The 25th anniversary edition of the iconic book, revised and updated
for 21st-century adolescent girls and their families.**
In 1994, Reviving Ophelia was published, and it shone a much-needed
spotlight on the problems faced by adolescent girls. The book became
iconic and helped to reframe the national conversation about what author
Mary Pipher called "a girl-poisoning culture" surrounding adolescents.
Fast forward to today, and adolescent girls and the parents, teachers,
and counselors who care about them find themselves confronting many of
the same challenges Pipher wrote about originally as well as new ones
specific to today.
Girls still struggle with misogyny, sexism, and issues of identity and
self-esteem. But they're also more isolated than ever before: They don't
talk face-to-face to the people around them, including their peers, as
they used to: They're texting or on social media for hours at a time.
And while girls today are less likely to be in trouble for their
drinking or sexual behavior, they have a greater chance of becoming
depressed, anxious, or suicidal.
In this revised and updated Reviving Ophelia, Pipher and her daughter,
Sara Pipher Gilliam (who was a teenager at the time of the book's
original publication), have incorporated these new issues for a
21st-century readership. In addition to examining the impact that social
media has on adolescent girls' lives today, Pipher and Gilliam explore
the rising and empowering importance of student activism in girls'
lives, the wider acceptance of diverse communities among young people,
and the growing disparities between urban and rural, rich and poor, and
how they can affect young girls' sense of self-worth. With a new
foreword and afterword and chapters that explore these topics, this new
edition of Reviving Ophelia builds on the relevance of the original as
it provides key insights into the challenges and opportunities facing
adolescent girls today.
The approach Pipher and Gilliam take in the new edition is just what it
was in the original: a timely, readable combination of insightful
research and real-world examples that illuminate the challenges young
women face and the ways to address them. This updated Reviving Ophelia
looks at 21st century adolescent girls through fresh eyes, with insights
and ideas that will help new generations of readers.
