Author addresses girls’ issues

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

Mahoning County teachers, social workers and counselors learned about problems facing young girls and teenagers and the resulting behaviors from the woman who wrote the book on the topic.

Rosalind Wiseman was the featured speaker via Skype on Friday at “Everything Girls,” a seminar at Antone’s Banquet Center hosted by Mahoning County Juvenile Court and the Mahoning County Juvenile Court Advisory Board.

Wiseman wrote the bestseller “Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and the New Realities of Girl World.” It inspired the movie, “Mean Girls” starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams.

The seminar was an education and training opportunity for school, court and social-service agency personnel.

Girls and those who deal with them need to understand there’s a difference between bullying and drama or conflicts, Wiseman said.

“Bullying is stripping somebody of their dignity or self-respect, saying you don’t have a right to exist because of who you are,” she said.

Drama or conflicts are when things are going both ways between those involved.

Though young people can’t prevent conflicts from happening around them, they can learn to control themselves and their behavior within a conflict, not allowing themselves to be goaded into fighting, for example, to entertain others.

Wiseman believes the adage “respect your elders” does many young people a disservice.

“Why should they respect their elders if their elders abused power?” she said. “Young people and girls disengage because adults encourage them to respect people who have abused other people.”

Other speakers at Friday’s seminar dealt with girls in foster care, girls’ brains and motivational interviewing.