American Girls

Starred review from February 15, 2016
This intelligent, history-grounded investigation by journalist Sales (The Bling Ring) finds dismaying evidence that social media has fostered a culture "very hostile" to girls in which sexism, harassment, and cyberbullying have become the "new normal," along with the "constant chore" of tailoring one's image for public consumption and approval. With self-awareness and candor, her interview subjects, ages 13 to 19, clearly articulate the ways in which "social media is a nightmare," a strange "half-reality" that produces self-consciousness, narcissism, image obsession, anxiety, depression, loneliness, drama, and "the overwhelming pressure to be perfect" or at least "to be considered âhot.'â" Teens value social media as a revolutionary tool for collective action, but Sales finds that across race, class, and region, social media reinforces a sexual double standard; its use reduces communication skills, and its users exhibit continual disrespect for women hand-in-hand with "an almost total erosion of privacy." She deftly analyzes the causes of this phenomenon of self-objectificationâamong them the "pornification of American life," the hypersexualization of teens, and broader trends towards impulse gratificationâas well as its consequences, including rising rates of STDs, self-harm, exploitation, and a deterioration in girls' ability to cultivate relationships, intimacy, and a rich interior life. Solutions will be difficult, but Sales's research demonstrates that parental involvement is key to inoculating girls against the "insidious" effects of online life. Parents, educators, administrators, and the purveyors of social media platforms should all take note of this thoughtful, probing, and urgent work.

February 15, 2016
What happens to teenage girls when their social lives play out online? Teenagers have always excelled in befuddling their parents and teachers. While it's an embraced cliche for parents to discuss how different things were when they were that age, it's undeniable that social media has profoundly influenced the experience of teens in ways that older generations find difficult to comprehend. In her second book, journalist Sales (The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World, 2013) provides an excellent primer for understanding how the crucible of adolescence has moved to the digital world. This is not the first such book, but Sales impressively balances the specifics of what is happening online currently with the broader implications for boys and girls--no simple task given the rapidly shifting digital landscape, with the next big thing consistently eclipsing the popular medium of the moment. It would be easy to suggest that, despite the different battlefield, the kids are going through the same things kids have always gone through. But the author makes a compelling case for understanding the differences in both the quantity and quality of today's online dangers. Having interviewed dozens of teenagers--mostly female--she explores a wide range of topics involving body image, the ways boys treat girls, the ways girls treat girls, and the different forms of competition generated by seemingly endless online arenas. Sales delves into the debate about which ideas constitute feminist empowerment and which are more misogynistic ploys to sell empowerment to girls while simultaneously endangering them. The author discovered that, despite conflicting statistics, there's an extremely high likelihood that most teenagers have watched pornography online--or will soon. Sales takes a broader view than simply being the scold of technology; she spoke with teens who point out the empowerment possibilities of a smartphone: being able to document injustices as they happen and broadcast them to the world. For parents with young daughters, this book is an ice-cold, important wake-up call.

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March 15, 2016

Descend with Sales (The Bling Ring) into a world where sexism, pornography, and self-absorption spawn an atmosphere of one-upmanship, cyberbullying, slut shaming, and wretched hookups. These interviews with teens will arouse readers' tears, anger, and revulsion. Yet, the sample of youth Sales interviews, mostly in New Jersey, may not be representative of the United States in general. Nearly all Sales's subjects own iPhones, and there is no mention of the digital divide. Fears of phone confiscation during school hours aren't mentioned despite many schools' documented policies preventing the devices in the classroom. Moreover, Sales only interviews college students during alcohol-soaked vacations and doesn't back up her claim that sexism creates "social media Hell." The author's counterexamples show that sexism is too closely tied to individual perception for mass generalization. Readers also should consider Dana Boyd's It's Complicated, which offers a nuanced treatment of online conflict among teens, Jane Bailey and Valerie Stevens's Egirls, Ecitizens, a scholarly treatment of teenage Internet culture, and Leora Tannenbaum's I Am Not a Slut. VERDICT Although Sales sets forth a weak methodology and conclusion, her latest offering is still a compelling read for teens and those who work with them, giving voice to those who might not be heard otherwise.--Eileen H. Kramer, Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Clarkston

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016
In swinging for a Reviving Opheliatype blockbuster, pop-culture journalist Sales has certainly chosen a flashpoint topic: the all-consuming social media that, with every favorite and like, builds a warped mirror maze around our nation's girls. Sales weaves in everything from the history of cameras and the sagging of the 1990s girl-power movement to cyberbullying and body dysmorphia, but the book's calling card is its refrain: the real-life teens (and preteens) whose hanging-at-the-mall interactions Sales transcribes with heartbreaking fidelity. Theirs is a 24-hour marathon of posting carefully edited pictures to fish for approval, deliberating over the call for nudes from boys whose Axe Body Spray can be smelled through the phone, and desperately wanting to be a cool girl rather than a prude. It's all here: MILFs, dick pics, smizing, fuckboys, doxing, belfies, and twatching, much of which plays out on social networks parents have never heard of. Despite Sales' tendency to panic, the girls profiled emerge as oddly heroic: struggling, persevering, and thriving through what Sales calls a kind of unease, a sort of buzzing, rushing, anxious state. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Current enough to include October 2015 developments, this volume is being rushed to presswith a 150,000 first printing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)