A veteran science reporter's investigation into the fascinating and distinctive nature of women's friendships In Girl Talk, New York Times science reporter Jacqueline Mroz takes on the science of female friendship -- a phenomenon that's as culturally powerful as it is individually mysterious. She examines friendship from a range of angles, from the historical to the experiential, with a scientific analysis that reveals new truths about what leads us to connect and build alliances, and then "break up" when a friendship no longer serves us. Mroz takes a new look at how friendship has evolved throughout history, showing how friends tend to share more genetic commonalities than strangers, and that the more friends we have, the more empathy and pleasure chemicals are present in our brains. Scientists have also reported that friendship directly influences health and longevity; women with solid, supportive friendships experience fewer "fight or flight" impulses and stronger heart function, and women without friendships tend to develop medical challenges on par with those associated with smoking and excessive body weight. With intimate reporting and insightful analysis, Mroz reveals new awareness about the impact of women's friendships, and how they shape our culture at large.

Breaking from the tradition of buttoned-up guides for girls, Girl Talk is an illustrated collection of hysterically funny and necessary reflections on life, love, and making it in the modern world. Combining etiquette tips with true stories from her own not always quite together life, Christie Young proves herself to be adept around managing life’s vicissitudes. Whether you seek advice on handling running out of booze during the holidays or running into your ex on the subway, Girl Talk offers the keys to coping in a world bereft of rhyme or reason. Let’s talk about: • Realizing you look exactly like your boyfriend’s sister • Overthinking text messages and analyzing emoticons • Looking calm in a bar alone (without the help an iPhone) • Accidentally stealing something from the farmer’s market • Choosing between getting to work on time or showering • Responding to a sexy text your uncle meant to send to his girlfriend • Organizing your wardrobe, from crop tops to bolo ties • Handling a roommate who rents out your living room to strangers • Kicking your Netflix sci-fi marathon habit And much, much more.

"Although titled Grrl Talk, the stories in this book were written by women - real women - whose tales reveal the strong and tender responses to life its very ownself...-Mary Gordon Spence"--Back cover.

Lissy Jablonski was fifteen during the summer of 1985. That was the summer her father, a soft-spoken, seemingly passionless gynecologist, up and left her mother for a redheaded bank teller. The same summer Lissy and her mother disappeared from their quiet New Hampshire lives to have an adventure of their own amid a cast of unlikely characters, including a Valium-addicted ex-debutante and a suspected mobster. The summer the reliably comforting "girl talks" with her mother began to reveal startling secrets. It was also the summer that Lissy's mother would ever after refer to as "the summer that never happened." Now an almost-thirty-years-old advertising executive in Manhattan, faced with her father's imminent death and newly pregnant by her married ex-lover, an unmoored Lissy finds herself looking back across the years. Contending with her affections for an old boyfriend and his doomed marriage to a Korean stripper named Kitty Hawk, as well as the tangible legacies of that unmentionable summer with her mother, she realizes that she has become more like her mother than she ever could have imagined. In her debut novel, acclaimed short-story writer and poet Julianna Baggott has woven a precise, smartly comic, and compassionate tale of discovery and desire. With a lyrical sensibility, Baggott reminds us -- through the witty and unsparingly realistic voice of her narrator, Lissy -- of the pleasures and sorrows that can come from the most unreasonable realities of the heart.

As typical as donor-conceived children have become, with at least a million such children in the US alone, their experiences are still unusual in many ways. In Scattered Seeds, journalist and writer Jacqueline Mroz looks at the growth of sperm donation and assisted reproduction and how it affects the children who are born, the women who buy and use the sperm to have kids, and the sperm donors who donate their genetic material to help others procreate. With empathy and in-depth analysis, Scattered Seeds explores the sociology, psychology, and anthropology surrounding those connected with fertility procedures today and looks back at the history that brought us to this point. The personal stories in this book will put a human face on the issues and help to illuminate this country's controversial and troubling unregulated fertility industry-an industry that has been compared to the Wild, Wild West, where anything goes. What is the human cost of our country's unregulated fertility industry' How are the lives of sperm-donor families changed' Scattered Seeds will answer those questions, considering carefully the social and psychological dynamics surrounding those connected with fertility procedures today.

From puberty to relationships, social media to school, this essential guide for girls growing up covers everything you have always wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Growing up can be hard and, at times, embarrassing. This funny yet sensitive book is here to offer practical advice and helpful information to help make growing up just that little bit less scary. Covering daunting but important subject such as personal hygiene, different types of bulling, relationships, and how to stay safe online, this book features case studies and questions from "real-life" anonymous readers to explore those embarrassing questions you don't want to ask! Written by a former teen magazine editor and with funny illustrations and diagrams throughout, this is the go-to guide for any girl going through or approaching puberty.

Katie is dying to fit in. Literally. She’s a bulimic high school freshman who drinks and hangs out with the mean girls. Maybe you know someone like her? Or there’s Cindy, a high school junior who acts like everything is always OK. She plays three sports, earns straight A’s, and parties on the weekends, but also she struggles with depression, perfectionism, and addiction. Girl Talk: Boys, Bullies and Body Image is a book about teens designed specifically for a teen audience. It’s a compilation of 10 teen girls’ powerful and all-too-familiar stories. Dr. Carol also examines each girl’s situation and provides practical advice on how all teens can take control of their life and RAISE (Resilience, Attitude, Independence, Self-Respect and Empowerment) their self-esteem.