The Real Rules for Girls
By Mindy MorgensternPocket
Copyright © 2002 Mindy Morgenstern
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0743457250
Foreword
I'm proud to say I was the first person to utter the dreaded "P" word on television. That's right -- "period," and I don't mean the punctuation mark. That was my small (but significant!) contribution to feminism.
All right, so I'm not Gloria Steinem. But let's face it -- the only preparation we got for the arrival of our first period were the directions on the back of a box of "feminine products." Was there anything more confusing? We were more embarrassed about the onset of "womanhood" than ever.
Wouldn't it have been great if someone would have told us the truth? That your period can be a big fat drag, but that it's ultimately kind of cool since it means being able to have babies? But that hip attitude was impossible at the time, because we lived in a world in which the P-Word was weird and shameful. So that's why I am glad that I was the first one to toss it off casually on network TV.
And while we're at it, I wish someone would
have told me the truth about a lot of things when I was growing up. Life would have been so much easier if someone had sat me down and told me The Real Rules: That the guy you thought was "all that" when you were thirteen would make you gag when you're thirty. That the road to your dream job is filled with lots of sucky jobs along the way...That's the stuff no one tells you when you're a kid.
And that's what this book aims to do -- to tip off girls to the truth about topics which were so dimly lit for my generation, and still are for girls today. We need to tell girls that it's possible to follow your dream and figure out a way to pay the bills, and that your mother will always make you crazy, but you'll learn to deal with it.
Of course, our parents tried to tell us those things, but in a different way, and in a different time. Now it's the turn of my generation to lend a hand to the next crop of girls, with advice based on our own experience -- and on a very different world. You and I can make things a bit easier for our daughters, nieces, goddaughters, and granddaughters. Let's break the silence and tell them The Real Rules. And hey, we may even be reminded of a few things we've forgotten ourselves.
-- Courteney Cox Arquette
Copyright © 1999 by GIRL PRESS
Foreword
I'm proud to say I was the first person to utter the dreaded "P" word on television. That's right -- "period," and I don't mean the punctuation mark. That was my small (but significant!) contribution to feminism.
All right, so I'm not Gloria Steinem. But let's face it -- the only preparation we got for the arrival of our first period were the directions on the back of a box of "feminine products." Was there anything more confusing? We were more embarrassed about the onset of "womanhood" than ever.
Wouldn't it have been great if someone would have told us the truth? That your period can be a big fat drag, but that it's ultimately kind of cool since it means being able to have babies? But that hip attitude was impossible at the time, because we lived in a world in which the P-Word was weird and shameful. So that's why I am glad that I was the first one to toss it off casually on network TV.
And while we're at it, I wish someone would
have told me the truth about a lot of things when I was growing up. Life would have been so much easier if someone had sat me down and told me The Real Rules: That the guy you thought was "all that" when you were thirteen would make you gag when you're thirty. That the road to your dream job is filled with lots of sucky jobs along the way...That's the stuff no one tells you when you're a kid.
And that's what this book aims to do -- to tip off girls to the truth about topics which were so dimly lit for my generation, and still are for girls today. We need to tell girls that it's possible to follow your dream and figure out a way to pay the bills, and that your mother will always make you crazy, but you'll learn to deal with it.
Of course, our parents tried to tell us those things, but in a different way, and in a different time. Now it's the turn of my generation to lend a hand to the next crop of girls, with advice based on our own experience -- and on a very different world. You and I can make things a bit easier for our daughters, nieces, goddaughters, and granddaughters. Let's break the silence and tell them The Real Rules. And hey, we may even be reminded of a few things we've forgotten ourselves.
-- Courteney Cox Arquette
Copyright © 1999 by GIRL PRESS
Foreword
I'm proud to say I was the first person to utter the dreaded "P" word on television. That's right -- "period," and I don't mean the punctuation mark. That was my small (but significant!) contribution to feminism.
All right, so I'm not Gloria Steinem. But let's face it -- the only preparation we got for the arrival of our first period were the directions on the back of a box of "feminine products." Was there anything more confusing? We were more embarrassed about the onset of "womanhood" than ever.
Wouldn't it have been great if someone would have told us the truth? That your period can be a big fat drag, but that it's ultimately kind of cool since it means being able to have babies? But that hip attitude was impossible at the time, because we lived in a world in which the P-Word was weird and shameful. So that's why I am glad that I was the first one to toss it off casually on network TV.
And while we're at it, I wish someone would
have told me the truth about a lot of things when I was growing up. Life would have been so much easier if someone had sat me down and told me The Real Rules: That the guy you thought was "all that" when you were thirteen would make you gag when you're thirty. That the road to your dream job is filled with lots of sucky jobs along the way...That's the stuff no one tells you when you're a kid.
And that's what this book aims to do -- to tip off girls to the truth about topics which were so dimly lit for my generation, and still are for girls today. We need to tell girls that it's possible to follow your dream and figure out a way to pay the bills, and that your mother will always make you crazy, but you'll learn to deal with it.
Of course, our parents tried to tell us those things, but in a different way, and in a different time. Now it's the turn of my generation to lend a hand to the next crop of girls, with advice based on our own experience -- and on a very different world. You and I can make things a bit easier for our daughters, nieces, goddaughters, and granddaughters. Let's break the silence and tell them The Real Rules. And hey, we may even be reminded of a few things we've forgotten ourselves.
-- Courteney Cox Arquette
Copyright © 1999 by GIRL PRESS
Continues...
Excerpted from The Real Rules for Girlsby Mindy Morgenstern Copyright © 2002 by Mindy Morgenstern. Excerpted by permission.
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