This empowering collection will keep even the most voracious readers busy for weeks to come!

As coronavirus shutdowns lengthen, avid readers are facing a challenge: they're running out of reading material! E-books offer an excellent solution: choose your title and it will be on your device in minutes, ready to settle in for a reading session. To help tween readers and their parents find more girl-empowering books to read during the weeks ahead, we've featured a selection of Mighty Girl middle-grade titles — all of which are available as an e-book for under $5. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top tips for parents on keeping kids engaged at home while observing social distancing.

With schools closing, events cancelled, and many companies urging employees to work from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, parents are facing an unexpected challenge. Since many of these closures overlap school March breaks, kids may not have homework to do — and even if they do, the lack of school and extracurricular activities will leave them with extra time on their hands. But that doesn't mean that parents can rely on their usual school holiday activities like playdates, playgrounds, and museum visits: as Dr. Asaf Bitton writes in Social Distancing: This Is Not A Snow Day, "even if you choose only one friend to have over, you are creating new links and possibilities for the type of transmission that all of our school/work/public event closures are trying to prevent.... We need to all do our part during these times, even if it means some discomfort for a while." Continue reading → Continue reading

"The ability to offer help is one of our greatest gifts," says Becky Hoeffler.

A Durham, North Carolina woman has stepped up to help elderly neighbors stay safe during the coronavirus threat by getting their groceries! Becky Hoeffler, a Duke University employee who's currently working from home due to the virus, was inspired to start her project when she called to check in on her grandfather. "He told me, 'I’m on my way to the grocery store' and I was just kind of concerned because he’s 91 and I thought, 'is there a reason you have to go to the grocery store?... So that’s what made me think, maybe I can go grocery shopping for others since I do live in a community that has several senior citizen neighbors." Since then, Hoeffler has helped several of her at-risk neighbors avoid crowded stores by getting their groceries on her lunch break. "I think utilizing people power is one of the best ways that we can combat the virus," she says. As Hoeffler told A Mighty Girl, "The ability to offer help is one of our greatest gifts." Continue reading → Continue reading

"'My Best Friend' is about the instant heart connection between two girls who meet for the first time."

There are few joys as simple and as profound as a child's first friendship! In the course of a few hours — without even necessarily learning one another's names — two young children can forge a close connection that is unique to early childhood. These instant and joyful friendships are powerful moments in a child's life; Publishers Weekly aptly describes them as the "giddy infatuation when a child first meets another and feels an instant bond." Continue reading → Continue reading

Two new books for tweens explore the little-discussed but widespread problem of sexual harassment in middle school.

The rise of the #MeToo movement in 2017 brought much-needed attention to the widespread problem of sexual harassment of adult women. There has been little discussion, however, about the harassment of tween and teen girls by their peers, and how the way we respond to that harassment shapes what girls and boys think is socially acceptable. With a nationwide study finding that 56% of girls in grades 7 to 12 report experiencing sexual harassment at school, authors have recently began to explore this important topic in their works for middle grade readers. And, whether read together at home or at a book club or in a classroom, such books provide an excellent opportunity for parents and educators to start timely and essential conversations about harassment and boundaries with tween girls and boys.  Continue reading → Continue reading

Many girls interviewed wanted more guidance on what to do if someone harasses them with requests for explicit photos.

A recent study has shown just how common it is for teen boys to coerce or threaten girls into sending nude pictures: an analysis of 500 accounts from 12- to 18-year-old girls about negative experiences sexting found that two-thirds of them had been asked to provide explicit images — and that the requests often progressed from promises of affection to "anger displays, harassment and threats." In an article discussing the study in The New York Times, psychologist Lisa Damour writes, "Teenagers are drafted into a sexual culture that rests on a harmful premise: on the heterosexual field, boys typically play offense and girls play defense… Most schools and many parents already tell teenagers not to send sexualized selfies. But why don't we also tell adolescents to stop asking for nude photos from one another?"  Continue reading → Continue reading

From first crushes to first dates, these tips will help you prepare your Mighty Girl for a lifetime of healthy relationships.

Maybe your Mighty Girl has started talking about a classmate with a dreamy look in her eye, maybe she and her friends giggle over a pop star or movie heartthrob, or maybe she's outright told you she wants to go on a date! "Between the ages of 10 and 13, kids start having crushes and thinking about sexuality and romance, however they envision it," says Dr. Marilyn Benoit, a child and adolescent psychiatrist — and that's uncertain territory for many parents. It's natural to wonder if she's ready to enter the dating world, or to want to protect her from a broken heart. At the same time, these early dating experiences provide an opportunity for parents to help their girls lay a framework for future healthy relationships. It's no wonder that parents are often at a loss for how to support their daughters as they enter this new phase! Continue reading → Continue reading

Greta Thunberg's leadership has inspired millions of young people to take a stand and demand action on climate change.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen activist who founded the Youth Strike for Climate Movement and was one of 2019's most influential people, turned 17 today! She began her skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate) in August 2018 as a solo protest, but today her Fridays for Future protests span the globe. An estimated 1.4 million students in 125 countries turned out for the first Global Climate Strike in March and six million people participated in September's climate strike actions that took place in 4,500 locations in 150 countries. Greta has persisted in her work to demand action from governments to address this environmental crisis, despite frequent criticism, much of it based on her age. "I agree with [my detractors], I’m too young to do this," she wrote early in 2019. "We children shouldn’t have to do this. But since almost no one is doing anything, and our very future is at risk, we feel like we have to continue." Continue reading → Continue reading

"I feel like I'm one of her sons. All I can say is, 'Thank you, Mama Lori. Thank you. I love you."

After passing out and ending up in the hospital last year, 27-year-old Jonathan Pinkard learned that he needed a heart transplant — but that he couldn't go on the transplant list because he was homeless and had no support system to help him recover. "It was a pretty scary situation to be in," Pinkard told The Washington Post. "I had no idea what I was going to do." But when he met 57-year-old ICU nurse Lori Wood, who had been assigned to care for him, his life changed forever: Wood invited him to come live with her. Today, following Wood's adoption of Pinkard last summer, the pair are officially mother and son, and Wood has been honored by the hospital for her dedication to ensuring Pinkard received the care he needed. "He would have died without the transplant," she asserted to Today. "I had to help him. It was a no-brainer." Continue reading → Continue reading

Caitlin Kirby wore a skirt made out of 17 rejection letters to her dissertation defense.

At her dissertation defense last month, Caitlin Kirby wore a one-of-a-kind, handmade skirt — made out of 17 rejection letters that she had received over the last five years! The 28-year-old Michigan State University grad student, who has spent the last 4 1/2 years working towards her PhD in environmental science and policy, says that the rejection letters had come from other PhD programs, scholarships and academic journals. Kirby says that she created and wore the skirt "in the spirit of acknowledging & normalizing failure in the process," observing that “the dissertation presentation is in this narrative form, where … it looks like everything went smoothly in my process from start to finish. So I wanted something in my presentation that shows that really isn’t how it goes. There are a lot of roadblocks along the way." Continue reading → Continue reading