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GirlForce
Welcome to GirlForce, an exciting new lifestyle brand for tween and teen girls that is simply irresistible. At its core, Girl Force is based on an ancient science called Ayurveda that says our bodies are made of three elemental energies: Fire, Air, and Earth. And with just two quick quizzes about body and mind you can determine your Body Type. Air girls are outgoing and creative; Fire girls are born leaders and highly passionate; and Earth girls are easygoing and make loyal friends.
Guided by these principles, and using lush, high-end photography and gorgeously designed pages, GirlForce imparts the best food, exercise, makeup, yoga, stress relievers and more for your body type. But don't just read about your type...reading your friends' types can help you figure them out too!
Guided by these principles, and using lush, high-end photography and gorgeously designed pages, GirlForce imparts the best food, exercise, makeup, yoga, stress relievers and more for your body type. But don't just read about your type...reading your friends' types can help you figure them out too!
- GenresNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Nikki Goldstein
16 books1 followerNikki Goldstein is a journalist and best-selling, award-winning author who has spent her career turning life’s hardest questions into language that's easy to understand. Beginning at Vogue before moving into senior editorial roles at ELLE, Marie Claire and the Financial Review Magazine, Nikki went on to write 16 books, including the internationally published teen self-empowerment series GirlForce. She is also the founder of Go2Guru, an independent publishing business whose books have won international awards.
Her writing sits at the intersection of self-understanding, survival, Jewish identity, emotional intelligence and spiritual courage. After a near-death illness in 2022 awakened a deeper relationship with faith, Nikki began writing Conversations With My Rabbi — a book about morality, miracles and ancient Jewish wisdom for an uncertain world.
She writes for people who are looking for conversations about meaning and purpose and the miracles that show up when you least expect them: women, seekers, survivors, believers, doubters and anyone trying to live with more intention, awareness, self-love and light.
Her writing sits at the intersection of self-understanding, survival, Jewish identity, emotional intelligence and spiritual courage. After a near-death illness in 2022 awakened a deeper relationship with faith, Nikki began writing Conversations With My Rabbi — a book about morality, miracles and ancient Jewish wisdom for an uncertain world.
She writes for people who are looking for conversations about meaning and purpose and the miracles that show up when you least expect them: women, seekers, survivors, believers, doubters and anyone trying to live with more intention, awareness, self-love and light.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 9, 2009
Really cool book based on the ancient, mystical science of Aryuveda: is your body/personality type air, water, or earth?
Mine was Earth. After you take the quiz it has a lot of info on what's the best for this type. What's the best diet, exercise, relationship, way to de-stress, wardrobe/make-up, along with a detailed personality profile.
Here are some random suggestions that might be interesting
Air:
Most dairy foods are good.
Excels most at yoga, Tai Chi, and swimming.
Keep lip balm handy, since lips likely to dry out.
Especially susceptible to stimulants such as alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine.
Exciting, hopeful, acute intellect.
Restlessness, poor body image, insecurity
Clove and jasmine oil balances Air energy.
Fire:
Watermelon good for Fire diet.
Reccomended Yoga Pose:Corpse
Blues, greens, and whites are great for flushed skin tone
Ylang-ylang balances Fire energy.
Passionate, noble, playful, glamorous.
Arrogant, perfectionist, proud, competitive.
Earth:
More astringent fruits and energizing ginger.
Yoga Poses: Thunderbolt and Cobra
Large, sleepy eyes with thick lashes.
Thick, wavy hair.
Pale for her race.
Bring out the eyes.
Don't cover up shape with baggy clothes.
Kind, compassionate, serene, devoted, dreamy, reliable, easygoing, good sense of humor, inclusive, stable, artistic
Lethargic, lazy, procrasinators, protective, withdrawn.
Mine was Earth. After you take the quiz it has a lot of info on what's the best for this type. What's the best diet, exercise, relationship, way to de-stress, wardrobe/make-up, along with a detailed personality profile.
Here are some random suggestions that might be interesting
Air:
Most dairy foods are good.
Excels most at yoga, Tai Chi, and swimming.
Keep lip balm handy, since lips likely to dry out.
Especially susceptible to stimulants such as alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine.
Exciting, hopeful, acute intellect.
Restlessness, poor body image, insecurity
Clove and jasmine oil balances Air energy.
Fire:
Watermelon good for Fire diet.
Reccomended Yoga Pose:Corpse
Blues, greens, and whites are great for flushed skin tone
Ylang-ylang balances Fire energy.
Passionate, noble, playful, glamorous.
Arrogant, perfectionist, proud, competitive.
Earth:
More astringent fruits and energizing ginger.
Yoga Poses: Thunderbolt and Cobra
Large, sleepy eyes with thick lashes.
Thick, wavy hair.
Pale for her race.
Bring out the eyes.
Don't cover up shape with baggy clothes.
Kind, compassionate, serene, devoted, dreamy, reliable, easygoing, good sense of humor, inclusive, stable, artistic
Lethargic, lazy, procrasinators, protective, withdrawn.
November 19, 2011
I really enjoyed the books by this author. They were really inspiring. I think she has made a couple more that aren't on her goodreads page, some I've read
February 26, 2011
GirlForce / 978-1-59990-354-5
This attractive book, loaded with photographs and colored pages, looks very much like a combination of a popular teen magazine and a regular large-sized novel.
The basic premise of the book - that people can be divided into three 'elemental' types (Air, Fire, and Earth - oddly, no Water) and that diet, exercise, and general lifestyle recommendations can be derived from your elemental type is very straightforward, and the author is careful to point out that "everyone is unique" and that readers will need to "find the approach that works best" for them.
The book opens with descriptions of the three elemental types, along with a multiple choice quiz to determine your own elemental type. I was mildly uncomfortable with one of the questions categorizing people's skin type and color into elemental types ("I'm considered dark-skinned for my race", or "I'm pale"). It is one thing to categorize people based on metabolism, but skin color is a bit different, in my opinion. Unfortunately for myself, I scored near-equal points in all three categories. The author cautions that this can happen, and to just try to figure out my best fit apart from the quiz.
After figuring out your elemental type, the book moves on to lifestyle recommendations. Each elemental type has a detailed food list. This section is largely very good: don't eat when you're not hungry, worry about nutrition instead of weight, avoid over processed foods, eat six servings of fruits and vegetables a day, practice sensible portion control, avoid caffeine and high-sugar drinks, don't force yourself to eat things you hate, etc. Some of the specific advice is a little odd, but not overtly harmful. For instance, Air types are told to generally favor cooked vegetables to raw ones, but raw vegetables generally have more vitamins and nutrients in them. Still, getting me as a teenager to eat vegetables at all was a major accomplishment, so whatever helps.
Next comes the exercise recommendations, and the author correctly recommends that daily exercise really is a must, but that exercise should be fun and *not* painful. She recommends finding a pleasant activity (and suggests several) to engage in daily, and recommends early exercise schedules (and early bedtimes in order to stick with them!) for consistency. Multiple yoga poses, with careful instructions for each, are shown according to elemental type, with both pictures and photographs to illustrate. Goldstein recommends exercise for health, not for weight-loss, and correctly recommends consulting your family doctor before beginning any new exercise routine.
After the diet and exercise advice, we're still less than halfway through this generous book. The following chapters deal with everything from makeup tips, clothing advice, relaxation techniques, stress management routines, self-esteem building exercises, and so much more. Although the advice is regimented into elemental type, each section is useful and interesting reading, even if the type isn't 'your' type.
What I appreciate most about this book is the constant theme that each young woman is a wonderful, special person who is unique (a tricky thing to emphasize in a book that categorizes everyone on earth into three types!). Goldstein manages to maintain, amongst all the advice, that each person knows her own body best and must listen to her body and have faith in their instincts. And she does all this in a fun, light-hearted tone that I believe most teenagers will appreciate.
While the basic philosophy and balancing techniques are credited here with Eastern origins, the philosophy espoused here is fairly simple and should, I think, be compatible with most if not all religions. Certainly, the idea of categorizing people is not new, whether it be by 'elemental' temperament or by multiple Meyer-Briggs knock-off tests or by animal comparisons, and so on.
As a bottom line, I would definitely recommend this book to young women as a colorful and enjoyable read. The advice is good enough, on the whole, and definitely more affirming and positive than the usual "you're ugly and you need to buy all our special food, makeup, clothes, and hair care products in order to rectify it" messages that seem to abound in so many of today's magazines. I do need to note, however, that the advance copy that I was sent fell apart at the spine on the same day I read it. Perhaps it was just a fluke, but it might be worth investing in the hardcover over the paperback, as those tend to be bound tighter.
NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.
~ Ana Mardoll
This attractive book, loaded with photographs and colored pages, looks very much like a combination of a popular teen magazine and a regular large-sized novel.
The basic premise of the book - that people can be divided into three 'elemental' types (Air, Fire, and Earth - oddly, no Water) and that diet, exercise, and general lifestyle recommendations can be derived from your elemental type is very straightforward, and the author is careful to point out that "everyone is unique" and that readers will need to "find the approach that works best" for them.
The book opens with descriptions of the three elemental types, along with a multiple choice quiz to determine your own elemental type. I was mildly uncomfortable with one of the questions categorizing people's skin type and color into elemental types ("I'm considered dark-skinned for my race", or "I'm pale"). It is one thing to categorize people based on metabolism, but skin color is a bit different, in my opinion. Unfortunately for myself, I scored near-equal points in all three categories. The author cautions that this can happen, and to just try to figure out my best fit apart from the quiz.
After figuring out your elemental type, the book moves on to lifestyle recommendations. Each elemental type has a detailed food list. This section is largely very good: don't eat when you're not hungry, worry about nutrition instead of weight, avoid over processed foods, eat six servings of fruits and vegetables a day, practice sensible portion control, avoid caffeine and high-sugar drinks, don't force yourself to eat things you hate, etc. Some of the specific advice is a little odd, but not overtly harmful. For instance, Air types are told to generally favor cooked vegetables to raw ones, but raw vegetables generally have more vitamins and nutrients in them. Still, getting me as a teenager to eat vegetables at all was a major accomplishment, so whatever helps.
Next comes the exercise recommendations, and the author correctly recommends that daily exercise really is a must, but that exercise should be fun and *not* painful. She recommends finding a pleasant activity (and suggests several) to engage in daily, and recommends early exercise schedules (and early bedtimes in order to stick with them!) for consistency. Multiple yoga poses, with careful instructions for each, are shown according to elemental type, with both pictures and photographs to illustrate. Goldstein recommends exercise for health, not for weight-loss, and correctly recommends consulting your family doctor before beginning any new exercise routine.
After the diet and exercise advice, we're still less than halfway through this generous book. The following chapters deal with everything from makeup tips, clothing advice, relaxation techniques, stress management routines, self-esteem building exercises, and so much more. Although the advice is regimented into elemental type, each section is useful and interesting reading, even if the type isn't 'your' type.
What I appreciate most about this book is the constant theme that each young woman is a wonderful, special person who is unique (a tricky thing to emphasize in a book that categorizes everyone on earth into three types!). Goldstein manages to maintain, amongst all the advice, that each person knows her own body best and must listen to her body and have faith in their instincts. And she does all this in a fun, light-hearted tone that I believe most teenagers will appreciate.
While the basic philosophy and balancing techniques are credited here with Eastern origins, the philosophy espoused here is fairly simple and should, I think, be compatible with most if not all religions. Certainly, the idea of categorizing people is not new, whether it be by 'elemental' temperament or by multiple Meyer-Briggs knock-off tests or by animal comparisons, and so on.
As a bottom line, I would definitely recommend this book to young women as a colorful and enjoyable read. The advice is good enough, on the whole, and definitely more affirming and positive than the usual "you're ugly and you need to buy all our special food, makeup, clothes, and hair care products in order to rectify it" messages that seem to abound in so many of today's magazines. I do need to note, however, that the advance copy that I was sent fell apart at the spine on the same day I read it. Perhaps it was just a fluke, but it might be worth investing in the hardcover over the paperback, as those tend to be bound tighter.
NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.
~ Ana Mardoll
January 22, 2011
Great book, that really surprised me. It's very logical (for example taking a bath, lowers stress), and I liked how it had a point of view rather than just saying BE yourself, it was taking a deeper look into "How do I do it?". It makes you look more into yourself and get to know yourself more. I know it sounds wierd but I think being yourself is sometimes the hardest of all. Why do you think there are so many actors/actresses today, because it's easier to step out of life and pretend than take a step and say, "Hey, who am I?". And most importantly excepting who you are. Saying "hey I'm lazy, but I'm smart", or ,"I'm critical and I'll try to change that about myself but I'm very emotional" are some things to taking charge of your life and never feeling insecure or like someone else is in the driver's seat. About body types... it says that everyone has one and there are people that vary from one to the other or have all of the three. But it DOES Not say that everyone is totaly, completely the same which would have been very unlogical. It even says at some parts once in a while, you don't have to do everything just for your one body type, everyone is special and unique and has different wants and needs. Here are the three body types:
Fire-energetic, confident,...
Air-artistic, creative, passionate...
Earth- Easy going, stable, friendly...
I think I'm more emotionaly like Air, but by looks and body like Fire. You can say I'm somewhere in between :)
I would recommend to High School and Middle School girls anywhere (it really works :))
Fire-energetic, confident,...
Air-artistic, creative, passionate...
Earth- Easy going, stable, friendly...
I think I'm more emotionaly like Air, but by looks and body like Fire. You can say I'm somewhere in between :)
I would recommend to High School and Middle School girls anywhere (it really works :))
July 20, 2010
Summary: Based on the ancient medical system of India, Ayurveda, GirlForce is a guide for young girls for body and soul. Through a series of quizzes, girls can find out their body type: Air, Fire, and Earth. Once a body type is established, the rest of the book provides a series of remedies, recipes, therapies, and programs for each body type including diet, exercise, stress management, relationships, and life balance.
Review: GirlForce is “a Girl’s Guide to the Body and Soul.” By taking quizzes, you can find what body type you are: Air, Fire, and Earth. The book is very engaging and allows the reader to discover more and more about themselves. An entertaining, informative guide for girls of all ages.
Review: GirlForce is “a Girl’s Guide to the Body and Soul.” By taking quizzes, you can find what body type you are: Air, Fire, and Earth. The book is very engaging and allows the reader to discover more and more about themselves. An entertaining, informative guide for girls of all ages.
June 16, 2013
This book makes girls feel so much better about their bodies, personalities, and style. I loved this book it gave me so many good tips according to your more dominant element (Air- creative, outgoing, smart Fire- Strong, active, competitive Earth- laid back, compassionate, devoted). I am so happy with my body now! I don't really think of my flaws anymore (even though its only been a day). And I am really excited about every aspect of life now!
Thanks so much Nikki, you have changed my point of view of myself and others. I am very excited to use these tips to help me navigate the way through life's challenges!
GirlForce is a must read for all girls! I really wish more people knew about it!
Thanks so much Nikki, you have changed my point of view of myself and others. I am very excited to use these tips to help me navigate the way through life's challenges!
GirlForce is a must read for all girls! I really wish more people knew about it!
September 23, 2013
Fun introduction to Ayurveda. Interesting concept
February 1, 2016
My post about the girlforce books: http://quirkygirllikesvintage.blogspo...
In short, loved it.
In short, loved it.
March 31, 2013
I love this book!
November 3, 2013
Such an informative book which provides great insights into everyday aspects of life.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews