As part of my series celebrating the newly revised and updated Odd Girl Out, I'm leading parents and girls through some of the twists and turns of girls' social lives online.

With stories of cyberbullying everywhere, parents' anxiety increases with every headline. But parenting can't only be about...

How is it that something girls love so much can also create so much anxiety, paranoia and aggression? I'm talking, of course, about social media. This week, as I continue my tour of BFF 2.0 -- girls' social world online -- I'm talking about the paradox of social media.

On...

When I did the original research for Odd Girl Out, I asked every bullied girl I interviewed to tell me what she needed most from her family. The answer truly surprised me. It wasn't having the best solutions, calling the school or trying to act like everything was okay.

It...

It's been said that once you have a child, you look at the suffering of other families in a different way. You know what it means to love someone with your entire being, in a way that you never could have imagined before bringing your child into your life. In...

"When girls say 'just kidding,' what percentage of the time are they really joking?" It's one of my favorite questions to ask girls, and I rarely hear numbers in double digits.

That's because "just kidding," and its cousin, "no offense," are phrases girls (and guys, though less frequently) use to...

Over the weekend, Washington Post fashion reporter Robin Givhan chided Elena Kagan for sitting with her legs open, and Salon Broadsheet blogger Tracy Clark Flory responded with a blog accusing Givhan of subtle homophobia. "It feels like Kagan is, however indirectly, being indicted over her sexuality...

Last week, the public radio show Soundcheck headlined with a story called "Searching for Female Rappers." Host John Schafer interviewed Quentin B. Huff, who wrote an article about the dearth of female MC's (femcees) in the aughts. Huff concludes that "hip hop needs a women's movement."

"Talk to strangers:" That's the tag line for Omegle, a website where girls can text chat with random people they've never met. Omegle and Chatroulette, which allows users to video chat with strangers, have become explosively popular with teen girls, and I've asked some girls I...

Women, and our struggle for workplace equality, seem to be having a moment. Seems like everywhere you look lately, there's a story about how we don't seek or win enough money for tech start-ups; how we still face sexism in the workplace; how there are not...

Last week, a Long Island high school senior committed suicide, and the website Formspring.me is suspected as a cause. Yet most parents don't even know it exists. Formspring is the latest cyberscourge for teens. It lets you open an account and allows your anonymous audience - usually your...

As a relationship advice columnist for Teen Vogue, I get a lot of mail from girls in "no strings attached" relationships. The girls describe themselves as "kind of" with a guy, "sort of" seeing him, or "hanging out" with him. The guy may be noncommittal, or...

FROM: Rachel Simmons
TO: Friends, Family, Colleagues, Readers, Old Students, Current Students, Parents, Teachers, Random People I Went to High School With & Spammers
DATE: February 18, 2010
RE: The Curse of the E-Good Girl

I'm so sorry for taking this long to write you...

Last week's suicide of 15 year old Phoebe Prince in South Hadley, MA has communities around the country reeling. Phoebe didn't just suffer taunts, mean looks and harassment at school. She was cyberbullied: tortured online and by phone.

Phoebe's death -- and an explosion in cyberbullying worldwide --...

This weekend, sixteen year old Mirai Nagasu took second place at the United States Figure Skating Championship. But the real headline was the New York Times' quietly heartbreaking story about Nagasu's anemic self-esteem.

Nagasu is apparently in a constant struggle with a ruthless alter ego she calls "evil...

I think there's been enough written about the dizzyingly bad messages "New Moon" telegraphs to girls. Among the cringe-worthy morals of this story: When you're in love, the only thing that matters in life is your man. If you get dumped, your life is over,...

"OMG New Moon Has $140 Million Opening!" said a UK magazine. "OMG times one million, you guys," writes a reporter in The Detroit News. Even the New York Times' Manohla Dargis described "New Moon" as "the juiceless, near bloodless sequel about a teenage girl and the sparkly vampire she, like,...

I had just started a fifth grade class when a student began waving her hand and doing that "Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!" thing that I used to do when I couldn't contain myself.*

"Okay," she said, "what if, like, my friend asks me if I like the dress she was buying...

Written by Shelby Knox and Rachel Simmons

On Saturday night, a fifteen year old girl was brutally gang raped outside a homecoming dance she attended. According to media reports, more than two dozen students watched, photographed and filmed while as many as ten different people raped her. They were then...

Here's the deal. Whip It, the new Drew Barrymore/Ellen Page film, is tanking at the box office. We have to go see it. If we don't, the money's going to dry up for girl-power films.

Not that you won't enjoy every minute. Whip It is the Real Girl movie of...

I'm wild about Glee. It's inspirational television for teens, a beacon of hope that passion can trump status and music will bring us all together. I've got chills - they're multiplyin'.

As a bonus, the show offers a whole lot of conversation starters for teen viewers, and I'm listing mine...