Girl Positive: Supporting Girls to Shape a New World

by Tatiana Fraser, Caia Hagel

Hailed by  Sophie Grégoire Trudeau  as a "call-to-action" in these highly policiticized times,  Girl Positive  showcases the diverse voices of girls across North America, and drawing on the wisdom of young women making positive change in their lives and communities, offer tools for families, friends and educators to assist this empowerment.

      Girl Positive takes an engaging, cutting-edge view of the cultural, social and political issues facing girls today. Looking closely at topics from social media, sexual violence, hypersexuality and cyberspace identities to girls transforming the world as leaders and agents of change, Girl Positive offers stories of struggle and victory, and brings to light where today’s girls are finding new paths to empowerment. Tatiana Fraser and Caia Hagel explore these insights and challenges with depth, compassion and a sense of adventure.

       The authors travelled from Montreal to Toronto, New Haven, Whitehorse, Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, Detroit and the Wemindji Cree Nation in northern Quebec, to hang out in coffee shops, dance studios, classrooms, gyms, skate parks, beaches and bedrooms, and talk with school girls, college students and young women in their early careers. Interspersed with their narratives is advice and input from experts in media, health, race and gender politics, sexuality, education and leadership. Each chapter also includes a Survival Kit, which offers tips and discussion questions for girls and the adults in their lives. 

       Through Fraser and Hagel’s journey readers will learn how to better equip themselves to support girls (and boys)—as parents, friends, educators, mentors and activists. Girl Positive celebrates all girls, illuminates emerging culture and fresh politics, and shows us the future in the making.

Genres: Parenting

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2016

Reviews

[Kelly R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent fuel for discussions about school dress codes, the importance of consent education, “like” culture on social media, empowering women and girls, and the struggles and strengths of indigenous young women in Canada and North America. Highly recommended.

[Vanessa Funk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fraser and Hagel interviewed a diverse group of girls and young women from Canada and USA to provide a view of their challenges and victories. I really appreciated that they talked to girls from a wide variety of ethnicities, backgrounds and activities, and also included a chapter of discussions with boys. As frustrating as it was to read of some of these girls' challenges, there are also many heartening moments of girls who are standing up and making change (some even as young as 12 years old!).
It challenged me to think how I am interacting with and teaching my nieces/nephews and the kids I work with and how we need to talk directly about tough topics with kids if we want to change the world for the better. If we shy away from uncomfortable topics, it doesn't mean they don't exist, it just means we haven't prepared kids for how to deal with them.
At the end of the each chapter, they provided excellent strategies and resources to help with the topics they had discussed. The only slightly negative thing I would say is that because this book is 5 years old, some of the links and websites that they shared were no longer active.

[Megan Chiovitti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discussed a lot of serious topics that made me realize not everyone knows about. It went into depth about sexual violence and by the end truly inspired me to never apologize for my feelings as a female. At the end of each chapter there was a “survival kit” which got me thinking the most. The authors asked questions and gave great tips on how to help support young teens. Even if you are aware of all of the topics discussed throughout the book, the real stories told by females is an eye opener. Great book to get you thinking.

[Justin Liew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book about raising strong, confident girls who can work to overcome the many obstacles society throws at them. A lot of the subject matter is a few years away for my kids but I will definitely return to some of the resources in a few years.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It's easy to read and the survival kit at the end of each chapter is really useful!!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this book. It details the need to listen to girls, teenagers and young women and their accounts of their lives. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic that affect girls; from body image to self harm to sexual harassment to sexual assault.

I loved the chapter on sexual assault and how it captures how serious of a word sexual assault is and what implications a word can have. We need to teach consent, to teach what sexual assault is. We also need to understand how adult words such as sexual assault do not always come to mind with interactions between and as teenagers. I love how they point this out and go in depth (2 chapters worth in depth) about this phenomenon.

In addition to amazing chapters, the end of every chapter provides resources for adults and girls alike to continue to learn and read on about the topic. It also goes over ways for adults to bring up these topics and continue these conversations.