JUST FOR GIRLS

A program to help girls safely navigate the rocky road through adolescence and avoid pitfalls such as eating disorders and preoccupation with food and weight

2003:Salal Books, Vancouver, BC    ISBN# 0-9698883-5-X   176 pages   $35.00
 

Just For Girls is a group program that addresses what happens to girls in the process of growing up female that silences them and encourages them instead to define themselves by numbers on the bathroom scale. The program is set on the point of the disordered eating continuum where girls become dissatisfied with their changing bodies and begin to "feel fat."

Just For Girls helps girls decode the language of fat by teaching them about the grungies—the term coined to describe the negative voice that girls develop when they cannot be direct with their feelings and experiences. The program helps girls become aware of their grungies and encourages them to tell the stories that lie underneath. Through the use of group discussion, role-play and creative activities girls are able to express their feelings and articulate their experiences.

Just For Girls helps girls understand why they feel the way that they do by reframing their stories in terms of female development and culture. It helps girls understand the societal pressures that they face during adolescence and the physical and emotional changes they are experiencing. It provides them with an awareness of their own bodies that goes beyond relating to them solely in terms of how they look.

Just For Girls teaches girls communication skills so that they can strengthen their friendships and support one another, and at the same time maintain their sense of themselves.

Just For Girls is currently in use by public health nurses, teachers, counselors, social workers, child and youth workers, Girl Guide and church group leaders across Canada and the United States. The program is used to address other social and heath risks that girls are vulnerable to, such as: smoking, teen pregnancy, abusive relationships, sexually transmitted diseases and drug and alcohol use. It can be used on its own or adapted to other programs. Its skills and concepts can be integrated into a classroom curriculum.

"Just For Girls is an outstanding innovative program that is solidly grounded in contemporary theories of women's development. It focuses on the experiences of girls that underlie negative self-labeling such as "feeling fat" and it gives girls room to find their voices within a validating and respectful small group context."

Niva Piran, PhD
Clinical Psychologist, Eating Disorder Consultant to
the National Ballet School and Professor of Education,
University of Toronto

"Young girls need to be given opportunities to believe in themselves. If I could give every girl a gift, I would give her a chance to be part of this program. It is precisely what most girls need to withstand the social pressure to be useless and beautiful. "

Marion Crook, author of The Body Image Trap and
Looking Good: Teenagers Talk about Eating
Disorders

"The Just For Girls group was offered to us through our school. They said it was a group for grade seven girls to go talk and learn. As you can guess we thought it would be pretty boring. But we signed up anyway. I'm so glad we participated. It was the best group I've ever been to. Our facilitators were great. They always cared about how we were doing. We covered a lot of important issues such as: eating disorders, puberty, families, friends and boyfriends and women in the media. We also learned that each one of us was great just the way we were. The group was a place where we could say anything and know that it would be confidential. "

Sarah, Grade seven student
Nanaimo, British Columbia

                                        Click here to view the Table of Contents or click here to

                                        find the appropriate order form.