New Book Lets Girls Speak Up, Helps Adults Better Understand Their World

It's a charge adolescent girls often level against adults: "You just don't get it!"

Girls Without Limits: Helping Girls Achieve Healthy Relationships, Academic Success, and Interpersonal Strength, a new book by author Dr. Lisa Hinkelman, helps parents and other influential adults in their lives "get it" by developing a real understanding of what girls think and feel about their daily challenges.

Hinkelman, a noted counselor, educator and expert on empowering girls, said she wrote Girls Without Limits "to give girls a voice because they often feel no one is paying attention to their thoughts and opinions."

Along with what girls say about their own lives, the book provides useful action strategies to help parents, educators, counselors and other adults in their lives listen to, communicate with and motivate them.

Girls Without Limits "is appropriate for anyone who has girls in their life," said Hinkelman, a faculty member at The Ohio State University and founder of ROXRuling Our eXperiences, a non-profit organization that offers girls empowering lessons on topics such as healthy relationships,dating violence, boundary setting, body image, self-esteem and academic and career development.

Hinkelman spent nearly eight years surveying and interviewing thousands of girls from various ethnic, family, socioeconomic, geographic and school settings to learn what they consider important issues they face in their lives.

Research of adolescent girls reveals:

In Ohio, 62 percent of high school girls say they are trying to lose weight.
By high school, less than 25 percent of girls say they are "happy the way they are."
More than 22 percent of girls in Ohio say they felt sad and hopeless every day for at least two straight weeks, and 16 percent say they have seriously considered suicide. Ten percent have attempted suicide.
More than 40 percent of teen girls say they have been asked to send a nude picture of themselves to a peer or classmate; 55 percent have received an inappropriate photo.
More than 70 percent of Central Ohio girls say they have engaged in girl bullying behaviors.

Hinkelman said too many messages directed at girls today focus on outward appearance rather than on their skills and talents.

"These messages can serve to restrict girls' perceptions of their abilities in school subjects, their career choices and their friendships and dating relationships," she said.

Girls Without Limits: Helping Girls Achieve Healthy Relationships, Academic Success, and Interpersonal Strength, published by Corwin Press, can be purchased on ROX's website, www.rulingourexperiences.com, to benefit the organization or at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

About the author:

Lisa Hinkelman, Ph.D, is the founder and director of ROX, Ruling Our eXperiences, a non-profit organization delivering evidence-based empowerment programs to girls since 2006.

Dr. Hinkelman earned bachelor's degrees in psychology and education at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA and her master's and doctorate in counselor education at The Ohio State University (OSU). She is trained in mental health and school counseling and has served on the counselor education faculty at OSU since 2004.

About ROX (Ruling Our eXperiences):

The ROX program was founded by Lisa Hinkelman in 2006 to help empower girls to live healthy, independent and violence-free lives. Thousands of girls from public, private, parochial and charter schoolsin urban, suburban and rural environmentshave participated.

ROX features both elementary and secondary programs with 20 lessons on team-building, healthy relationships,cyber-bullying, friendships, girl bullying, sexual harassment, dating violence, boundary setting, self-defense, body image, self-esteem, leadership and academic and career development. Learn more at www.rulingourexperiences.com.

FACT SHEET

What's on the Minds of Young Girls Today?

Research provides insight about pressures, fears, challenges

Research of adolescent girls nationally reveals:

30 percent of third-grade girls report being on a diet
The #1 thing they want to change about themselves is their appearance
A girl's feelings about her body is the #1 predictor of her self-esteem
Girls as young as age 6 report feeling pressure to look sexy, equating that to popularity
Self-esteem reaches its lowest point during adolescence

By high school, less than 25 percent report they are "happy the way they are"
By middle school, girls begin reporting they aren't smart enough to pursue their dream careers; they see certain careers as inaccessible
Despite girls' gains in math and science, only 11 percent of engineers in the U.S. are women

Nearly 30 percent are involved in an unhealthy or violent dating relationship in high school
Approximately 1 in 4 girls will experience some type of sexual violence by age 18
More than 40 percent of teen girls say they have been asked to send a nude picture of themselves to a peer or classmate; 55 percent say they have received an inappropriate photo
More than 82 percent of teens report someone saying mean or hurtful things about them online

Research of Ohio girls uncovers related findings:

62 percent of high school girls say they are trying to lose weight
In Central Ohio, more than 60 percent of girls in grades 5-12 say weight, body shape and pressure to be thin is a top concern
More than 22 percent report they have purposely hurt, burned or cut themselves
More than 30 percent of high school girls say they feel sad and hopeless daily for two weeks or more; 16 percent say they have seriously considered suicide and 10 percent have attempted it
Approximately 13 percent of high school girls report being forced to have sexual intercourse
About 25 percent have been involved in a physical fight
Nearly 30 percent have been bullied or harassed by other students
In Central Ohio, more than 70 percent say they have engaged in girl bullyingteasing, gossiping, spreading rumors or excluding others