12/18/2017 Simmons (The Curse of the Good Girl), cofounder of the nonprofit Girls Leadership, tackles the “college application industrial complex,” perfectionism, defensive pessimism, and other factors that undermine teenage girls’ confidence and happiness. Young American women are more successful than ever, Simmons observes, but she warns that the “anything is possible” mentality has sparked a mental health crisis. Her guide awakens parents to the sources of their daughters’ stress by examining the insidious effects of social media, body shaming, competitive complaining, negative self-talk, and overthinking. She then shows how girls, with their parents’ help, can prioritize confidence and self-compassion along with achievement. Simmons acknowledges that parenting adolescent girls can be tough, and in one especially helpful section prescribes eight emotional-support strategies for moms and dads to share with daughters as they navigate this challenging phase together. In her role as a researcher and leadership specialist, Simmons encountered college-age girls from a range of backgrounds, and here uses their stories to complement her interviews with precollege adolescents. Her book persuasively demonstrates that girls can replace the toxic cultural imperative for “more” with their own vision of a fulfilled life. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency. (Mar.)
Rachel Simmons’ clear, insightful and practical new book, Enough As She Is , provides a lens through which to understand the phenomenon of self-criticism, perfectionism and body shaming that is feeding this crisis.
Many readers became familiar with Simmons through her first book, Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls (2002), which remains popular and on the shelves at many libraries. Enough As She Is will be just as important. A must-add for public libraries, school libraries, and many college collections.
Nobody captures the highs, lows and sheer capacity of a teen girl’s mind like Rachel Simmons. Enough As She Is makes a powerful case that perfectionism is not only pervasive among adolescent girls but also extremely damaging. It’s not enough for girls to achieve, to be at the top of their gamethey, and our culture, and sometimes parents, always seem to demand more. Luckily for all of us, Rachel, as always, offers incredibly valuable remedies. She offers a path for our daughters to move through life with confidence, and to work towards joy, satisfaction, and happiness, instead of an unattainable goal. Parents of girls need this book!
Claire Shipman and Katty Kay
This is the book parents have been waiting for. With levels of stress, anxiety and depression soaring among children and teens, raising girls has never been more challenging. With Enough As She Is national girl expert Rachel Simmons gives families the tools they need to redefine success for their daughters so they can truly thrive.
This book is a rare find for any parent or mentor of a girl child. It exposes the abject harm of today’s perfect-at-any-price childhood, and illustrates how a girl’s anxious, busy, self-deprecating performance strategy is entirely normal yet further harm-inducing. Packed with conversational specifics you can deploy with the teen girls in your life, this book is your chance to be who she needs you to be. Buy it. Read it. Live it. Help the girl you love realize the most important of all certainties: that she truly is enough as she is.
Enough as She Is is a true gift for parents, teachers, or anyone else in a position to shape and educate the women who will run the world very soon. My copy is filled with sticky notes, exclamation points, and underlined sentences, and I know for a fact that the advice contained in this book will help me be a more aware, supportive, and effective teacher to my female students.
An expert on how young women are socialized, Simmons’ breaks down a major problem that modern girls are facing: they’re soaring academically, while suffering from high levels of anxiety, depression, and the feeling that they’ll never be good enough. While young boys are encouraged to take risks, girls are pushed to achieve but aren’t taught true confidence. Based on years of research, Simmons’ lays out the larger problems, while offering plenty of concrete advice for parents on how to handle the envy that social media creates, how to help girls stop over-thinking, and so much more.
This book is an essential resource for educators committed to building girls’ resilience as learners.
A brilliant and passionate call to action that reveals how girls and young women are suffering in our toxic culture of constant comparison and competition. This is the book parents need to change girls’ lives and guide them to truly become happy, healthy, and powerful adults.
Rachel Simmons is the expert on helping girls become leaders. In a world that too often tells our girls to be quiet, not assertive; deferential, not opinionated; meek, not bold; and insecure, not confident, Rachel says otherwise – and she has the advice and research to back it up. This book is a must read for girls who want to lead – and for the parents, teachers, and coaches who want to help them get there.
This is the book parents have been waiting for. With levels of stress, anxiety and depression soaring among children and teens, raising girls has never been more challenging. With Enough As She Is national girl expert Rachel Simmons gives families the tools they need to redefine success for their daughters so they can truly thrive.
Is it wrong that I wanted to underline every single word in this book? Simmons brilliantly crystallizes contemporary girls’ dilemma: the way old expectations and new imperatives collide; how a narrow, virtually unattainable vision of ‘success’ comes at the expense of self-worth and well-being. Enough As She Is a must-read, not only for its diagnosis of the issues but for its insightful, useful strategies on how to address them.
Enough As She Is may save millions of women from the idea that ‘having it all’ means ‘doing it all.’ Women as well as men have the right to make choices that suit us uniquely, yet girls and women are more subject to external standards that we had nothing to do with creating. Rachel Simmons has given us the next step in our peaceful revolution: not only changing women to fit the world, but changing the world to fit women.
Enough As She Is shows parents, educators and girls what it means to try to achieve at almost any cost — amplified by social media. That includes pressure to be admitted to just-the-right college — and in some cases just-the-right high school — coupled with unrealistic body-shape expectations.
Enough As She Is shows parents, educators and girls what it means to try to achieve at almost any cost — amplified by social media. That includes pressure to be admitted to just-the-right college — and in some cases just-the-right high school — coupled with unrealistic body-shape expectations.
Rachel Simmons is the expert on helping girls become leaders. In a world that too often tells our girls to be quiet, not assertive; deferential, not opinionated; meek, not bold; and insecure, not confident, Rachel says otherwise – and she has the advice and research to back it up. This book is a must read for girls who want to lead – and for the parents, teachers, and coaches who want to help them get there.” — Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.Org and OptionB.Org
“This is the book parents have been waiting for. With levels of stress, anxiety and depression soaring among children and teens, raising girls has never been more challenging. With Enough As She Is national girl expert Rachel Simmons gives families the tools they need to redefine success for their daughters so they can truly thrive.” — Arianna Huffington
“Is it wrong that I wanted to underline every single word in this book? Simmons brilliantly crystallizes contemporary girls’ dilemma: the way old expectations and new imperatives collide; how a narrow, virtually unattainable vision of ‘success’ comes at the expense of self-worth and well-being. Enough As She Is a must-read, not only for its diagnosis of the issues but for its insightful, useful strategies on how to address them.” — Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex
“This book is a rare find for any parent or mentor of a girl child. It exposes the abject harm of today’s perfect-at-any-price childhood, and illustrates how a girl’s anxious, busy, self-deprecating performance strategy is entirely normal yet further harm-inducing. Packed with conversational specifics you can deploy with the teen girls in your life, this book is your chance to be who she needs you to be. Buy it. Read it. Live it. Help the girl you love realize the most important of all certainties: that she truly is enough as she is.” — Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of the New York Times bestseller How to Raise an Adult , and Real American: A Memoir
“Enough As She Is may save millions of women from the idea that ‘having it all’ means ‘doing it all.’ Women as well as men have the right to make choices that suit us uniquely, yet girls and women are more subject to external standards that we had nothing to do with creating. Rachel Simmons has given us the next step in our peaceful revolution: not only changing women to fit the world, but changing the world to fit women.” — Gloria Steinem
“This book is an essential resource for educators committed to building girls’ resilience as learners.” — Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
“A brilliant and passionate call to action that reveals how girls and young women are suffering in our toxic culture of constant comparison and competition. This is the book parents need to change girls’ lives and guide them to truly become happy, healthy, and powerful adults.” — Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabees
“Enough as She Is is a true gift for parents, teachers, or anyone else in a position to shape and educate the women who will run the world very soon. My copy is filled with sticky notes, exclamation points, and underlined sentences, and I know for a fact that the advice contained in this book will help me be a more aware, supportive, and effective teacher to my female students.” — Jessica Lahey, New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure
“Enough As She Is shows parents, educators and girls what it means to try to achieve at almost any cost — amplified by social media. That includes pressure to be admitted to just-the-right college — and in some cases just-the-right high school — coupled with unrealistic body-shape expectations.” — USA Today
“Simmons tackles the “college application industrial complex,” perfectionism, defensive pessimism, and other factors that undermine teenage girls’ confidence and happiness... [Enough as She Is ] persuasively demonstrates that girls can replace the toxic cultural imperative for “more” with their own vision of a fulfilled life.” — Publishers Weekly
“A fascinating read that provides ideas for combatting the “not enough” ideals that are devastating young girls.” — Library Journal
“Rachel Simmons’ clear, insightful and practical new book, Enough As She Is , provides a lens through which to understand the phenomenon of self-criticism, perfectionism and body shaming that is feeding this crisis.” — bookclique
03/01/2018 According to Simmons (Odd Girl Out; The Curse of the Good Girl), founder of the nonprofit Girls Leadership, toxic messages about success and a burning drive to achieve no matter the cost have resulted in a 25 percent increase in already skyrocketing teen depression rates. The author describes how society pushes a "develop confidence" message to young women, which becomes code for yet another area to work on, in an era in which Supergirl is the baseline. At the same time, social media has contributed to teens disconnecting from parents and friendships—those relationships that are the most vital to their growth and resiliency. Meanwhile, parents themselves struggle with myths that tarnish their relationships with their teenager as they come up against a culture that advocates hyperattentive control of all aspects of their child's life. Here, Simmons interviews 96 girls from a variety of backgrounds to analyze the damaging messages they received ("what you accomplish matters more than what you learn," "everyone is doing better than you") and the often destructive results. She encourages strategies to help steady daughters and propel them forward with new messages, while correcting harmful core beliefs along the way. VERDICT A fascinating read that provides ideas for combatting the "not enough" ideals that are devastating young girls.—Julia M. Reffner, Richmond, VA
An educator in leadership development for girls at Smith College offers a sobering look at the pressure they feel to get the best credentials and jobs, have perfect bodies, keep up with their peers sexually, and feel good about themselves. Delivering Rachel Simmons’s moving research summaries and case studies, narrator Emily Durante breezes through all the phrasing challenges and adds fitting pathos to the author’s message. She also captures the compassionate tone of the author’s insights, drawn from interviews with 96 girls aged 15 to 24 and a variety of parents and parental figures. But the heart of this accessible audio is the author’s advice, offered in the form of ingredients necessary for girls to feel confident, happy, resilient, and worthy just as they are. Written and delivered with memorable impact, this is a must-hear guide for anyone entrusted with the development of young women. T.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile
An educator in leadership development for girls at Smith College offers a sobering look at the pressure they feel to get the best credentials and jobs, have perfect bodies, keep up with their peers sexually, and feel good about themselves. Delivering Rachel Simmons’s moving research summaries and case studies, narrator Emily Durante breezes through all the phrasing challenges and adds fitting pathos to the author’s message. She also captures the compassionate tone of the author’s insights, drawn from interviews with 96 girls aged 15 to 24 and a variety of parents and parental figures. But the heart of this accessible audio is the author’s advice, offered in the form of ingredients necessary for girls to feel confident, happy, resilient, and worthy just as they are. Written and delivered with memorable impact, this is a must-hear guide for anyone entrusted with the development of young women. T.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile
2017-11-21 Practical advice on raising well-adjusted girls.Today's girls, Simmons (Leadership Development Specialist/Smith Coll.; The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence, 2009, etc.) writes, are "glass ceiling-busting, selfie-taking world changers." However, as she notes, these same girls have higher levels of anxiety and self-criticism than any of their predecessors thanks to the numerous roles girls must play. They have the chance to be as successful and ambitious as their male peers, yet must also be "physically fit, pretty and sexy, socially active, athletic, and kind and liked by everyone." Depression and angst in young women are on the rise, a tide Simmons hopes to stop with her levelheaded and useful tips for parents. The author analyzes the way society and social media have created more tension for girls as they try to be everything for everyone, and she offers methods for diffusing tough situations. Simmons also addresses body imagery and body fat, the need to look as if you have a perfect life on social media, the objectification of women, handling disappointments and failures, and the drive to be highly athletic and involved in multiple extracurricular activities. Like most experts, she stresses the importance of unplugging, looking inward to find answers, using self-compassion, and setting realistic and obtainable goals in order to make changes. Though her solutions aren't groundbreaking, the author's accessible tone makes this a helpful tool for parents who need advice and want to help their girls become well-rounded women. The culture won't change until we properly discuss the many issues that create anxiety, depression, and pressure in girls; Simmons begins the conversation for parents, and it's up to them to continue it.Concrete, straightforward advice on helping girls move beyond the anxiety, depression, and angst that plague so many as they strive toward adulthood.