Resources for the Female Child

Here are a some suggestions of useful resources to help in parenting your young female child. These are only suggestions and are provided as additional tools for your consideration and should not be construed to mean our implicit or explicit endorsement of their content. Please use your parental discretion.

Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls

by Valorie Lee Schaefer, Norm Bendell (Illustrator)

About this title: This guide to health and hygiene for preteen girls covers such subjects as acne, menstruation, bad breath, and developing healthy eating habits. Color illustrations accompany the text.

Growing Up: It’s a Girl Thing: Straight Talk about First Bras, First Periods, and Your Changing Body

by Mavis Jukes

About this title: A humorous yet informative look at the changes and pressures that adolescence brings into the lives of girls. Topics covered include getting your period, buying a bra, sexual orientation, sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, and dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. Also discussed are general health topics, eating disorders, sexual abuse, and advice on handling the temptations of drugs, smoking, and alcohol.

Ready, Set, Grow!: A What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Younger Girls

by L. Madaras

About this title: From the award-winning author of the best books on puberty comes this book written especially for girls who have a curiosity about their soon-to-be changing bodies.

American Medical Association Girl’s Guide to Becoming a Teen

by Kate Gruenwald Pfeifer, Amy B. Middleman (Editor)

About this title: Becoming a teen is an important milestone in every girl’ s life. It’s even more important to get answers and advice to the most common health issues girls face from a trusted source. The “American Medical Association Girl’s Guide to Becoming a Teen” is filled with invaluable advice to get you ready for the changes you will experience during puberty. Learn about these important topics and more: Puberty and what kinds of physical and emotional changes you can expect— from your developing body to your feelings about boys The importance of eating the right foods and taking care of your body Your reproductive system inside and out Starting your period— what it means and how to handle it Thinking about relationships and dealing with new feelings.

Growing and Changing: A Handbook for Preteens

by Kathy McCoy, Charles Wibbelsman, M.D.

About this title: For more than 15 years, “Growing and Changing” has been helping kids cope with the transformation from child to adult. This new edition of the popular guide provides authoritative answers to kids’ most frequently asked questions. Illustrations.

What’s happening to me? : The answers to some of the world’s most embarrassing questions.

by Peter Mayle, Arthur Robins

About this title: Discusses the mental and physical changes that take place during puberty.

Puberty Girl

by Shushann Movsessian

About this title: Offering a fun, sassy, and girl-power-inspired approach to understanding puberty, this beautifully packaged guide offers tweens an appealing and fresh take on entering adolescence. This celebration of maturing bodies and spirits is invariably positive, while providing factual information on menstruation, pubic hair, acne, eating disorders, and other issues essential to girls entering puberty. The emotional challenges of this stage are also addressed, including information on sexual abuse, bullying, maturation reluctance, and conflict resolution. With straightforward and conversational advice on everything from tampons to teasing, “Puberty Girl” is a trustworthy resource for girls seeking answers to embarrassing questions and looking for a way to embrace their new selves. Inspiring photographs of real girls create a sense of shared community, while instructional illustrations teach young girls about their changing bodies.

It’s Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health

by Robie H. Harris

About this title: Providing accurate, unbiased answers to nearly every imaginable question, from conception and puberty to birth control and AIDS, “It’s Perfectly Normal” offers young people the information they need–now more than ever–to make responsible decisions and to stay healthy.

What’s Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents and Daughters

by Lynda Madaras, Area Madaras, Marcia Herman-Giddens (Foreword by)

About this title: Written for pre-teens and teens (with a special introduction for their parents), this in an introduction to the physical and emotional changes most girls go through during puberty. Topic covered includes body hair, acne, sexuality, and what happens to boys during puberty. Illustrations accompany the text.

Girl Stuff: A Survival Guide to Growing Up

by Margaret Blackstone, Elissa Haden Guest, Barbara Pollak (Illustrator)

About this title: Matter-of-fact yet friendly advice for girls. Topics covered include how to buy a bra, dealing with acne, and what to wear when you have your period. Also included is information on anatomy, sexual orientation, self-defense, and how to make good friends. Illustrated with drawings.