.
Obviously when I was a teen, we didn't have the technology teens have now. Even though the Internet and and the many social networks have been known to cause many problems to teens, they can also be very helpful. Teens now have easy access to help. There are many websites where they can find advice and many protected social networking sites that empower tween and teen girls and give them a source for friendships.
One of the best resources for teen girls today are their mothers. Baby Boomer and Gen X parents have much more in common with their teens than with their parents. Most teenage girls today seem much more comfortable talking to their moms about almost anything. And by sharing their problems with their moms, they will find help, because even if the mom doesn't have answers, she will try to find them. That is what parents today do.
See also:
Olympic Swimmer Amanda Beard Details Bulimia, Cutting and Drugs in New Bio
TEDxWomen - Teenage Girls Harmed by our Culture
Wonderful Women of Tween Summit 2010
