Description
Book SynopsisReveals how friendships and social media can help girls survive even the most tragic consequences of American poverty. My Girls explores the overlooked yet transformative power of female friendship in a low-income Boston-area neighborhood. In this innovative and compassionate book, researcher Jasmin Sandelson joins teenage girls in their homes, at their hangouts and parties, and online to show how they use their connections to secure the care and support that adults in their lives can't give. Friendships among young people in poor, urban communitiesoften framed as risky sources of peer pressure and conflictoffer crucial support and self-esteem. In a new, positive take that reveals the primacy of phones and social media in contemporary friendships, Sandelson demonstrates how girls look to one another to battle boredom, find stability, embrace adulthood, and process trauma and grief. This illuminating studyone of the first to combine digital and in-person fieldworkblends firsthand
Table of ContentsContents
Preface
Introduction
I · Friends and Forms of Care
1 Broke: Getting By
2 Bored: Time Management
3 Emotional Support and Breakdown
4 Bodies, Boyfriends, and Sex
II · Friendships under Threat
5 Technologies of Trauma
6 Dealing with Difference
III · After Graduation
7 Struggle and Support at College
Conclusion
A Note on Research and Writing
Final Reflections: Ten Years Later
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
