NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The parenting classic that inspired Mean Girls, now fully revised and updated with new material on gender expression, cancel culture, social media, and bullying based on feedback from today’s teenagers More than twenty years ago,
Queen Bees and Wannabes let parents inside the secret world of their adolescent daughters’ female relationships, giving us a new vocabulary for these fickle social dynamics as well as invaluable strategies for helping our daughters navigate them. Since then, nationally recognized thought leader and speaker Rosalind Wiseman has interviewed and listened to thousands of girls talk about the powerful role cliques play in shaping what they wear and say, how they respond to boys, and how they feel about themselves.
This fully revised and greatly updated edition of this parenting classic now reflects the pressures unique to today’s girls—including the role that social media and gender as a spectrum play in adolescent life. With input and stories from dozens of girls experiencing these dynamics today, Wiseman takes readers into “Girl World” to analyze teasing, gossip, and reputations; beauty and fashion; alcohol and drugs; boys and sex; and more, plus how cliques play a role in every situation.
Full of sample scripts, strategies, and pointed advice, this book will equip adults with all the tools needed to build the right foundation to help a young woman make smarter choices and empower her during this baffling, tumultuous time of life.
Rosalind Wiseman is a teacher, thought leader and bestselling author. As the co-founder of Cultures of Dignity, she works with educators, students, administrators, and parents around the world on the physical and emotional wellbeing of young people. She wrote Queen Bees & Wannabees, the book that inspired the hit movie and musical "Mean Girls," Masterminds & Wingmen, as well as Owning Up: Empowering Adolescents to Confront Social Cruelty, Bullying, and Injustice, a new curriculum for middle and high school students.
“Wise, humorous, life-affirming advice for parents that is utterly respectful of girls. I recommend parents mark it up, turn the corners of pages, and heed Wiseman’s creative and practical strategies for guiding girls along the sometimes treacherous pathways of growing up today.
Queen Bees and Wannabes is Mapquest for parents of girls, from fifth grade all the way to young adulthood.”
—Patricia Hersch, author of A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence “Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s cool? Who’s not? Why is one girl elevated to royal status and another shunned?
Queen Bees and Wannabes answers these unfathomable questions and so many more. Wiseman gives parents the insight, compassion, and skill needed to guide girls through the rocky terrain of the adolescent social world. This is such an honest and helpful book; we recommend it highly.”
—Nina Shandler, author of Ophelia’s Mom and Sara Shandler, author of the bestselling Ophelia Speaks “Laced with humor, insight, and practical suggestions,
Queen Bees and Wannabes is the one volume that’s been missing from the growing shelf of girl-centered publications. Wiseman explains the inner workings of teen culture and teaches parents, educators, and peers how to respond.”—
Whitney Ransome and Meg Miln Moulton, executive directors, National Coalition of Girls’ Schools “Wiseman cuts through wishful parental thinking with a wonderful mixture of humor, facts, girls’ voices, and a healthy dollop of reality. No, the harm cliques cause is not a natural fact of life. Wiseman gives us both hope and strategies to help our girls (and boys) build a more healthy, nurturing world for themselves.”
—Joe Kelly, author of Dads and Daughters: How to Inspire, Understand and Support Your Daughter When She's Growing Up So Fast, and executive director, Dads and Daughters “Rosalind Wiseman invites us into the ‘Girl World’ with insight, honesty, and humor. Based on the most thorough, helpful research I know of, this book should be required reading for parents, teachers, and health professionals.”
—Edes P. Gilbert, acting president, Independent Educational Services
