Adolescents

RESILIANCE Kit for Teen Girls

Resources | EVERGREEN AND ANTI-BULLSHIT

This is not an exhaustive collection. It's focused on our girls. Our world is eating our children for profit. Start here to give yourself or the girls you know some inner wisdom and the moxy to refuse to comply. Resources coming soon for boys who might rebel against the toxic elements of neo-patriarchal masculinity.

Personal Resiliance, Solution Focused

The book Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher is from the 90s but, since structures have only intensified it’s still vital, it’s tender and funny and here’s the anniversary edition co-authored with her daughter.

Our Bodies, Our Selves, everything most education and medicine will not tell you about your creature self.

Esmée's review of In a Human Voice focuses on how patriarchy shatters relationship and the parts of ourselves we need to protect from it in order to live whole, and how to resist that in ourselves

Video interview with Carol Gilligan – best 30 mins of a day – who is the grandmother of relation psychology, author of In A Human Voice linked just above – figured out how girls who are big personalities are made small to be accepted, and how boys who are whole and real are made hard and empty, and how to shift that in our lives.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, mythographer, psychologist, Women Who Run with the Wolves, (all her books really are about aspects of being a girl-woman-elder) and her podcasts are really good - still way relevant – video pod of a reader giving all the chapters. Esmée’s dad gave her this book for her 16th birthday and it saved her – or SoundsTrue has audio books.

The Tiffany Aching (or Wee Free Men) series by Sir Terry Pratchett is a terrific buildungsroman for a girl-to-woman story in which our girl does not have to shrink to become a grown woman – a fave-fave

Therese is sharp on everything fuckery in the current moment.

This Substack gets at how subtle and deep socialization really goes in people, how deeply instinctive some behaviors become.

This British woman is deadpan funny and broadly feminist in her takes on cultural trends and makes us feel less insane.

Burned Haystack Dating Method – red and green flags in the dating scene, on apps, etc

Rites for Girls – community and support, might be aimed a little young for her, but a woman psychologist leads it and the girls become each other’s support and coaches

Porn, like social media, is the big marker of a generation gap. Most parents did not grow up in a world where porn was just in the air. This conversation at Culture Reframed explains a lot! Collective Shout is also a excellent resource on pornography in our cultures. Ditto for Fight the New Drug.

Maybe a Coach?

Interview Her First, but trusted external advice can be really helpful.

Maybe a session once in a while with Jaclyn who works with Medusa Rising now. She’s got a good generally feminist bent on her coaching. And she knows when she doesn't know.

Online, Feminist, Women Only Communities

Copy these into a browser. Totally worth the extra step.
Vexxed.org
Raddish.world
ClovenHooves.org

All these are Reddit style feminist communities. Neither is particularly teen-focused, but they are intergenerational and diverse. And I have seen almost no condescension to younger women.

Great Substacks

The Anti-Cosmetic Surgery Essay Every Woman Should Read. It shows gentleness understanding and real clarity about the pressures on young women.

Selling trauma: how social media promotes mental illness. The insecurity pressed into our girls buy advertising and influencers (but we repeat ourselves) is not natural. Discovering yourself is a weird process, but it doesn’t have to hurt like this.

Jessica Valenti stays on top of everything sexual/reproductive health and politics.

A note on another ‘stack from Medusa Rising. In fact if a girl follows the ‘stacks Medusa follows, she’ll have good company.

Two Fave Pods

Interviews with major living feminists of all generations. Subject to Power.

More 101 conversations, one topic each, deeply researched. Chat in the Commons.

More General

Liberating Motherhood – some honesty about what’s a red flag in a man’s behavior, among other aspects of adulthood

Culture Reframed – is great on sex, porn, body image, lots of education on how not to get sucked in to playing to fantasies boys don’t have just on their own.

@jessbritvitch – IG/TT great breakdowns on modern manifestations of patriarchal structure and behaviors, while putting on her makeup (which is pretty standard for the genre).

RAINN — how to protect against TESA (tech enabled sexual abuse) , this is a whole new way for men to abuse women and girls, and it’s one that many parents know little about. They need educating. RAINN is a US-based sexual violence support network.

Total Woman Victory (v international and socialist) – and their Discord Server are brave and warm and smart as hell.

The book Before War by Elisha Daeva consolidates, fills in, and solidifies a lot of the deep history about the civilizations before what we call civilization. Humans have, and therefore can, live in other ways.

Suppressed Histories videos on YouTube, for deep grounding because women have long histories everywhere on Earth.