(More Than) Grrrl Power! Girls Studies at UCF

Thirteen stars the two beautiful actresses Nikki Reed and Rachel Evan Wood. If you know these two actresses, you already know that they only star in amazing movies and they make their roles so life-like. Thirteen, directed and written by Catherine Hardwicke, was also co-written by Nikki Reed. It’s amazing how a young girl realized what other teenage girls were going through and decided to write a movie about it to show parents and teenagers how the actions in this movie will only lead to destruction. What if all girls had the opportunity to share their voices by writing a movie or a song to reach others? Last week we talked about giving young g girl’s an outlet to voice their feelings and opinions, and Nikki Reed did exactly that when she co-wrote Thirteen. This movie is a perfect movie that covers many of the issues we’ve covered in this class; drug use, stealing, teenage sexuality, self mutilation, depression, low self-esteem, and rebellion. Thirteen is about two girls, who are j...

All girls need some sort of outlet. We always have lots going on in our minds and lives, and things can get especially heavy in girlhood. If all girls were given an outlet in order to create their own cultural productions, I think it would have nothing but a positive effect. Individual girls would never have to feel as alone as they do at tiems. There would be a place for answers and self-expression when parents or best friends just don’t understand. Girls could connect and make good friends, friends that would be, as the seven-year-old feminist Ruby describes: “someone you can count on, someone who is honest with you, and someone who cares for you”. All of this could be possible, even if they were thousands of miles away. Girls could reach out for comfort when it seems nowhere to be found. Society as a whole would also benefit. It is due time that we learn to listen to children growing up in this world. They too are experiencing the changes in this world first hand, an...

If girls were taught that their voices mattered to someone, that someone somewhere will read their thoughts, will listen to their voice they will have the courage to do things they would never dream of. Take Carla Perez-Gallardo from Red , she now wants to build a high school or a university because her therapist listened to her voice encouraged her thinking, made her aware of her possibilities. Now she has great dreams and has learned that “college-should be-schools should be- where you learn to be a good person, a whole human being” (266). Also we can not overlook the fact that she was enrolled in the program that allowed for the book to be created, she was able to go to a safe space with mentors to help shape her writing and creativity. We can look to the girl who formed Ikissgirls.com we can see that she needed a space to go to for the same validation and community that Carla found, Bonnie states “I started up this site after many unsuccessful attempts to find a friendly online com...

Is it a real diary or not? This is the question I kept asking myself throughout the whole book. “Go Ask Alice,” was first published in 1971, authored under anonymous, and was depicted as the actual diary of a young girl who gets caught up in the world of drugs and eventually loses her life to them. The book was a huge success when first published and continues to captivate readers today. However, the authenticity of the diary has come into question since its first publication. According to 1979 interview of Beatrice Sparks by Alleen Pace Nilsen, Beatrice Sparks explained that the diary “Go Ask Alice” was compiled from diaries given to her by a young girl she befriended but she also added other incidents and ideas from similar cases (Horn Book Magazine). Therefore the question still remains is “Go Ask Alice” a real diary of a young girl or is most of it a work of fiction from Sparks own imagination. No one will every truly know, but I will mention when “Go Ask Alice” was first published...

"I realized there is something to be scared of - but even more to excited about changing, conquering" (Goldwasser 265). These are the words of 19-year-old Carla Perez-Gallardo who writes breathlessly of her desire to impart change in this world in her essay "To Do." I start this week's post with this quote because it speaks so acutely to the feeling I experienced when confronting my own beliefs and personhood through various creative outlets, most importantly writing. For young girls in contemporary society there is so much to fear in getting involved in communities and putting the real self 'out there' for others to see and know. Yet it is a vital part of experiencing and feeling out who exactly that 'real self' is. The importance of allowing girls to live through creativity is no more obvious than in the lit-up eyes of Ruby, the 7 and 3/4-year-old girl who has already written a book about feminism and shared her creativity with Amy Poehler and ...

Mean Girls to me was very real, yet way to exaggerated. The movie goes along with this class perfectly as it shows what girls do go through, The main thing I think about this movie and our class is body image. For my service learning I made a facebook group be You (tiful), I will be discussing this movie on there as it really ties in with the theme of body image. Mean Girls is about a girl, Cady Heron, who moved to a town and is enrolled in a new school. She is a very smart girl with a lot to offer but she ends up getting in with the “plastics”. These girls consist of Regina George, Regina George, Gretchen and Karen. Regina is the leader of the plastics. She is pretty, skinny, rich and everyone idolizes her. It reminds me of how there are clicks in high school and how everyone wants to be friends with the “it” girls and look just like them. This movie plays into media image for young girls. They watch this movie and think they need to be stick thin, beautiful, drive nice cars, have a ...

This week I felt especially drawn to the writing in Red by Dani Cox. Dani knew she was "extraordinary" from the time she was young and she made it her mission to let all the girls in the world know that they are too. I like how even though Dani realizes that there are so many bad things happening in our world today, she is certain that if we could only find the "extra in each of our ordinary lives" that we could certainly change the world. Dani says that "ordinary girls have the power to be truly extraordinary" (231), and I couldn't agree more. Ordinary girls do have the power! The power to stand up for themselves and to tell the world how it's going to be. That's why it is so important to listen to girl's voices, because they are the only ones who can really tell us what they want and need. To me, probably the greatest thing Dani said in her essay was "I understand that some girl's aren't allowed a voice, so I speak for them...

I chose to do the film review on Mean Girls because quite simply girls are mean! This movie humorously and accurately portrays the life of a teenage girl in high school. The movie stars Lindsay Lohan(who oddly enough is not the best of role models for girls) who plays Cady. Cady was raised in Africa by her parents who are zoologists in which she humorously applies the thought of survival of the fittest throughout the movie. She goes from being in the Jungle to the Jungle of high school, which is metaphoric in itself. Anyone who has ever stepped foot into a high school can attest to the theory of survival of the fittest. Cady befriends Janis and Damien, who are considered to be pretty low on the popularity totem pole. Janis could be stereotyped as a Gothic, wearing black, black hair, and dark makeup. Damien is the very feminine, gay, lovable friend. Cady being of above average beauty immediately catches the attention of the popular girls in school. These girls are known as the “Plastics...