As Rachel Simmons toured the country, these girls found their voices and spoke to her about their pain. They wanted to talk, and they weren’t the only ones. Parents, teachers, counselors, and young women came to Rachel with heart-wrenching personal stories that could no longer be kept secret.

Here, Rachel creates a safe place for girls to talk, sound off, and find each other. The result is a collection of deeply personal accounts of the lives of adolescent girls. Candid and disarming, creative and expressive, and always exceptionally self-aware, these poems, songs, confessions, and essays form a journal of American girlhood. They illuminate both the power of cruelty and the inspiring resilience of the girls it has marked. Odd Girl Out helped girls find their voices; Odd Girl Speaks Out helps them tell their stories.