Strong, Smart, and Bold: Empowering Girls for Life

The pressures a girl experiences growing up today are more intense than ever before. There are gender stereotypes to buck. Narrow expectations to contend with. Conflicting messages to make sense of. A girl is told that it's important to excel in school and pursue a career but that she should also keep her voice down, watch her weight, and make sure that everyone else around her is happy.

Strong, Smart, and Bold shows parents and caregivers how to raise a confident, courageous, and self-sufficient girl. Based on the successful approach of Girls Inc., the nation's leading empowerment organization for girls -- which improves the lives of girls through its programs, research, and advocacy -- the book offers proven techniques and compelling success stories to bring out a girl's spirit as early as possible and to give her the self-assurance she needs to thrive in an increasingly complex and pressured world. Strong, Smart, and Bold presents interactive activities that will help equip a girl with the important knowledge, key life skills, and confidence to accomplish her goals.

• A recent Girls Inc. survey found that girls experience stereotypes that limit:
• Their right to be themselves and resist gender stereotypes (60 percent)
• Their right to accept and appreciate their bodies (62 percent)
• Their right to express themselves with originality and enthusiasm (52 percent)
• Their right to take risks, strive freely, and take pride in success (50 percent)
• Their right to have confidence in themselves and to be safe in the world (54 percent)

The Girls Inc. Girls' Bill of Rights, which is the foundation of this book, helps a girl understand that she is entitled to be valued and respected at home, at school, and in her community.

A dynamic approach to raising a healthy and assured woman, Strong, Smart, and Bold empowers a girl to be her own best advocate and inspires her to discover, hold on to, and be proud of who she is.

Carla Fine is the author of five books, including No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One and Married to Medicine: An Intimate Portrait of Doctors' Wives. She lives in New York City with her husband, Allen Oster, and their two Labrador retrievers, Sancho and Rosie.