"By 1995 American women and girls were spending more than $100 million on "cellulite busters," at $60 a tube."

"Liposuction has become the most popular kind of cosmetic surgery in the United States."

"I really had little to teach them (adolescent girl students) about what it means to live in a culture of unrelenting objectification where women's bodies are used to sell everything..."

"One million teenage girls get pregnant in America every year... only 45% of the pregnancies come to term and are cared for by the biological family."

"In America, girls under fifteen are at least five times more likely to give birth than girls of the same age in other industrialized countries."

I can go on and on with the stunning statistic given in this incredible book, about the evolution of the American girl: From corset laced to promiscuity. Joan Jacobs Brumberg uses the diaries of girls from the late 1800's to the mid-1990's as the back-bone of her incredible essay on what has happened to American teenage girls, and how

there really is a need to educate them as females.

How our culture has really "dropped the ball," figuratively speaking, in regards to training up this young women in how to be wise in their decisions as young women, how to act responsibly, think maturely, and realize that when their sexuality, being powerful, ought to be protected, and then how to protect it.

Starting with Menarche, Brumberg goes through the (rather short) list of ways young women are expected to make themselves presentable to the public (which should, more appropriately, be stated as "perfecting themselves for the ever-watching media.")

From the first signs of puberty (or menstruation) to the flaw-less skin-look; from svelte, dieting and image identity to the birth of shapeliness; from the cultural obsession with showing the pelvic bone in "trendy" jeans and swim-suits to head to near-toe piercings...

Brumberg covers all those bases which define the modern-female adolescents sexuality, how it has evolved, what America's concerns SHOULD be, and what we, as individuals can do to help the younger generation be more knowledgeable in who they are as young-feminine human beings.

(p.s. the only reason I finished this book in two days was I was, quite literally, obsessed with Brumberg's ideas, and simply captivated by the statistics and history this book is saturated in)