Telling Stories Never Fails To

Girls Have Long Been Evaluated On The Basis Of Appearance And Caught In Myriad Double Binds: Achieve, But Not Too Much, Be Polite,but Be Yourself, Be Feminine And Adult; Be Aware Of Our Cultural Heritage, But Don't Comment On The Sexism. . . . Girls Are Trained To Be Less Than Who They Really Are. They Are Trained To Be What The Culture Wants Of Its Young Women, Not What They Themselves Want To Become.

True Freedom Has More To Do With Following The North Star Than Going Whichever Way The Wind Blows. Sometimes It Seems Like Freedom Is Blowing With The Winds Of The Day, But That Kind Of Freedom Is Really An Illusion. It Turns Your Boat In Circles. Freedom Is Sailing Toward Your Dreams.

Teenage Girls Are Extremists Who See The World In Black-and- White Terms, Missing Shades Of Gray. Life Is Either Marvelous Or Notworth Living. School Is Either Pure Torment Or Is Going Fantastically. Other People Are Either Great Or Horrible, And They Themselves Are Wonderful Or Pathetic Failures. One Day A Girl Will Refer To Herself As "the Goddess Of Social Life" And The Next Day She'll Regret That She's The "ultimate In Nerdosity.

Adolescents' Immature Thinking Makes It Difficult For Them To Process The Divorce. They Tend To See Things In Black-and-white Terms And Have Trouble Putting Events Into Perspective. They Are Absolute In Their Judgments And Expect Perfection In Parents. They Are Likely To Be Self-conscious About Their Parent's Failures And Critical Of Their Every Move. They Have The Expectations That Parents Will Keep Them Safe And Happy And Are Shocked By The Broken Covenant. Adolescents Are Unforgiving.

Adolescence Is A Time When Children Are Supposed To Move Away From Parents Who Are Holding Firm And Protective Behind Them. When The Parents Disconnect, The Children Have No Base To Move Away From Or Return To. They Aren't Ready To Face The World Alone. With Divorce, Adolescents Feel Abandoned, And They Are Outraged At That Abandonment. They Are Angry At Both Parents For Letting Them Down. Often They Feel That Their Parents Broke The Rules And So Now They Can Too.