Parvana lives in Afghanistan where women are not allowed to do anything because of the Taliban who run the country so she transforms herself into a boy to become the breadwinner.
Eleven-year-old Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, disguises herself as a boy to become a royal page, a learning many hard lessons along her path to high adventure.
Denied an education because of both her gender and background, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth cuts her hair and alters suits belonging to Will, her wealthy patron's grandnephew, to take his place at school, while he is away.
Presents tools and guidance for adolescent and teenage girls on self-esteem, body image, safety and sexual harassment, and gender bias issues such as being given more housework than one's brother and having little confidence with math and science.
Sixteen-year-old Tabitha, the daughter of a preacher who believes science is Satan's work, longs to study at a university and dig for dinosaur bones, but in South Dakota at the end of the nineteenth century such ambitions are discouraged.
Fourteen-year-old Lydia, always keen to espouse controversial issues, gets varying degrees of support from her three sisters when she forms an alternative school newspaper and campaigns in favor of letting girls try out for the football team.
Twelve-year-old Maggie is determined to reject the entire masculine sex, from her preoccupied father to her annoying classmate Todd, until she begins to see other sides to the males around her.