LITERATURE

In her New York Times bestseller Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, Rachel Simmons was the first to explore the phenomenon of female bullying. Now, she exposes the myth of the Good Girl, a myth that diminishes girls’ power and potential by teaching them to accept only an artificial and very limited version of selfhood.

Unerringly polite, nice, modest, and selfless, the Good Girl paradigm is so narrowly defined it’s unachievable. With self-esteem tied to perfection, girls are unable to know, express and manage a complete range of feelings. The need to be “perfect” leaves girls uncomfortable with feedback and failure, making it difficult to recover from even minor setbacks.

Rachel Simmons is the Founding Director of the Girls Leadership Institute, a summer program for middle and high school girls. She currently serves as a consultant to schools around the country, and works internationally with girls, parents, and teachers to develop strategies to address bullying and empower girls. A 1998 graduate of Vassar College, she won a Rhodes Scholarship from New York and attended Oxford University, where she began her study of female aggression.