Girls Uninterrupted: Steps for building stronger girls

Girls Uninterrupted shows the practical strategies you need to create a carefree childhood for your daughters and ultimately help build them into the healthy, resilient women they deserve to be.

Girls, Uninterrupted: Steps for Building Stronger Girls in a Challenging World

Published on March 5th by Icon books  Girls Uninterrupted is  full of steps for ‘building stronger girls in a challenging world’

I have raised a boy to 10 already and my daughter is 7, I have to say I am finding raising my girl more worrying.

The world for girls is a tricky one..people tell her she is pretty rather than kind, strong or mighty. Her friendships can be competitive. Her wishing to be a farmer is not taking seriously. We watch singers on TV and they are dressed provocatively and sexually across the board (if they are women.)

At school she has learned about da Vinci and Galileo, about the mighty male Egyptians and the men who have died in the first world war. International women’s day was not celebrated and her female heroes seem to amount to Hermione Granger, who isn’t even real.

I am a feminist and I want my daughter one day to be a strong, proud woman who knows who she is and who can rely on herself. I want her to love herself and folle her own path.  I want her to make useful kind, contributions to others lives not  just aim to be famous/pretty/rich.

I want her to feel its okay to be natural in her looks, if that’s what she wants and I want her to be physically and emotionally healthy. I don’t want her to constantly striving to reach a media created ‘ideal’ and filled with anxiety when she falls short.

Magazines aimed at girls want her to be thin, aspire to be Miley Cyrus, and wear lots of coloured nail varnish and not much else.

She is doing okay, so far, in rejecting these influences.

She gets annoyed that she is supposed to go to parties and think putting on make up and having her nails done is fun and bless her she says No to this (why is this fun when you are 7?)  She does not want to wear short tight skirts she can;t move in  yet shop are full of them. She wants to wear comfy clothes  (she wants to have adventures and explore) At Christmas she gets dolls with more eye make up than I have ever worn in my life, ridiculously high heels and revealing clothes. I’m glad she never plays with them, can’t relate to them and thinks they are hideous too.

Times are meant to have changed and sexism receded but I was freer and allowed to be a child (rather than a ‘girl’) far more than she is. I worry about the coming years. I see many of her peers dress like mini adults and declare their love interests and passion for under dressed popstars and dancing raunchily like them. She is 7…..where is this going?

Tanith’s book is  quite shocking in some ways; it looks at statistics around girls and self harm, girls dissatisfied with their looks and unhappy about not being good enough, anxious, stressed and struggling. It talks about early sexualisation and huge pressure on our girls to be ‘perfect’ and stereotypically beautiful.

This book encourages us to challenge our own views and ideals and to let our children have their childhood back. It is not  a rant about modern times though this is a guide book. It is a guide to help you raise a child whose confidence and self esteem will protect her from the onslaught of  media images and pressure and it has a multitude of sound ideas.

Tanith talks about making your home a sanctuary, finding more time to connect in simple ways, encouraging and building self esteem through independence and strengthened capabilities. She advises helping children recognise stress and how to relax and about encouraging free, unstructured, outside play.

I love how practical this book is and the guidance it contains is so achievable; telling girls about their brain chemistry, teaching them to breathe till strong feelings subside, helping them capture joy. Emotional wellbeing is so important to a happy life and the tween years with hormones ablaze can be unhappy times. Such input will aid tremendously. We can help our girls be strong.

I love this book….. I could talk on and on about it.

But you know what I think? If you have a daughter this is well worth buying. It’s an investment into their survival and strength. I am sure it will really help you reflect on your parenting and maybe try a few new things? There are some fabulous play ideas included such as building treasure boxes, making family trees, climbing trees, collages about me, asking tricky questions.

Yes its challenging but this book can lead you to a lot of fun and save a lot of heartache. For all of you.

Great stuff Tanith …just what my daughter needed me to read.