Helping You to Understand and Cope With Your Teenage Daughter

Reviving Ophelia

An eye-opening look at the everyday cultural dangers facing teenage girls and how adults can help them.

An important book. . . . Pipher shines high-beam headlights on the world of teenage girls

Mary Pipher, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and bestselling author. She teaches part-time at the University of Nebraska and travels all over the world sharing her ideas with community groups, schools, and health care professionals. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Why are adolescent girls prone to depression, eating disorders, addictions and suicide attempts than ever before? Mary Pipher believes adolescence is an especially precarious time for girls, a time when the fearless, outgoing child is replaced by an unhappy and insecure teenager. 
 
Her view is that for the most part it is our look-obsessed, media-saturated, 'girl-poisoning' culture - and not parents - which is to blame. Despite the advances of feminism, escalating levels of sexism and violence cause girls to stifle their creative spirit and natural impulses, which, ultimately, destroys their self-esteem. Yet it is often their families that are blamed. 
 
Here, for the first time, are thr girls unmuted voices. By laying bare their harsh day-to-day reality, Reviving Ophelia offers parents compassion, strength and strategies with which to revive these Ophelias' lost sense of self.

Mary Pipher

Sara Pipher Gilliam

Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

"Reviving Ophelia is a cultural touchstone" --NPR 
 
"An important book...Pipher shines high-beam headlights on the world of teenage girls." --Los Angeles Times 
 
First published in 1994, Reviving Ophelia illuminated the problems faced by adolescent women. From depression and anxiety to addiction and suicide, Mary Pipher, PhD showed us how our look-obsessed ‘girl-poisoning culture’ was seriously damaging young women. The book became iconic – a No.1 New York Times bestseller for 27 weeks – and transformed how we talk about female adolescence. 
 
Fast forward to today and teenage girls still face with many of the challenges Pipher identified. However, the digital world of the 21st century has also brought new obstacles and opportunities as social media means teens are more connected and more isolated than ever before. 
 
In this revised and updated 25th anniversary edition, Pipher and her daughter, Sara (who was a teenager at the time of the book's original publication), address this new landscape and provide insights and ideas on how to help the latest generation of teenage girls. 
 
A timely combination of thorough research, real life stories and practical guidance, Reviving Ophelia is an essential handbook for anyone who wants to support and empower today’s young women.

Mary Pipher

Books by Mary Pipher

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