November 17, 2020
Recently, in the Your Teen parent Facebook group, a mom asked for books that might help her 13-year-old face “teenage girl drama” and boost her self-esteem. As usual, our helpful parent community came through with support and advice.
Books for Girls about Friendship and More
- A Smart Girl’s Guide: Friendship Troubles. This American Girl-published paperback offers fun illustrations and quizzes plus advice on backstabbing, friendship triangles, and other thorny friendship issues. Other relevant AmericanGirl titles include A Smart Girl’s Guide: Drama, Rumors & Secrets: Staying True to Yourself in Changing Times and A Smart Girl’s Guide: Knowing What to Say: Finding the Words to Fit Any Situation.
- For comforting, supportive stories, try Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive for Teens and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive for Preteens.
- The Confidence Code for Girls: Taking Risks, Messing Up, & Becoming Your Amazingly Imperfect, Totally Powerful Self is a younger-audience version of The Confidence Code book for adult women. It incorporates lists, comics, and quizzes as it works to help your girl develop the guts to go for what she wants.
- To boost people skills and maybe even help your daughter get a job, try the advice in Smile & Succeed for Teens: A Crash Course in Face-to-Face Communication.
- Don’t Give It Away!: A Workbook of Self-Awareness and Self-Affirmations for Young Women comes from Iyanla Vanzant, who starred in the hit show “Iyanla: Fix My Life” on Oprah’s TV network.
- For a Christian perspective, Kari Kampakis’ 10 Ultimate Truths Girls Should Know offers advice for teenage girls on getting through the storms of friendship with kindness and integrity.
- Don’t forget the power of literature to lift your daughter out of her present funk and connect her with the faraway but relatable stories of other girls and women. Some suggestions from our group include Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Judy Blume’s books.
Books for Parents of Teenage Girls
- Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World. This now-classic by Rosalind Wiseman even inspired the movie “Mean Girls,” which some parents in our group suggest watching with daughters to spark discussion of “girl drama” issues.
- If the issue is bullying, Rachel Simmons’ Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls may offer help and insight to parents. It’s been updated to cover online issues, too.
- For a relatable, in-depth overview of how to help your daughter through the transitions of adolescence, read Lisa Damour’s Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood.
