Girls on the Brink

by Author Donna Jackson Nakazawa

  • Publisher Harmony
  • Year published 2022
  • ISBN: ISBN 978-0593233078
  • Number of pages 320 pages
  • WorldCat

Book cover titled 'Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media' by the author of 'Childhood Disrupted.' The central image is intentionally blurred.
About the Book
Book description

Now we have answers. As award-winning writer Donna Jackson Nakazawa deftly explains in Girls on the Brink, new findings reveal that the crisis facing today’s girls is a biologically rooted phenomenon: the earlier onset of puberty mixes badly with the unchecked bloom of social media and cultural misogyny. When this toxic clash occurs during the critical neurodevelopmental window of adolescence, it can alter the female stress-immune response in ways that derail healthy emotional development. But our new understanding of the biology of modern girlhood yields good news, too. Though puberty is a particularly critical and vulnerable period, it is also a time during which the female adolescent brain is highly flexible and responsive to certain kinds of support and scaffolding. Indeed, we know now that a girl’s innate sensitivity to her environment can, with the right conditions, become her superpower. Jackson Nakazawa details the common denominators of such support, shedding new light on the keys to preventing mental health concerns in girls as well as helping those who are already struggling. Drawing on insights from both the latest science and interviews with girls about their adolescent experiences, the author carefully guides adults through fifteen “antidote” strategies to help any teenage girl thrive in the face of stress, including how to nurture the parent-child connection through the rollercoaster of adolescence, core ingredients to building a sense of safety and security for your teenage girl at home, and how to foster the foundations of long-term resilience in our girls so they’re ready to face the world. Neuroprotective and healing, the strategies in Girls on the Brink amount to a new playbook for how we—parents, families, and the human tribe—can secure a healthy emotional inner life for all of our girls. *

*Publisher's description

Donna_Jackson_Headshot
About the Author
Author description

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning science journalist and author of eight books exploring the connections between emotions, trauma, and health, offering you new pathways to healing. Her book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media, was named a best book of 2022 by The Washington Post. Donna’s other books include The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine, named a best book of 2020 by Wired, and the bestselling Childhood Disrupted, a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award. Her books are in 15 languages. 

FAN Family Action Network 
Donna Jackson Nakazawa and Michelle Icard: Girls on the Brink

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last updated: 08/26/25 16:00