Status Updates From Queen Bees and Wannabes: He...

This has been a wild ride so far. I’m reading it as part of a book club lead by the middle school director at my daughters’ school. I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise. Not everything applies or is my lived experience, or my daughters’ thus far but that’s how these things usually go.
I like how she’s addressed racism in beauty standards.

Well, I didn't really look at this book before grabbing it up on Libby. This is actually a parenting book. (We just watched Mean Girls and saw that it was based on this book, my knee-jerk reaction "I shouldn't read this!" 🤦‍♀️) I probably should have read this when my girls were still in school!

I’m going to look at this from the perspective of a teenager rather than treating it as a piece of literature. The advice in this book is extremely idealistic: it assumes that a teenager is easily consolable, admits to their mistakes, and that their perception of reality won’t be skewed by their emotions. While well intended and most certainly in-depth, Wiseman is incredibly unrealistic in her approach.

Honestly a rather enjoyable read. The writing is enjoyable and flows well. I am definitely not the target audience, but I like it. It’s an eye opening book and I find myself wondering how many adults in my life have used its methods against me

This book is all about how to navigate the “mean girl” experience for teenagers. So far I think this book it worth it, especially, for educators who work with teenage girls.

I'm seeing the author, Rosalind Wiseman, at a conference tomorrow, so that inspired me to get the background on one of the most influential movies of my own adolescence (Mean Girls). Anyways, can't wait to find out if the solution to difficult social situations for young girls is comparing them to hyenas.

The article that Tina read that inspired her: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/24/ma...

"girl world" and having rules about what you can wear on each day of the week are direct quotes from teens in this book 🤯

we love some script research

i didn’t know short stories counted as books???

i’ve been wanting to read this for SO LONG.

I've gotta bail on this book. It feels so long. Not for me.

Y’all are probably thinking, “Ava, you don’t have kids,” but this is the book mean girls is based on so naturally I have to listen to it

Okay, this heterosexual questionnaire mind of makes up for the outdated terms. "When and where did you realize you were heterosexual?" "Maybe you just need a good gay experience."

Oof, I'm sure this was progressive at the time, but we've got some really outdated ideas about gender and sexuality here. Does anyone still use the term "transsexual"?

I am reminded of how silly I found adolescent dating in middle school. Turns out I was right. 🤣

It would be interesting to see how things have changed as far as the "equalizer" goes within Gen Z (and maybe in Alpha since they're now reaching that age as well) being that they seem less inclined towards drug use than previous generations.

It was a lot easier to follow these hypotheticals when there WEREN'T names - the one with "TMG" was the last clear example.

Up until recently I felt like a lot of her suggestions to parents were smart and savvy... but some of the recommendations in the most recent chapter made me cringe a bit. Perhaps some of this can be attributed to changes in what's socially acceptable and how parents are raising their children 20 years after the publication of this book... Maybe an updated version is in order?

I wanted to read this because I'd learned that Mean Girls was "based" on this, not realizing that it wasn't a fictional book. Its a little weird since I don't actually have a daughter, but it reminds me a bit of the ethnographies I read in college, particularly in my Ethnography of Education class. I'm continuing with it out of anthropological interest and because I have friends and family members with daughters.

Def out of date

37 minutes of introduction. i think i would rather be listening to game of thrones :) i really want to find a good parenting book to show my parents because i am confused why i am pushing them away

Let's talk about the boys' roles in sexting. To some boys the collection and exchange of sexts is basically the teenaged version of baseball card trading. It's all about the chase,a bout eliciting sexts from the elusive hot girls. And it's about boys having power over one another--as one boy put it to me, "I have the Derek Jeter card and you don't."

YOU: "Lauren, why do you think I'm flipping out?"
LAUREN: "I didn't do anything, and you're acting like I killed your dog!"
YOU: "I'm telling you that I don't like it when you embarrass me around Mike and Jack."
LAUREN: "OMG! I am totally not doing that! You are being so overly sensitive!"

Have you noticed that some girls will use any excuse to dress up in sexy costumes? Halloween is the most obvious example, but girls will do it whenever they feel they can get away with it. Note that I don't mean get away with it with you but with their peers.

"Look, we made an agreement about how you could post things onto the Internet. I know what you did was an honest mistake, but it's important to take responsibility for your actions. To the best of your ability, you are going to remove the post. You are also going to ask your friends if anyone forwarded it to any other social networking site and you're going to do whatever you cant o pull that down as well."

Getting to the boring parental stuff

This is nonfiction...like a thick book. This is going to be a slow burn...the things I do to finish this manuscript 😅

OMG white privilege.