We want you to be educated so your girls can be, too. Here’s a set of resources for parents of teenage girls.
Parents, teachers, and other important adults: These are resources we think adults will primarily be interested in as they support their teen girls. But also check out Resources for Teens so you don’t miss anything!
We hand-pick each resource in this list. We do get a referral contribution from Amazon if you buy items through the links below, but that doesn’t sway us on what we recommend.
Parenting Resources | Educator Resources | Appearance and Body Image | Mental Health | Media Criticism and Advocacy | Media Recommendations | Leadership and Activism | Other Organizations
Parenting Resources
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture
Full of Ourselves: A Wellness Program to Advance Girl Power, Health, and Leadership
Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood
Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape
Educator Resources
Full of Ourselves: A Wellness Program to Advance Girl Power, Health, and Leadership
Media Literacy: Thinking Critically About Advertising
Changing the World through Media Education (Developing Minds)
Appearance and Body Image
- The Body Positive – transforms people’s beliefs about beauty, health, and identity, freeing them to live balanced, joyful, and purposeful lives. Delivered through engaging workshops, books, videos, and activist opportunities, The Body Positive’s Be Body Positive Model provides both youth and adults with inspiration and skills to improve physical and emotional well-being.
- Association For Size Diversity and Health – an international professional organization composed of individual members who are committed to the Health At Every Size (HAES) principles.
Mental Health
- National Eating Disorders Awareness (NEDA) – a wealth of information and resources to adults, including online treatment and support group referrals. The NEDA Helpline provides information and referrals to those affected by an eating disorder or concerned about a family member/friend/loved one: 1-800-931-2237
Am I Thin Enough Yet?: The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity
Media Criticism & Advocacy
- Fairplay (formerly Center for A Commercial-Free Childhood) – supports parents’ efforts to raise healthy families by limiting commercial access to children and ending the exploitive practice of child-targeted marketing.
- Shaping Youth – a blog on the effects of marketing on kids
- Miss Representation documentary – exposes how mainstream media and culture contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America
- Media Education Foundation – incredible documentaries and films, including the seminal Killing Us Softly 4 by Dr. Jean Kilbourne.
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes
Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know
Media Recommendations
- Common Sense Media – see what adults and kids think of different media
Don’t Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life
Leadership & Activism
- SPARK Movement – a girl-fueled activist movement to demand an end to the sexualization of women and girls in media. Toolkits, action kits, blog, and more.
Other Organizations & Programs
- Girls Leadership – They equip girls with the skills to exercise the power of their voice. Founded by Rachel Simmons, author of the books Odd Girl Out and Enough as She Is.
- GirlVentures – Outdoor adventures for inner discovery (based in the San Francisco Bay Area)
- Hardy G*rls, Healthy Wom*n – creates opportunities, develops programs, and provides services that empower girls as well as addressing girls’ lives in social and relational contexts. They believe it is not the girls, but the environment they live in that needs repair (located in Maine).
- Alliance For Girls – alliance of girl-serving organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- One Circle Foundation – organization that promotes resiliency in children and youth, families, adults, and communities by offering circle program models that create, restore, and sustain healthy relationships.
- Camp Reel Stories – programs for young women and gender non-conforming youth to make their own content and enter media careers
- Athena Camp – A camp that inspires courage and builds confidence in girls through a unique combination of athletic, creative, emotional, and social activities in a nurturing community.
- Girls Rock Camp – a network of youth-centered arts and social justice organizations that host and promote rock camps for teens
- YWCA — dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all
- Women in Media and News (WIMN)– a media analysis, education and advocacy group that works to increase women’s presence and power in the public debate
- Women’s Sports Foundation – advances the lives of women and girls through sports and physical activity
- American Association of University Women (AAUW)
- National Women’s History Alliance
- CareerGirls
- Girls Inc. — A national organization dedicated to helping every girl become strong, smart and bold; great programs for girls ages 8-18