sarah
Carla Fine: Strong Smart and Bold
This book is like a basic primer on specific things you can do to open a conversation with your daughter about being a woman in a man's world. For example, the section on body image starts with a parent having a conversation with a daughter about biased media representation, and ends with the parent encouraging the daughter to try all different physical activities in the hopes of finding one she loves, so the daughter can learn to value her body for its accomplishments and not just its looks. It's very hands-on and practical.
That being said, if you don't know what Girls Inc is (I didn't), it's weird to have 100% of the experts and citations come from a source you don't recognize. Girls Inc is mentioned every few pages, like it's a household term that you know all about and accept as an authority on the topic. This is what caused me to put the book down after just a few chapters. I felt like I wanted the advice, but not the marketing.
I looked up Girls Inc online after deciding not to finish this book. It's hard to tell what they actually do though. Is it a scholarship foundation? Do they have meetings like Girl Scouts? It's not clear, but it is very, very slick. I mean I don't know if they take girls camping, but they definitely have a line of clothing at The Gap. In fact, they partner with dozens of retailers and you can sign up to "shop pink" by shopping through their portal and support women-owned businesses. Cool, but I got a weird vibe. Like they 100% focus on businesses and it's very hard to see how girl empowerment is being accomplished. Maybe it is a terrific organization with a terrible web site, I don't know. But I got the same weird vibe from the book, which is more self-promotiony than girl-empowery, if you know what I mean. I don't know if I can recommend this one or not.
That being said, if you don't know what Girls Inc is (I didn't), it's weird to have 100% of the experts and citations come from a source you don't recognize. Girls Inc is mentioned every few pages, like it's a household term that you know all about and accept as an authority on the topic. This is what caused me to put the book down after just a few chapters. I felt like I wanted the advice, but not the marketing.
I looked up Girls Inc online after deciding not to finish this book. It's hard to tell what they actually do though. Is it a scholarship foundation? Do they have meetings like Girl Scouts? It's not clear, but it is very, very slick. I mean I don't know if they take girls camping, but they definitely have a line of clothing at The Gap. In fact, they partner with dozens of retailers and you can sign up to "shop pink" by shopping through their portal and support women-owned businesses. Cool, but I got a weird vibe. Like they 100% focus on businesses and it's very hard to see how girl empowerment is being accomplished. Maybe it is a terrific organization with a terrible web site, I don't know. But I got the same weird vibe from the book, which is more self-promotiony than girl-empowery, if you know what I mean. I don't know if I can recommend this one or not.
