The Return of OGO: Announcing the Newly Revised & Updated Odd Girl Out!
Hi everyone! I am thrilled to announce that a brand new and completely revised edition of Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls is coming out in just one month.I wrote OGO (as my friends and I like to call it - don't you want to call it that, too? I'm trying to start a trend here, people) a decade ago. So much has changed since then, both in girl world and my own life.Let's start with me: when I wrote OGO, it was as a journalist telling a story. Little did I know that I would become part of the story itself. Instead of going to law school as planned, I began working with schools and co-founded the Girls Leadership Institute. I've learned and created so much over these ten years -- and now, all of it is the new OGO!
The new edition contains a decade of strategies, insights and wisdom I have gathered while teaching and living with girls, working with schools, interviewing administrators, and coaching parents. In four new chapters, readers will get down-to-earth tools to help a girl survive one of the most painful events of her life. I share the lessons I learned the hard way and best practices I collected from extraordinary colleagues.
Then there's the changes in girl world. When I first wrote Odd Girl Out, there was no texting, no Facebook, no cell phone cameras, no video chats. Today, as we all know, girl bullying has gone digital. Cell phones and computers have become a new kind of bathroom wall, giving users the ability to destroy relationships and reputations with a few clicks. Social media has been a game changer, transforming the landscape of girl bullying.Technology has also altered girls’ everyday relationships, indeed girls’ very sense of self. There is now a seamless integration between girls’ virtual and real lives, and this new era of BFF 2.0 has brought both blessing and curse. On the one hand, cell phones and social networking sites like Facebook allow girls to connect in exhilarating new ways. On the other hand, Facebook makes many girls anxious, jealous and even paranoid about their friendships.With a few clicks, girls can see photographs of parties they were excluded from, or conversations they were not invited to join. Cell phones are posing thorny new questions about friendship, such as: Is my friend mad at me if I text her and she doesn’t reply? Why is she texting while I’m talking to her?
This new edition guides readers through the sprawling world girls now inhabit online. I explain the ins and outs of cyberbullying and explore the more common cyberdrama, or day-to-day conflicts and confusion that social media can ignite. I share concrete advice on how to guide girls through the new challenges they are facing.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be blogging about the new book and sharing some of the strategies and stories you’ll find in it. I’m so psyched to share it with you after all these years. Let me know if there’s anything in particular you want to see me write about.Happy summer and see you next week.PS You can pre-order OGO right now!