How “Girl Books” Could Save the World (Or at Least Help Out) by Jen Malone
from Nerdy Book Club. Peek: “Guess who’s not being exposed to these main characters? Boys. That’s a problem, because their female counterparts are only too happy to read books featuring male central characters, meaning those girls’ empathy for and understanding of the opposite gender grows, while the reverse isn’t necessarily happening.”
Teen Girls Have a Right to Roam, Too by C.J. Flood from The Guardian. Peek: “Was it responsible, I asked my publicist and editor, to show teenage girl friends creeping from their bedrooms after dark, to wander their home turf in the moonlight?”
On Gendered Book Covers and Being a Woman Designer by Jennifer Heuer from Lit Hub. Peek: “What topics are women interested in? All of them. How about that book about sports (and not just one about a female athlete)? History (not just one about suffragettes)? A crime thriller (not just one with “girl” in the title)?”
The Heroine’s Journey: How Campbell’s Model Doesn’t Fit by B.J. Priester from Fangirl. Peek: “Putting too much weight on old myths with antiquated, if not downright misogynistic, attitudes toward women will only reinforce sexist limitations from a sexist time in human history.”
Girls Growing Up in Middle Grade Fiction by Yamile Saied Mendez from Project Mayhem. Peek: “…here are some titles that have used this time in a girls life as an opportunity to create memorable characters and premises.”
The Problem with Female Protagonists by Jo Eberhardt
from Writer Unboxed. Peek: “I took my son by the hand and went to find
out whether his assertion that we mostly (because “always” was clearly
an exaggeration) read about female protagonists was true.” See How I’ve Helped Teach Boys That Girls Are Boring an Unimportant by Kasey Edwards from Daily Life.