• more about #adacalhoun more comments →
    Beets.Go.On is the Fat Yogini: Meh, I wanted to be a brain surgeon when I was a tween, but I still asked for Tyra's guide to beauty and a subscription to Seventeen Magazine for Chri... more »
    Liz11685: I don't understand the appeal of books like these except as gag gifts for older people. When I was a preteen I guess I was too busy having bad hair a... more »
    Molly Crabapple: When I was 12, I read Catcher in the Rye, Marquis de Sade, Brave New World, Susan Faludi, and about a million books on being pretty (including ones ac... more »
    happysquid: My #1 hits from age 12: the Animorphs series, all of those The Dark is Rising books, Girl with the Silver Eyes, Dinotopia, the Freddy the Pig series, ... more »
    SarahMC: The problem, as I see it, is not necessarily that this book exists, but that there is a whole group of girls out there whose shelves are stocked only ... more »
    indprod: You know what's tough? You have to just let your kids explore stuff and not over-react to anything. Kids go through phases and grow in and out of th... more »
    truckasaurus: Can we get a book that tells girls they can be pretty, smart AND capable? Somehow even then I fear the book that tries to accomplish that will come ou... more »
    Olesja Lapteva: > Right. Except the ones who aren't. At that age, 'being attractive' was the last thing on my mind. I was too busy riding horses, volunteering at t... more »
    ellaesther: Oh, and it bears noting that while it is true that "girls aged 10-15 are very concerned with being attractive," so are boys. more »
    SarahMC: I don't know what I'd do if my kid didn't have an interest in reading. Or if he/she only had an interest in reading incredibly shallow nonsense (i.e. ... more »
    ellaesther: This kind of thing makes me so worried, though I will admit that I may be transferring my own anxieties onto my daughter. She's good at math, absolute... more »
    puppy_plz: "Be confidant" lolz us girls are so glamorous but can't spell. Danica McKellar, Sally Jeffrie: gurl pwr, ur doin it rong. more »
    taranwanderer: Ok, actually, it's books like this that made me want to go into publishing in the first place. Let me back up... I was a giant tomboy when I was young... more »
    prettycool: To make myself feel special at twelve, my mom let me buy a book of spells, an encyclopedia on dreams, and a pack of tarot cards. putting on copious am... more »
    haguenite: I guess this is also the moment to admit that I own Three Black Skirts and that for all the crap it says about wardrobe and hair and whatnot it's also... more »
  • #tweenagewasteland

    Do 12-Year-Old Girls Ever Need To Be "Fabulous"?

    Babble's Ada Calhoun is appalled by a new tween book called The Girls’ Book of Glamour: A Guide to Being a Goddess. "The jacket flap copy on the girls’ book. Be confidant. Be glamorous…