“A solid and sound coaching manual for preteen girls starting or approaching puberty.” —School Library Journal Let’s face it, being a girl isn’t easy, and growing up can be confusing without a confidante to help. Meet Sarah O’Leary Burningham, a real-life big sister here to talk you through some of life’s biggest moments, like: Finding a bra Getting your period Picking out glasses and braces Dealing with body odor and shaving Caring for your skin (and handling pimples!). Creating healthy habits And so much more Filled with letters and testimonials from girls just like you, confidence-boosting advice from experts, and myth-busting sidebars that give you the real scoop, this book is just what you need to naviage the preteen years. Endorsed by doctors and experts: “What a marvelous book for girls 8-12 years old. This accurate, reassuring, and clearly written guide is one of the best presents that we can give to the young girls in our lives—especially in an era where they read so much misinformation on the Internet.” —Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves “A desperately needed guide for girls ages 8-12, who have long needed an age-appropriate, visually interesting, and emotionally accessible book on growing up. Parents of diverse backgrounds, who have been looking for a book to lean on and learn from, have got their wish. Real girls inhabit these pages and share what readers will want to know—and what they’ll need to know.” —Pepper Schwartz, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington and author of Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children About Sex and Character

Girl on Girl looks at how women are using photography, the internet and the female gaze to explore self–image and female identity in contemporary art. A new generation of women is taking the art world – online and offline – by storm. In an image–obsessed culture saturated with social media, these 40 artists are using photography and the female gaze to redefine the fields of fashion, art, advertising and photojournalism, making a profound impact on our visual world. Forty artists are featured, all of whose principal subject matter is either themselves or other women. Each is accompanied by a short profile based on personal interviews with the author, giving a fascinating insight into this exciting shift in female creativity. "Charlotte Jansen has brought together some of the finest female photographers of our generation" – Refinery29 "A very important book" – Vogue Italia "Young female artists are using photography and social media to explore issues of female identity. This gorgeous book introduces 40 of them, in an investigation of photography and the female gaze."– Eva Wiseman, Observer Magazine Features work by Aneta Bartos Tonje Bøe Birkeland Nakeya Brown Juno Calypso Anja Carr Amanda Charchian Petra Collins Maisie Cousins Nathalie Daoust Shae DeTar Lalla Essaydi Maya Fuhr Yaeli Gabriely Petrina Hicks Ayana V. Jackson Lebohang Kganye Lilia Li–Mi–Yan Pixy Liao Alexandra Marzella Rania Matar Izumi Miyazaki Monika Mogi Zanele Muholi Mihaela Noroc Birthe Piontek Elizabeth Renstrom Marianna Rothen Phebe Schmidt Leah Schrager Molly Soda Johanna Stickland Iiu Susiraja Deanna Templeton Yvonne Todd Mayan Toledano Jaimie Warren Isabelle Wenzel Aviya Wyse Jessica Yatrofsky Pinar Yolaçan

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner. “With dazzling clarity, [Chocano’s] commentary exposes the subliminal sexism on our pages and screens.”—O, The Oprah Magazine As a kid in the 1970s and 80s, Carina Chocano was confused by the mixed messages all around her that told her who she could be—and who she couldn’t. She grappled with sexed up sidekicks, princesses waiting to be saved, and morally infallible angels who seemed to have no opinions of their own. It wasn’t until she spent five years as a movie critic, and was laid off just after her daughter was born, however, that she really came to understand how the stories the culture tells us about what it means to be a girl limit our lives and shape our destinies. In You Play the Girl, Chocano blends formative personal stories with insightful and emotionally powerful analysis. Moving from Bugs Bunny to Playboy Bunnies, from Flashdance to Frozen, from the progressive ’70s through the backlash ’80s, the glib ’90s, and the pornified aughts—and at stops in between—she explains how growing up in the shadow of “the girl” taught her to think about herself and the world and what it means to raise a daughter in the face of these contorted reflections. In the tradition of Roxane Gay, Rebecca Solnit, and Susan Sontag, Chocano brilliantly shows that our identities are more fluid than we think, and certainly more complex than anything we see on any kind of screen. “If Hollywood’s treatment of women leaves you wanting, you’ll find good, heady company in You Play the Girl.”—Elle

A People Pick! “One of the year’s must-reads.” –ELLE “[A] provocative, heart-breaking, and frequently hilarious collection.” –GLAMOUR “Essential, vital, and urgent.” –HARPER’S BAZAAR In the vein of Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Issa Rae’s The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, but wholly its own, a provocative, humorous, and, at times, heartbreaking collection of essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother, and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. Black women have never been more visible or more publicly celebrated than they are now. But for every new milestone, every magazine cover, every box office record smashed, every new face elected to public office, the reality of everyday life for black women remains a complex, conflicted, contradiction-laden experience. An American journalist who has been living and working in London for a decade, Kenya Hunt has made a career of distilling moments, movements, and cultural moods into words. Her work takes the difficult and the indefinable and makes it accessible; it is razor sharp cultural observation threaded through evocative and relatable stories. Girl Gurl Grrrl both illuminates our current cultural moment and transcends it. Hunt captures the zeitgeist while also creating a timeless celebration of womanhood, of blackness, and the possibilities they both contain. She blends the popular and the personal, the frivolous and the momentous in a collection that truly reflects what it is to be living and thriving as a black woman today.

From playground games of " chase and kiss" to rough-and-tumble soccer games, from slumber party stripteases to romantic fantasies behind closed doors, author Sharon Lamb coaxes out girls' true stories with uncommon sensitivity and focus. The result of more than 125 fascinating interviews with pre-teens, teenagers, and adult women, The Secret Lives of Girls reveals the ways that girls use their minds and bodies for private sexual play, mischief, and hidden aggression. To truly understand what little girls are made of, Lamb suggests, we must listen not only to what they say to us but also to what they don't say, taking into account their hidden selves and the lives that we adults don't see. Yes, girls are known to be " good, " but they manage to act out in decidedly ungirlish ways and, despite many parents' fears, be the better for it. What's most remarkable about Lamb's conclusions is that we needn't join the chorus of voices deploring a " girl-poisoning" culture for damaging our daughters. Instead, Lamb finds reason to celebrate girls' resilience in the face of pressures to conform -- and she does it by l

The physical, emotional, and social milestones of every girl's life: what we've lost and gained in the 21st century. The physical, emotional, and social milestones of every girl's life: what we've lost and gained in the 21st century. Caitlin Flanagan's essays about marriage, sex, and families have sparked national debates. Now she turns her attention to girls: the biological and cultural milestones for girls today, and how they shape a girl's sense of herself. The transition from girl to woman is an experience that has changed radically over the generations: everything from how a girl learns about her period to how she expects to be treated by boys and men. Girls today observe these passages very differently, and yet the landmarks themselves have remained remarkably constant-proof, Flanagan believes, of their significance. In a world where protections of girls' privacy and personal freedom seem to disappear every day, the ultimate challenge modern parents face is finding a way to defend both.