NEW YORK (AP) - Thirteen-year-old Emma Karasz says she's alreadyreceived enough beauty advice to last a lifetime.
And between CosmoGIRL!, YM and Seventeen, Karasz has had her fillof fashion spreads and inspiring real-life stories aimed at girls herage.
'Maybe it's just a phase, there are people that care about thosesorts of magazines, but I'm not one of them,' she says.
Same goes for the Limited Too, a clothing store that offers small-size versions of the garments found in its mother store The Limited,and all the American Girl products, including books, dolls and amagazine featuring adventuresome girls.
Karasz, of New York, says she'd rather play her guitar or maybetake an acting class than worry about girl empowerment.
Walk through any bookstore and you're likely to find shelves fullof books that aim to help parents steer their daughters towardbecoming self-sufficient and strong women, which isn't a bad thingbut it also is becoming a cottage industry.
It started small with titles like 'Reviving Ophelia' and soonmushroomed into other tomes such as 'Girl in the Mirror,' 'The SecretLives of Girls' and 'Strong, Smart and Bold.'
Click on the television and you'll see 'The Powerpuff Girls'fighting criminals and saving the world while 'Buffy the VampireSlayer' tackles the undead.
The music business has performers such as Pink purging theiremotions - which are often angry and not at all ladylike, and AvrilLaVigne and Michelle Branch, who strum their guitars with the forcethat was once seen only in men.
'For those of us that went through the age of Gloria Steinam, thegirls today have no idea how great it is now,' says Nancy Martineck,the mother of 11-year-old Katie Steinbach, who plays on severalsports teams at her New York school. Martineck is impressed with herdaughter.
Growing up in southern California, Martineck says that there werehardly any team sports for girls. She feels that by learning bothteamwork and competitiveness will give Katie an edge in the corporateworld that she didn't have.
The girl-power trend may be the natural evolution from thefeminist movement from the 1970s. Instead of trying to be like men,young girls today are being taught to embrace their own gifts.
Girls may have more opportunities now, says Joann Deak, the authorof 'Girls Will Be Girls' (Hyperion), but having so much to choosefrom is causing a new kind of stress. Since the girls feel that theycan go to college and pursue a career in any field, they feel as ifthey have to follow that path.
Deak notes that 21st century girls live at a time when they onlyknow Ivy League colleges as co-ed.
In fact, Deak's research has shown that most women don't realizeany sort of gender differences until they reach their 20s and 30swhen they begin to specialize in their careers.
'The problem is that they are expected to achieve when they'reyoung because they have the chance to, but then again they can'tachieve too much or otherwise they will stick out. It's a fine line,'Deak says.
The harshest judges, she says, can be other girls.
'The competition is constant,' Karacz agrees. 'Girls will competeover everything from guys to grades to sports. After a while it canstart to affect you.'
Deak has worked with schools across the country and has noticedthat much of the competition between women happens because they arecompeting for boys. When boys are removed from the equation, such asin an all-girl school, it is easier for educators to fosterunderstanding between girls.
Regardless of their environment, Deak says that one of the mostimportant things that parents and educators can teach girls is how toconnect with one another. She says that girls, and later women, arebiologically wired to be compassionate, and when they are faced withchallenges, they often produce hormones like oxytocin which make themwant to create bonds and connect with people. To fight thesereactions would be counter intuitive, she says.
'We don't want to make our girls comfortable,' Deak says. 'We wantto teach them that there will be times that they will beuncomfortable, but that even then they should forge ahead.' BrandonHolley, the editor-in-chief of Elle Girl magazine, says girls arelooking for options and ways to explore the world around them.
For example, she says that one of the most popular features inElle Girl is the 'Global Girl' section which has photographs andinterviews with teenagers all over the world. Although it is meant tohighlight fashions, Holley says that it exposes American girls to newideas, such as sky diving in Iran or biking through the Netherlands.
She says that 'feminism' is not a dirty word to this generationbut they're not interested in burning bras either. Instead, it'sabout getting what they want, because they feel that they should haveit whether it's a sports team or a spot in a class.
'I definitely think that girls are taught to be stronger now,'says 16-year-old Ashleigh Parsons. 'But it's very competitive and Ithink that a lot of the pressure they feel they put on themselves.'
As a junior in high school in Sparta, N.J., Parsons thought itwould be a good idea to pair up older girls with younger ones in amentoring program. Parsons' plan became more ambitious and organizedand has even received a grant from Girl Power, a nationalorganization sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices.
Parsons' Girl Power program, which will address issues such asbody image, self-esteem, values and goals, will begin in January.
Girls may have more opportunities now, says Joann Deak, the authorof 'Girls Will Be Girls' (Hyperion), but having so much to choosefrom is causing a new kind of stress. Since the girls feel that theycan go to college and pursue a career in any field, they feel as ifthey have to follow that path.
Deak notes that 21st century girls live at a time when they onlyknow Ivy League colleges as co-ed.
In fact, Deak's research has shown that most women don't realizeany sort of gender differences until they reach their 20s and 30swhen they begin to specialize in their careers.
'The problem is that they are expected to achieve when they'reyoung because they have the chance to, but then again they can'tachieve too much or otherwise they will stick out. It's a fine line,'Deak says.
The harshest judges, she says, can be other girls.
'The competition is constant,' Karacz agrees. 'Girls will competeover everything from guys to grades to sports. After a while it canstart to affect you.'
Deak has worked with schools across the country and has noticedthat much of the competition between women happens because they arecompeting for boys. When boys are removed from the equation, such asin an all-girl school, it is easier for educators to fosterunderstanding between girls.
Regardless of their environment, Deak says that one of the mostimportant things that parents and educators can teach girls is how toconnect with one another. She says that girls, and later women, arebiologically wired to be compassionate, and when they are faced withchallenges, they often produce hormones like oxytocin which make themwant to create bonds and connect with people. To fight thesereactions would be counter intuitive, she says.
'We don't want to make our girls comfortable,' Deak says. 'We wantto teach them that there will be times that they will beuncomfortable, but that even then they should forge ahead.'
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