Liz Funk

This book is an amazing insight into the double standards that society sets up for young women from early high school through post undergraduate years. Funk conducts hundreds of interviews with young, overachieving women, and critically analyzes the issues they face and why they feel the need to overcompensate for their gender. She talks about the dangerous consequences of overachieving, such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and exhaustion. This is an important read for undergraduate women all over the country; it is a thought provoking and startling research novel. Read it, learn from it, and help teach others about the negative effects double standards for women have.… (más)

Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com

What is a Supergirl?

They're the high school class president with the constantly shiny hair who applied to over twenty Ivy League schools and always brings homemade goods to every bake sale. They're the college girl involved in a million clubs who shows up five minutes before the 8 a.m. class with no signs of her late night out, followed by many more hours of studying. They're the gotta-have-it-all twenty-something who busted her butt in college and is already on the same level as women ten years older in her field.

They're any girl who has packed her schedule, keeping herself busy with volunteer activities, who always manages to look perfect, regardless of how tired, stressed, or anxious she feels.

This is the plight of the Supergirls, the slew of young women who have decided that nothing short of perfection will do. By following the stories of five overachievers from different walks of life, and interviewing almost a hundred more, this book examines the lives of these girls to find out why they feel this need for perfection, and what they can possibly do to avoid the eventual burnout.

This book disappointed me by placing most of the blame on faceless entities such as "societal conditioning," rather than offering more concrete advice to young women who may be stuck in this harmful cycle of achievement and compliment addiction. Regardless, the stories in this book were an interesting foray into the psyche of a population that is often stereotyped and ignored, for the simple reason that "they have it all; how can anything be wrong in their lives?"… (más)

Overall, I think this book is a nice resource for young girls who need to understand where their endless drive for perfection comes from and how they can begin to cope with and change it. It isn’t the end-all be-all, but Funk doesn’t intend it to be. Supergirls Speak Out is a conversation starter that I would recommend for young women and their parents and for anyone who wants to start understanding the women of Generation Y.

Read my full review at rel="nofollow" target="_top"> The Book Lady's Blog. … (más)