My name is Leah Larson. I’m 17 and the editor and publisher of Yaldah Magazine for Jewish girls which I created at age 13. Yaldah’s mission is to inspire creativity, leadership, and unity among Jewish girls worldwide. Each week I receive hundreds of emails from fans who love the magazine and appreciate its message. The fall print run was 1500, and it is now available in selected bookstores as well as by subscription.

Yaldah has an editorial board of 20 talented girls who have the opportunity to interact with one and other, to solicit, edit, and create material for the magazine. We sponsor girls retreats, writing and art contests, and unity projects. Thanks to Wells Fargo’s prize money of $10,000, I am just about to launch Yaldah media which will produce engaging and quality books with Jewish themes for girls of all backgrounds. Now, as a finalist in their Someday Stories, I have a chance to win $100,000 to expand my business. (watch my video at http://www.wellsfargo.com/somedaystories).

While the racy, provocative media may be popular, I believe that girls truly want and need media that celebrates their inner beauty,spirit, talent and experience. I encourage girls to go for their dreams and be a part of this revolution.

I’d point to a recent Sarah Palin rally, where the overwhelming number of supporters were young white males. The NY Times reporter interviewed a number of them, and it was clear that they were there because they think that Palin is a “hot babe.” They were mostly unwilling to give their names after making comments like that.

Young boys and men are swamped with a tremendous amount of information telling them that it’s OKAY to think of girls/women primarily that way. It’s important to change and question THIS side of the 50/50 equation.

I am a mother of a 17-year-old girl. I worry constantly that all of what she reads, hears and sees in the media will undo all of my husband’s and my hard work and influence on her. We stress family, friendship, caring and conscience. She has had religious education but she has not embraced it.

I try to talk to her about relationships, sex and friends but she dismisses me also. So, all we can do now is stand back and slowly let her experience the world and use her head and be smart and hope that whatever we have done will help her find her way in the world.

I have never watched “Gossip Girl” but from listening to your portrayal of this program, it sounds just like “Sex & the City” for teens/preteens. Peer pressure is very strong in this age group but it is ultimately the parents’ responsibility to set the moral tone. One cannot be a good parent without setting these guidelines, getting your kids to share their feelings, and above all, listening.

How many of the story lines in “Gossip Girls” tackle real problems like STDs, pregnancy, sexual assault, alcohol poisonings, or drug overdoses that are often the results of risk-taking behavior? I find that teenagers are interested in real issues when they are presented as such.

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn’s insights are perplexing at best. To say that having impressionable girls at the ages of 9 on up watching sexually-oriented programming with splashes of bad behavior is fine so long as it’s only one hour a week is incredible. Girls at that age emulate older girls and want to imitate their behavior. Older watchers may ‘know’ that it is fantasy and yes, they do not have fabulous clothes and no-show parents who leave the booze out, but younger girls see shows like this as how-to guides.

And then to say: so long as they read, what does the content matter? Well, let’s get some violent misogynistic books out for tween boys or perhaps racist propaganda. So long as they read. Please!

Further, material like this is a great way to keep girls preoccupied with vacuous issues, being mean and worries about how they look or are perceived. Where is the material that inspires girls to be all they can be and reinforce the idea that its OK to be different or not obsessed with the most recent fad?

I think you didn’t do enough vetting when you chose your child development expert.

Are these writers telling teens about reality of STD?

Many of the “classics” are not read in a critical manner. These books also include information that is considered inappropriate. People insist on the reading of the “classics” without realizing that there are more books and authors to be explored. The “classics” are also bound to a status, and its furious defense separates sectors of society closing doors to new and up to date writings.

As the mother of a 9th-grade teenage girl, I have no problem with Gossip Girl. My points:

1. Your conversation today is OFF-POINT, since you’re talking about two very distinct age groups – Gossip Girl is for 9-12th graders and Beacon St. is for 3rd-7th.

2. A girl can “feel better about herself” when she is actually prepared to face a scary social situation. Can you say ARCHETYPES? In the tradition of the fairy tales we read when she was young and “innocent”, my daughter relishes the chance to process scary, complex social issues in a private, safe and vicarious situation These books are an expression of our culture and the problems inherent in it, they are NOT the problem.

3. I watch the show with my daughter – where else would I be offered a seamless segue into a discussion of some of these issues?

4. This whole conversation is reminiscent of the Victorians’ preoccupation with their daughters reading…GASP…the novels of Bronte and such with their emotionally overstimulating content.

4. The one thing that I DON’T like about this series is that the BOYS tended to be mindless sluts, but this season has shown some improvement in that realm.

I have a 13 year old daughter who is “addicted” to DeGrassi. She watches it with all her friends so there is little use in my trying to restrict her from watching it. I would rather she watch it at home than at someone else’s house where I can’t talk to her about it.

However, the content of the show is really inappropriate. Yesterday, for example, there was a very explicit sex scene. I liked what your guest is saying about providing positive role models. What i saw yesterday wasn’t that though.

What suggestions do you have about how to talk to girls about the value of these shows and the messages that it conveys? How do we as parents help our children deal with these messages that may be inappropriate for them?

Is there a functional equivalent to this phenomenon when considering boys-boys-boys? What are the waters of public (youth) discourse that they swim in today? Are those waters different to the 1990s; 80s; 70s?

What is the intersection of the bundle of features called “millenial kids” on the one hand, and the stream encompassed byi “girls-girls-girls”?

Lastly, the comparative question – is there a parallel phenomenon in other societies (not just Gossip Girls translated and sold in quantity, but home grown authors of similar scenery)?

I remember being forced to read classic novels like, “lord of the flies,” and “catcher in the rye,” in high school, and I ended up being uninterested in the course work and discussions. Instead I read books that were considered “bad” literature by the powers to be (mostly sci-fi).

I think it’s absurd to think that by only allowing children to read “classic” novels that they will somehow be instilled with outdated traditions of our grandparents! Young people will always be exposed to such things. Perhaps instead of parents being shocked, they should read the books as well, and have an intelligent discussion with their daughters about the happenings of the books.

Go to any library that provides Mangas and graphic novels and those books are out being read. Go to any library that only provides the “classics” and those books are still on the shelves.

A great example of “parental culture shock” is Elvis Presley. Parents of that time were having the same discussions about sex and censorship, but now his music is as wholesome as apple pie… Hey just look at the outcome of listening to such music: our parents…they don’t seem so bad…

-I am 24 years old.

While I don’t watch Gossip Girl and don’t think I would enjoy the show (26 year old male), I have heard this line of attack far too often for other shows and mediums. Video games are too sexual and violent, TV is denigrating, novels are cheap racy stunts, and Plato’s writings detract from Greece’s great oratorial history. This is a show that has had meaningful discussions about the depth of Grand Theft Auto IV and the story of The Wire. Now we’re back to decrying raciness in popular culture? What about the raciness of Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby, and Ulysses? I don’t think Gossip Girl is going to go down as one of the great TV shows in history – but it’s struck a nerve because it’s clever and real: well-off high schoolers actually do drink and have lots of sex. Let’s have an hour long discussion about that if there’s a bone to pick.

Girls, tweens, are highly persuaded by media messages, and there is research to show that after 15 minutes of exposure to fashion magazines, girls feel bad about themselves. It’s one thing to read fantasy, but when this is presented on TV in such provocative ways and Hollywood innuendos, there is some responsibility of the media industry about such messages.

It’s critical to teach girls (and boys) to be media literate: What messages are being portrayed here? What is being sold? How does it make you feel? What’s real and unreal about these images or characters? And so on.

Girls compare themselves to each other and to media role models. The standards are too high and unrealistic. We need to help girls not compare themselves and deconstruct the messages.

I think the Beacon Street Girls series is on target in using fiction to teach coping skills and working things out with friends. The Duke University study support this, which is terrific.

- from a mom of 2 ‘tween girls
& Clinical Psychologist

We hardly ever watch TV in our house. It’s not just the stuff depicted in this discussion ( I’ve never seen the show in question ), but it’s mainly all the other cultural values of consumerism and superficiality.

Personally I think TV is a form of child abuse. The US is raising a generation of kids afflicted with ADD, superficial materialismm, status-seeking cliquishness, and who think that popularity, style, happiness, and worldliness can be bought with a credit card.

Turn off the TV and experience something REAL. Take up gardening, go backpacking, raise an animal, get a telescope and learn what’s in the night sky, learn to play an instrument, make art, go fishing, etc.

Just listened to the show concerning GOSSIP GIRLS. It was interesting, but it got me to thinking how not just the youth of our country is affected by media, but of other countries.

We live in a university town, and have frequent opportunities to interact with the youth of other countries. It has been very surprising to hear from them just how much our movies and TV affect them, and how much they see.

We have spoken with internationals from Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Philippines, S. Korea, Indonesia and other countries. The young students of all these countries agree that America media has a great influence on them, and how they think America is. They also strive to imitate it.

Not until the 1990s did gangs begin to be a problem in these countries. The movie THE GODFATHER has been very influential in the beginning of these gangs. In the Philippines, the book is considered the BIBLE for gang members.

In Kenya, rap artists are painted on city buses and their music is played on the bus.

Most all of the international youth are surprised when they get to the States how different our culture is from the movies they have grown up on.

Just some other food for thought.

W. Roiser

It’s one thing to read fantasy, but when this is presented on TV in such provocative ways and Hollywood innuendos, there is some responsibility of the media industry about such messages.

There’s also some responsibility by parents to TURN OFF THE TV (or not even have one).

When I was a kid we didn’t even own a TV until I was 14 (because my mother won one in a supermarket drawing). You don’t need a TV to have a fun, happy childhood.

I agree that media literacy is important, and I think it should be taught in high school – kids would probably enjoy a class like that. But it’s important that it be undergirded with a profound skepticism.

Much of K-12 education is characterized by a deliberately non-judgemental point of view. Teachers and administrators are so concerned about avoiding offense and controversy that they try to be value-neutral. But media literacy is not the place to be non-judgemental. The emphasis of such a course should be to encourage young people to be highly skeptical, to be able to see the subtext, the propaganda, the advertising, the product placement, and the ideology being promoted. The successful student should be able to completely deconstruct a political or commercial advertisement to see how language, pacing, lighting, music and camera angles are used to send the message, and to be able to see feature-length TV programs for the cultural propaganda they transmit as well.

I am a father of a 6 year old son and I think this issue affects both young boys and girls. What I think was missing from this discussion is that a lot of the things portrayed in shows like Gossip Girl are often a caricature of reality.

Even at my son’s age there are things that he encounters in school that my wife and I need to address. Some questions/issues are very difficult to answer but we decided to be honest with him on many issues.

Now I do not think shows like this should be the primary staple of young teenagers but they can help open up a dialogue between children and their parents. It is a very good opportunity for parents to open up a dialog with them.

Let’s face it, the world we currently live in may not be what is was 30 or 40 years ago. Childhood innocence may be at stake but as parents we have an obligation to our children to help them navigate the pitfalls of life and ignoring these issue may just make things worse in the long run.

Thanks for the program today – I enjoyed listening. I’d love to make a couple of points. First I should also say that I am a developmental psychologist and reading specialist, and I have read several of the Gossip Girls books, read several of the Clique books, and read 8 of the Beacon Street books. I have a young daughter – age 5.

– One issue I have with the Gossip Girls books is that while they are targeted to high school girls, girls much younger are reading them. These girls (at least the ones I’ve talked to) experience almost a joyful voyeurism in reading these books: beautiful, wealthy characters with parents who are not very present, living in NYC and having racy adventures. Cecily pointed out that the characters are in fact “flawed” – and as an adult I recognize this, but I have to think that most young readers miss this point.

– As for the classics, many were written one hundred years ago, and writing for children not only has changed, but now has to be written at an easier reading level. “Little Women” was written for 9-10 year olds, yet the reading level, by today’s standard, is 7-8th grade. Many of my students find the classics long, hard to read, and with not enough action. While I personally loved them as a child, they are often only for excellent readers these days, I find, – or as a read-aloud.

– Dr. Brooks-Gunn made a point that truly perplexed me – that there is little to no research on the impact of what children read. Perhaps I misunderstood her statement. A quick ERIC search shows various studies looking at the impact of books on children’s perceptions, and there is the whole field of bibliotherapy. Personally, my doctoral dissertation was using a book club setting and a book with a strong, female protagonist to promote self-esteem in young girls (ages 10-12). We read Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson. My results were quite strong that reading and talking about a book character’s actions and choices and applying them to your life CAN make a difference in how strong a girl feels.

–Personally, my daughter, who is starting to read, will get the Beacon Street books long before she gets Gossip Girls. If she does get to GG eventually, we’ll both read them and talk about them together.

-Beth Nolan Conners, Ph.D.

I am the mother of a 21-year-old young woman and an almost 18-year old boy. My daughter read the Gossip Girl books and I think still watches the show. She also watched the OC (a similar show). I do think this kind of lit and media is detrimental, it normalizes this kind of behavior and mindset. Kids know it’s fantasy, but they also pay attention to it and it definitely affects them (split thinking? magical thinking?). She and her friends read the fashion magazines and it all contributes to the feeling that they aren’t measuring up to this mythical ideal. And the TV high school kids never study, never agonize over their papers, and yet they get into Ivy League schools. Our family puts out “good” family values– non-materialistic, work and caring, service to others, involvement in life, etc., but the media and peer groups are very powerful. And if you are insecure about your place in life, it’s so easy to covet a Prada bag or a pair of Chanel sunglasses instead of focusing on the tasks of adolescence. This also affects boys, they know about the TV shows, and the boy images.

There are plenty of high-quality books available for young adult readers that are neither preachy nor smarmy. There is a world of literature between “Anne of Green Gables” and “Gossip Girls,” much which explores relationships, sexuality, drug use, all those “scary” adult themes that young people need to come to terms with. And in ways that are sensitive, intelligent, and non-judgmental. There are some astounding contemporary authors writing for young adults that give me, as an adult reader, shivers; they are that good. (And I don’t mean spooky shivers, but the shivers you get when a fiction reflects truth so purely.)

I’m a firm believer that the literature read as a young adult has tremendous power to influence the values held as an adult…often values that differ from those that parents have tried to instill. And often those value differences are for the best, as books open our eyes to worlds and experiences far beyond our neighborhoods.

I shiver at a librarian stating that the job requires that they “protect the innocence” of young readers. I was the parent asking why certain award winning titles or celebrated authors seemed to be missing from their shelves. Literature can be a safe way to explore and understand experiences young people are not yet ready to undertake in “real” life.

I spent nearly ten years as a bookseller, most of that time specializing in “childrens” literature, I found most parents incredibly ignorant and naive about what their children were reading. With my own daughter, I have read nearly everything she has, and gone out of my way to put books into her hands that explored adult themes BEFORE she was likely to be confronted with those issues in her daily experience. And we discussed the choices she would be facing in her life, and I ensured she would have the knowledge to make sound decisions when making those choices, and would not just be following the herd.

Sure, it’s better to be reading something than reading nothing, but just as eating something is better than eating nothing, it does not follow that all things edible, or readable, convey the same quality nutrients to our bodies or our minds.

I just heard much, but not all of the show today, and tried unsuccessfully to call in.

This topic really gets me going. I have a 17-year-old daughter. When she was in Junior High, she brought home a paperback book, which belonged to a friend, called “Gossip Girls.” I opened it, and read a page here, a page there-all I could stomach. I was appalled. I’m no prude, but I recognize gratuitous garbage when I see it. One scene had a teen girl at a high end Manhattan restaurant with a boy, imagining the sex they’d have later, and getting up from the table to throw up her lunch in the ladies room.

As for the claim that these books get girls to read — frankly, I’d rather my daughter were illiterate than be saturated with this trash. As for the notion that these books can be a springboard for good discussions with their daughters – give me a break. Yes, my daughter and I have had discussions about this, and other toxic bombardments in our culture. My problem is, this stuff normalizes certain values and behaviors that are nothing but damaging to our girls.

As a parent, I am swimming upstream in my attempts to counteract the sexing, drinking, drugging, materialistic, shallow, low life values in our culture portrayed by these books and other books and shows coming at our kids There are plenty of opportunities for discussion, and no need whatsoever for such damaging words and images.

Absolutely, this stuff influences our young. Good luck to the Gossip Girls author in raising her little girl in a world with so many social pitfalls for her, thanks in no small measure to her mother.

Many people look back at the mortgage mess right now and think in retrospect that it was obvious –making loans to people who put no money down, did not clearly have the ability to afford their purchase, and may not have even been required to disclose their income or assets to get the mortgage led to a number of risky loans.

I think we will look back on the effects of much of the media on our pre-teen and early-teen daughters the same way in several years. It is really hard to believe that having girls read/watch stories about very spoiled kids, who judge their peers at least partly by what they wear and can buy (as some of TV Gossip Girl characters do), who are obsessed by controlling their “friends” and exhibit few qualities of real friendship with others, and who focus on “me” solely with little attention to their community, can possibly be positive for child development.

Sure, if stories written about 17-year olds were only read by 17 year-olds, this might not be much of a problem. But, that it is not what happens. I don’t see censorship as the solution but do strongly believe that we need more positive role models and “good” media to stand next to the “bad”. I may not want to ban my kids from eating fast food, but I am certainly not going to let them eat it all the time. And if I do, I expect there will be negative consequences.

They’re actually kinda related. The mortgage mess was at least partly the result of people seeking instant gratification for their materialistic impulses to have a more grandiose house or use home equity loans for vacations, fancy cars, and damn the long-term consequences. It’s this same emphasis on impulse, gratification, and superficiality that seems to be celebrated in these books and programs, according to the discussion.

BTW, did anyone see the Wall Street Journal article in August about getting boys to read . . .
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121814900158422243.html

I’m 23 and have read the Beacon Street Girls books.

While the Beacon Street Girls books are the more wholesome alternative to the Gossip Girls series, they’re just too unrealistic. They paint middle school as a friendly fantasy-land where kids are rarely mean to each other.

This simply isn’t true. Middle school girls are especially vicious; they swear, they spread rumors, they stab each other in the back (not literally, thank God). As someone who was made fun of non-stop in middle school (by girls), I’m almost offended at how unrealistic the Beacon Street Girls books are.

What I’d really like to see is a realistic series for middle school girls that deals with issues like bullies, rumors/gossip, dating, etc.

What our children see and hear shapes their thoughts and behaviors. We are irresponsible to allow “garbage” into young minds via movies, television, internet and books. The portrayal of girls in “Gossip Girls” makes what they do and stand for “normal”.

I understand the argument that it “raises issues” but unfortunately it more often than not glamorizes these behaviors. If in doubt, just notice the rise in eating disorders with the ideal female size shrinking, and the increase of “cutting” after the movie “Girl Interrupted”.

The media will not be responsible (as evidenced in their history), so we as parents need to step up to the plate!

I’m 29 and my friends and I still laugh about how when we were 12, we were bound and determined to be babysitters because of the influence of The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin. Tweens and teens are very influenced by what they see. Writers and editors have a responsibility to keep this in mind when they put something out in the world.

I grew up reading classic and non-classic adult literature, and very little written for children, largely because young adult literature always seemed to embody the patronizing and irrelevant attitudes that some of your panelists presented.

While some of your speakers talked about preserving girls’ innocence, as a teenager, I was more than able to sniff out this kind of condescension. Moreover, like many other teenagers, my friends took risks, had sex, used drugs, drank, got depressed, had eating disorders, attempted suicide, lied to our parents and generally made a lot of mistakes.

This happens on the Upper East Side where I lived, and where Gossip Girl takes place, as it does in all kinds of communities all around the country.

I encountered the Gossip Girl series a few years ago among the free samples that came to the children’s literacy organization where I worked after college. It is fun even now to see some aspects of my teenage years represented in such fun and popular series.

Gossip Girl is not pure realism (way too many limos!), and I would have known that just as well when I was 15. The series is certainly refreshing, though, and hearing Cecily von Ziegesar on the show made me like her even more.

I wish I had caught your brosdcast live to call in. I have a daughter 12. She would read any of these books. BUT I can’t allow it! She is an avid reader and reads over 25 chapter books per summer. Why? Because we don’t have television in our home. All our children read more because of this. However, what concerns me is the current age recommendation on some of the books and shows you are discussing. I was surprised to find information in the Beacon Street Girls series regarding drinking alchohol. My daughter received these books as a gift, I read them, and I returned them. I think the publishers of these books have advanced the age appropriateness of some material. For example, The sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and other books labled age appropriate by most for a 6th graders are in fact NOT APROPRIATE. Libraries and parents rely on this information. Furthermore and for example, some reviewers of the Sisterhood of the Traveling pants series lable it for 6th grade & up, while other’s lable it appropriate for 9th grade and up. This is a big discrepancy. These books contain sexual material. Also, little girl’s want to live these fantasies and do act out these characters actions. What can actually get children to read is to take away the television and computer games and introduce your children to all kinds of books. DO NOT use these books being promoted to our young girls as an excuse to improve reading. They are truly pathetic. Basic crap. These fictional girl’s actions are not what we want our youth to emulate. Parent’s need to be aware of the actual content, not rely on the publisher’s age recommendations, and learn to say “NO” to marketing and lead by example. Turn off the tube and read too! We absolutely should not be promoting these books and programs to our youth & the lifestyles portrayed. It’s old, but just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t make it right. That’s to the parents. Culture be damned. Wish I could have taken on the woman promoting the Beacon Street Girls live. Would have made for great radio.

As an elementary school teacher, I am always reading the latest releases to bring fresh new literature to my students as well as reading aloud the classics. What is very important are the discussions that take place before, during, and after the reading, and framing questions that push a student to reflect thoughtfully on a situation that a character was in or a choice that a character made. I am always mindful of introducing my students, girls and boys, to an author they may like that has published several books to keep them coming back for more. Reading different genres is also important, and I find that girls often enjoy biographies of interesting women. I don’t agree that getting children to read literature that is not age-appropriate is okay as long as they’re reading; there, I think, parents need to put some time and effort into helping their children select age-appropriate reading material. Save Gossip Girl for older teens (as it was intended) that want to read some “fluff” over the summer.

Writers and editors have a responsibility to keep this in mind when they put something out in the world.

This is the second time in the discussion when someone placed the responsibility for the conent children are exposed to on the media itself (writers and editors).

But as I and another poster have pointed out, the fundamental responsibility is the parent’s. Do you personally know the writers and editors? Do they know your child? NO! So why do you want to delegate responsility to them? You are the one responsible for what your child reads and watches on TV, assuming you let them watch TV at all.

I am definitely with Suzy and Jaime on this. Recently I picked up a Gossip Girl book and was appalled at the language, theme and storyline! It is also very substandard in language department too- so there is NO NEED for our girls to read this “garbage” nor watch the vulgar show!

As a teenager in the 50’s & 60’s I read Lolita, Lady Chaterly’s Lover, The Carpetbaggers, Valley of the Dolls, etc. Super sexy stuff for the day and we didn’t turn into drug addled sex pots. Give your girls some credit for intelligence and be more like the mom who called in that she watches with her daughter and talks to her about this stuff.

“What if they read straight up pornography, would that matter?”

“A show called GOSSIP GIRLS”

Tom, will you be my best friend forever?

I am a school librarian in a K-8 urban school. I know that my students read a lot of fluffy, salacious literature in between more “meaty” books. So do grown-ups! Studies show that adult males read very little fiction (but do read lots of magazines, newspapers, and some nonfiction) Of grown-up women who read fiction, many tend toward the Candace Bushnells or Jennifer Weiners of the world for most of their reading, occasionally turning to Toni Morrison or someone more “literary.”

Anyway, back to the kids. As a librarian in a school, I’ve elected not to buy a lot of it, mainly because of curriculum and – especially – budget constraints. I know the public library carries a lot of the popular series and I direct kids there.

I’ll be honest: I’m not AS worried about the sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Kids have been seeking material on those topics for centuries. But I do have a content complaint that was not addressed on the show. There is an enormous amount of brand-dropping – indeed, downright PRODUCT PLACEMENT – in the Clique, Gossip Girls, and other novels. Professionals in children’s literature point out that some of these books are distributed via the same channels as popular clothes and styles mentioned in the books (i.e. Delia’s catalog/”magazine”). Beyond that possible and insidious marketing scheme, I couldn’t even get through a Gossip Girl book because of all the brand name references: Manolo, Stella McCartney, the list goes on. I love fashion myself, but do we need the name-dropping, really? in a tween/teen book? We expect it in a magazine, but kids are not en guarde when reading a book. Experience tells me that kids are noticing these names, all of which are far beyond their parents’ financial reach, and it makes them more brand-conscious and catty at school.

And one more comment, on the so-called classics: some kids come to them, but we need to give it a bit of a rest. Publishing for children is a huge industry and many remarkable, beautiful, challenging, and inspiring books are written and published every year, and yes, kids will read most of them if the books are recommended by a teacher or friend. I love a lot of the “classics,” but we will never inspire a new generation of writers if we do not also include and celebrate contemporary writers.

Does it matter? We’ll ask the creator of “Gossip Girl” and a publisher pushing in a different direction. This hour, On Point: Targeting the hearts and minds of America’s teenage girls.

YES, it does matter! On the heels of the Candace Bushnell interview, the “Girls Girls Girls” show was tremendously effective in underscoring the very real battle for the hearts and minds of young girls (and boys).

I agree with an earlier post by patricia that the child development expert, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, was neither well vetted nor capable of grasping the core of the issue. In fairness, perhaps she is capable, but I was disappointed that her contributions to the show were so superficial. By comparison, I find many of the comments on this thread much more ‘on point’!

And yes, there definitely IS a connection between the content of Gossip Girl and the economic crisis–it’s the creation and celebration of an artificial, unattainable reality. The glamorization of materialism, drugs, and casual sex may not be new, but it has become so pervasive and so deep that it now surrounds our 9 year olds in what they see, read, and hear every day. I challenge anyone to explain how this distorted view of life does not shape our kids and ultimately, our society.

“For example, The sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and other books labled age appropriate by most for a 6th graders are in fact NOT APROPRIATE.”

This is a good example of the naivete of parents in choosing books for their children: the age levels labeled on books or noted in many reviews reflect reading level, not content.

On example is the “Nancy Drew Case Files” and corresponding “Hardy Boys” series that was started in the late 1980’s to attract an older readership. Parents, not realizing that the “mysteries” in this series involved subjects like drug trafficking, prostitution, international organized crime, and such “Miami Vice” type storylines, were purchasing them for their 7-10 year old “Nancy Drew” readers. (Of course, this is also a great time to point out that the original Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys mysteries have been heavily dumbed down over the years.) When I pointed out that those titles reflected more adult themes, most parents didn’t care. But hey, there are 8 year olds reading Stephen King, too.

Jamie wrote: “I was surprised to find information in the Beacon Street Girls series regarding drinking alchohol. My daughter received these books as a gift, I read them, and I returned them.”

The Beacon Street Girls book in question (”Freaked Out”) wasn’t promoting alcohol in any way. A minor character got drunk, started a fight with someone else, and threw up all over the place. The other characters who witnessed this immediately decided that drinking was not cool. The back of the book extras even included facts about the dangers of alcohol abuse and underage drinking.

Just curious, what do you let your kids read?

[...] to my attention The Longstockings blogger’s incendiary, uppercase letter rage sparked by a recent On Point program on children’s literature. I caught a discussion on NPR featuring Cecily von Zeigesar (Gossip [...]

I know firsthand that media messages can profoundly influence young girls’ (and boys’) opinions about sex and their own body image. Even though I am thirty-three now, I can clearly remember thinking as young as age nine or ten that the absolute best thing a girl could be was “sexy.” The messages I got were loud and clear: “Being pretty is infinitely more important than being smart, and having boys ‘want’ you is more important than having them respect you.”

My parents were great, but sex was a topic that was not discussed until we were older, so by then I already had formed my own opinions, having “learned” from my friends and the media. I ended up becoming involved with sex at an alarmingly young age and then having years of guilty feelings about myself afterward. It was not until many years later that I could see sex as a healthy, positive thing. Nowadays I value my intelligence a lot more than my image, and it means much more to me to be respected than to be merely attractive.

The thing that scares me is that now I have a daughter of my own, and the media images have gotten even raunchier and more outlandish since I was coming of age. I plan to be very open with my kids about sex and body image, and teach them to be aware of the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways that the media influences people every day of our lives. It’s scary to think how totally unaware I was back then! I also plan to be more restrained about TV time.

I listened to yesterday’s show and felt that I needed to mull over my response before submitting my comments.

I work with teens, primarily high school juniors and seniors in a residential summer art programs. First, let me say that I truly believe that young people give me hope for our future…these are great people.
Unfortunately, I have heard them described on this radio program by the parents and experts as some kind of amorphous blob of “sponges” eager to absorb all of society’s negativity. Negativity that we adults, by the way, purposefully and methodically market to this particular age bracket. How sad for our young people that we adults cannot see them for the smart, discerning, powerful individuals with good personalities, clear opinions and interesting perspectives on the world. The kids I meet know junk when they see it.

Let’s talk about the classics, which I happen to love to read. That love was instilled in me by my mother; I have read classic literature all my life and read it to my daughter growing up. Let us remember that some classic literature was written in times of slavery, when women did not vote, when civil war was waging…so before we get all sentimental about the good ole days of classic literature… read David Copperfield for example or even, dare I say it, Little Women.

Young women today can discern the social context of classic literature as well as contemporary. If they have been taught and prepared to do so. These are smart and savvy kids who we have prepared to enter the world.

Our responsibility as writers and artists, it is to create contemporary work that becomes classic not junk.

I am sorry I’m tardy contributing my comments.

I’d first like to thank the host of the show, Tom Ashbrook, for a job well done, showing concern for the way society is treating our young girls,and boys too.

I think the level of discourse in this comments section is terrific and I agree with a lot of whats been written here. I want to concur with robin, on Oct. 21st, 08 @ 11:02am EDT, when she agrees with patricia fabbri, on Oct. 20th, 08 @ 11:34am EDT, concerning Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. This scholar is a non-starter. Cynical perhaps and maybe she feels this type of literature is for a lower social class albeit not a lower financial class, compared to the Ivy-league class.