Brown, Lyn Mikel

Explores how girls participate in activism and provides guidance for adults that support them, drawing on a collection of interviews with diverse women and girl activists.

Draws from interviews with approximately one hundred girls between the ages of seven and eighteen in an attempt to understand the psychological development of women, and notes the transformation most girls undergo in this period from outspokenness to silence, self-knowledge to uncertainty.

Analyzes how American culture views girlhood, exploring how the media has begun to focus on girls' meanness to other girls instead of trying to positively influence girls' independence and self-esteem and how those portrayals affect the way girls view themselves.