Girls on the Brink

July 4, 2022
This clarion call by science journalist Jackson Nakazawa (The Angel and the Assassin) explores threats to girls’ mental health. The author examines the reasons behind the uptick in depression in girls over the last decade by telling the stories of three young women in their early 20s—Anna, Deleicea, and Julia—and offers parenting advice on how to counteract negative influences. Anna’s cliquish high school dovetailed with unrealistic beauty standards on TV shows to give her low self-esteem, a process the author elucidates with research showing girls have stronger harmful biological reactions to social threats than boys do. She also details the dangers posed by social media, noting that “the more time a teenage girl spends on social media platforms, the more likely she is to develop depressive symptoms” and describing how Julia felt compelled by the incentives of social media to sexualize herself when she was still a preteen. To help parents guide their daughters through these pitfalls, the author provides 15 “antidotes” that include helping daughters discover a “sense of something bigger” and encouraging them to pursue their passions. The smart analysis and wealth of neuroscientific and psychological research adds nuance to public discourse around girls’ mental health, and the three profiles drive home the human stakes of these societal problems. Timely and incisive, this issues an acute warning that the kids are not alright.

Starred review from July 15, 2022
How to help girls deal with the many toxic elements of contemporary society. Jackson Nakazawa, the author of The Angel and the Assassin and Childhood Disrupted, opens with a disturbing note: "When we look at the mental health of American girls today, one thing becomes clear: We as a society are failing pretty miserably....One out of four adolescent girls reports suffering from symptoms of major depression compared with fewer than one in ten boys." This stark assessment sets the tone for the author's incisive analysis of the causes of the stress, anxiety, and depression that American girls are experiencing at an unprecedented rate. Of course, social media plays an outsized role, as girls constantly compare their lives with others online--even though those portrayed lives are often grossly misleading. Jackson Nakazawa cites research into the roles that genes play during pregnancy and how parental stresses in early childhood can affect a girl's ability to handle adversity. Furthermore, girls are reaching puberty at earlier ages, causing undue stress and anxiety about body image. Jackson Nakazawa chronicles her interviews with numerous young women, giving readers a firsthand perspective on the many difficult issues they face, and she offers 15 strategies for how to work with girls, giving them the tools they need to navigate an often misogynistic society. These include seeking the help of mentors and mental health professionals, figuring out how to "dial back on evaluating your daughter," and learning how to "create routine, ritual, and structure--including a family media plan." Outside of the family, the author "wants to see men--especially those in powerful roles...wake up to the reality of the fear girls experience growing up female in a world dominated by sexism and male power." All of the author's advice is sound, and her insights into how to start the process of change make this an important book for parents of girls. A perceptive, informative examination of the problems young American girls face and how to change them.

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