Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. This is a book for parents of pre-teen and adolescent girls, to help them help their daughters deal with the challenges they face as they try to fit in and navigate the social behaviours that are imposed upon them by the social hierarchy known as "cliques".
Here's what is on the back cover:
Parents CAN make a difference in Girl World
Do you feel as though your adolescent daughter exists in a different world, speaking a different language and living by different laws? She does. This groundbreaking book takes you inside the secret world of girls' friendships, translating and decoding them, so parents can better understand and help their daughters navigate through these crucial years. Rosalind Wiseman has spent more than a decade listening to thousands of girls talk about the powerful role cliques play in shaping what they wear and say, how they feel about school, how they respond to boys, and how they feel about themselves. In this candid and insightful book, Wiseman discusses:
- Queen Bees, Wannabes, Targets, Torn Bystanders, and others: how to tell what role your daughter plays and help her be herself
- Girls' power plays, from birthday invitations to cafeteria seating arrangements and illicit parties, and how to handle them
- Good popularity and bad popularity: how cliques bear on every situation
- Hip Parents, Best-Friend Parents, Pushover Parents, and others: examine your own parenting style, "Check Your Baggage" and identify how your own background and biases affect how you relate to your daughter
- Related movies, books, websites, and organizations: a carefully annotated resources section provides opportunities to follow up on your own and with your daughter
Enlivened with the voices of dozens of girls and parents and a welcome sense of humor, Queen Bees and Wannabes is compelling reading for parents and daughters alike. A conversation piece and a reference guide, it offers tools you need to help your daughter feel empowered and make smarter choices.
One thing that I've noticed as I'm reading through this book, is the astonishing similarity between what is being described as the social hierarchy of adolescent girls to what I observed among JWs (which has been confirmed many times over by people on this forum) as a JW, and the social hierarchy that exists in congregations/circuits etc. Even the act of shunning or excluding people is included as part of this dynamic.
If anyone is interested, I'll post some excerpts as I go through the book.
Love, Scully