An eye opening look at the everyday dangers of being young and female and how parents can help

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Reviving Ophelia, Saving the Selves of
Adolescent GirlsBy Mary Pipher, Ph.D

• An eye opening look at the everyday dangers of
  being young and female and how parents can help
• Kylee Kerby
• EDCI 3320
• Fall 2003

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Saplings in the Storm

• Something dramatic happens to girls in early
  adolescence. Just as planes and ships disappear
  into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the selves of
  girls go down in droves
• IQ, math, and science scores plummet
• Everything good in me died in junior high.

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Theoretical and Developmental Issues

• Concerned with weight, fear of rejection, and
  the need for perfection
• Are given mixed messages- Be beautiful, but
  beauty is only skin deep.
• Adolescence is a time of intense preoccupation
  with the self, which is growing and changing
  daily.

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Families

• Parents likely to be overworked, overcommitted,
  tired, and poor.
• Money is also a problem
• Americans believe adolescence is the time when
  children emotionally separate from their parents,
  and this assumption becomes a self-fulfilling
  prophecy.

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Mothers and Fathers

• Mothers dont understand the world that their
  daughters now live in because their experiences
  were different.

• Modern fathers didnt learn how to be emotional
  and understanding because their fathers were not
  that way.

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Divorce

• Divorce devastates many children
• Especially tough for adolescents because of their
  developmental level and they require so much
  energy from parents.
• Become ashamed of their family

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Depression

• Usually due to grieving for their inner, yet
  lost self, the authentic girl who has disappeared
  with adolescence.
• All girls experience pain at this point in their
  development.
• Adolescence causes major stress

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Bulimia and Anorexia

• Beauty is the defining characteristic for
  American women.
• Pressure most intense in early adolescence.
• Media always portrays women as thin.
• Girls compare their bodies to cultural ideals.

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Drugs and Alcohol

• Often, chemical abuse is a cry for help.
• May also indicate self-hate or despair about
  un-solved family problems.
• As a society, we have developed a feel good
  mentality.

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Sex and Violence

• Sex seems confusing, dangerous, exciting,
  embarrassing, yet full of promise.
• More than half of adolescents are sexually
  active.
• One-fourth of all women are raped at some time.

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Then and Now

• Our society had changed tremendously.
• Things that shocked us in the 1950s make us
  yawn today.

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Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

• Unlike Ophelia, most girls recover from early
  adolescence.
• That which doesnt kill us makes us stronger.

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What was Learned from Listening

• It is difficult to establish relationships with
  adolescent girls.
• Theyre much less forgiving than adults.
• Relationships are everything to them.