Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the
Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls
by Liz Funk

    SUPERGIRLS SPEAK OUT by Liz Funk
    Category:  Non-Fiction
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  3/3/09
    Publisher:  Touchstone
    Reviewed by:  Allison Fraclose
    Rating:  4 Stars


    What is a Supergirl?

    They’re the high school class president with the constantly shiny hair who applied to over twenty Ivy League schools
    and always brings homemade goods to every bake sale. They’re the college girl involved in a million clubs who
    shows up five minutes before the 8 a.m. class with no signs of her late night out, followed by many more hours of
    studying. They’re the gotta-have-it-all twenty-something who busted her butt in college and is already on the same
    level as women ten years older in her field.

    They’re any girl who has packed her schedule, keeping herself busy with volunteer activities, who always manages to
    look perfect, regardless of how tired, stressed, or anxious she feels.

    This is the plight of the Supergirls, the slew of young women who have decided that nothing short of perfection will
    do. By following the stories of five overachievers from different walks of life, and interviewing almost a hundred
    more, this book examines the lives of these girls to find out why they feel this need for perfection, and what they can
    possibly do to avoid the eventual burnout.

    This book disappointed me by placing most of the blame on faceless entities such as “societal conditioning,” rather
    than offering more concrete advice to young women who may be stuck in this harmful cycle of achievement and
    compliment addiction. Regardless, the stories in this book were an interesting foray into the psyche of a population
    that is often stereotyped and ignored, for the simple reason that “they have it all; how can anything be wrong in their
    lives?”