Reading Reviving Ophelia is the first step to doing so. We need to make that precious age of experimentation safe for adolescent girls. It is critical that we understand the circumstances and take measures to correct them. The dangers young women face today can jeopardize their futures. As they encounter situations that are simply too complex for them to handle, their self-esteem crumbles.

It's no wonder that girls' math scores plummet and depression levels rise when they reach junior high.

Having a boyfriend means dealing with sexual pressures, and often leads to pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted diseases. The innocent act of attending an unsupervised party can lead to acquaintance rape. Today's teenagers face serious pressures at an earlier age than that at which teenagers in the past did. Adolescence in America has traditionally involved breaking away from parents, experimenting with the trappings of adult life, and searching for autonomy and independence. Young teenagers are not developmentally equipped to meet the challenges that confront them. The current crises of adolescence - frequent suicide attempts, dropping out of school and running away from home, teenage pregnancies in unprecedented numbers, and an epidemic of eating disorders - are caused not so much by 'dysfunctional families' or incorrect messages from parents as by our media-saturated, lookist, girl-destroying culture. She finds that in spite of the women's movement, which has empowered adult women in some ways, teenage girls today are having a harder time than ever before because of higher levels of violence and sexism. Mary Pipher, a psychologist who has worked with teenagers for more than a decade. Reviving Ophelia is a call to arms from Dr. But if we use memories of our experiences to guide our understanding of what today's girls are living through, we make a serious mistake. Everybody who has survived adolescence knows what a scary, tumultuous, exciting time it is.

Saving ophelia book