Riding the wave of a booming girl culture worldwide, this collection of girls' voices across the globe invites us to learn more about varied girlhoods. From coming-of-age rituals in South Africa to the impact of computers and popular magazines on girls in Japan and Germany, Millennium Girls offers us a broader vision of global girlhood.
wikipedia's yaoi page (forget you read that) cites a chapter of this book in discussing roles of women in yaoi so actually i think this might be the most important text on the planet