In today’s world where women make up nearly half of the workforce and more women than men are graduating from college, it would be easy to think that women have the same opportunities to succeed in any career as men do. Unfortunately, it’s just not true. A new article on the Newsweek Education website entitled “Year of the Woman? Eight Jobs That Are Still Sexist” highlights eight different careers in which women are still struggling to make their mark and break through that infamous glass ceiling.

Here are the 8 job fields featured in the article:

1. Journalism: Despite the fact that more women go to journalism school than men, they are vastly underrepresented. The Global Media Monitoring Project found that only 24% of people interviewed, heard, seen, or read about in the news (TV, radio, and print) are women.
2. Law: Women are 1/2 of all law-school graduates, but less than 1/4 of law-firm partners, and on average, female attorneys are paid $66,000 less than male attorneys.
3. Business: Only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
4. Science & Engineering: 31% of women with technical jobs switch into another career field – 63% of these women say they experienced workplace harassment, and 50% say they had to “act like a man” to succeed.
5. Film & Entertainment: Only 16% of directors, executive producers, producers, writers, and cinematographers are women.
6. Politics: The U.S. ranks 71st out of 189 countries when it comes to how many women are on national legislatures.
7. Nursing: 9 out of 10 nurses are women, but they only earn 88 cents to every dollar a male nurse makes.
8. Academia: Women make up just 26% of professors, 23% of university presidents, and 14% of presidents at the doctoral degree–granting institutions.

I have to be honest – not many of these career fields and statistics surprised me. In researching my book about women and careers, In Their Shoes, I found plenty of evidence to back up the reality that women are severely underrepresented in fields like science, business, film and entertainment, and journalism.

However, there is one occupation on the above list that did catch me off guard – nursing. I find it hard to believe that even in an industry where women make up the vast majority of professionals, men are still paid more. 12  cents for every dollar more. Which may not seem like a big deal, but turns out to be significant. A female nurse may be earning $50,000 a year while a male colleague with the exact same experience, training, and education would earn $56,000 based on this model. That’s $500 more per month, enough to impact someone’s quality of life.

When I read stories like this, I think back to the start of my own career, back when I had just graduated from Penn State, moved to New York City, and got an entry level job at an advertising agency for $16,000. I was the assistant to two media directors, and barely made enough money to cover my Diet Coke addiction, let alone pay for my share of the rent in my closet-like apartment and the Ramen noodles that made up the bulk of my diet. But it was the only way to break in – the way I saw it, I had to pay my dues, suck it up, and deal.

Though this was a while ago, I still remember the moment I realized that something fishy was going on at the agency. As I looked around, I noticed a disturbing trend: all of the female recent college grads like myself were in assistant roles, earning a pittance while we fetched coffee, made lunch reservations, typed up memos, and ran errands. Yet the male recent college grads were doing something completely different. They were assistant media planners – one level above where we women were. They were actually getting to go to lunches, participate in meetings, be a part of the action, not to mention bringing in about $8,000 more a year.

When I asked around to find out what was going on, the best we could up with was that we women had done better on the typing tests we had to take through the employment agency that originally placed us than our male counterparts. We were fast, accurate, efficient and eager to please. The perfect qualities for a young assistant, right? Right. But isn’t there something wrong with the picture when being good at something actually holds you back? Of course, I never said anything about this discrepancy to any higher ups at the company. I figured that if I did good work I would get noticed and promoted and paid what I was worth. I was afraid to rock the boat. Afraid to ask for what I wanted. Afraid to come off as being pushy. Instead, I quit after 9 months.

That first job was many (many!) years ago, but I’m sorry to say that it marked the beginning in a line of jobs where I took a similar wait and see approach. I didn’t know how to advocate for myself, let alone negotiate my salary. As I moved up in my career, this last piece became a bigger and bigger factor, as the difference between what I was earning versus what my male counterparts were was widening. Why? Because as I moved from job to job and company to company, my previous salary was always a factor in the new offer. Since I was on the low end of the pay scale, my new employer would offer me only a little more, figuring they were getting a great deal – high quality work for a low cost. And they were right. It was a good deal. For them. By the time I moved to LA as a development executive for a TV channel, my salary was way below the average for my position, especially compared with the men I knew doing my job for other networks, but I was stuck. They’d gotten me cheap because I didn’t know to ask for more. Ultimately, I left that position after a few years to strike out on my own as a writer. And boy, if anything has taught me to ask for what I want, it’s been being my own boss.

I know that today there are thousands upon thousands of recent young women college grads looking to break in and get started with their career, just like I was so many years ago. And in this climate, it might be tempting to take what you can get and say yes to any offer. If this is you, I urge you to respect yourself enough to ask for what you want. Advocate for yourself and negotiate. Because I just about guarantee you – young men in your position being offered jobs are negotiating. And they’re not just asking for what they want – they’re expecting to get it. According to Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, authors of Women Don’t Ask, men initiate negotiations 4 times as often as women do. When women do negotiate, they don’t think they can get much, so they ask for and get less – 30% less than men!

Sigh. If only I’d read that statistic back in 1991. But it’s not too late for you! Ask for what you want today and maybe twenty years from now, Newsweek will be writing the story that says women have finally achieved true equality in the workforce!

This past weekend while I was out of town on my girls getaway weekend, my intention was to opt out of social media. No tweeting, no Facebooking, no nothing. So, imagine my surprise when I checked my email and found a slew of Facebook notifications relating to two of my FB friends who were commenting on a status update from earlier in the week. Confused, I scrolled through the messages, trying to make sense of why a guy I knew in college and wasn’t even in touch with anymore (outside of FB) and a good friend from Seattle, were apparently having a cross-country virtual back and forth. As I read message after message, I started to feel sick to my stomach. These two guys were cutting each other down with language of  intolerance, insensitivity, and elitism. The worst part? It was all happening on my Facebook page.

Panicked, I made a late night call to my hubby back in Seattle, and asked him to delete the posts as soon as possible. When I hung up the phone, the posts were gone from my page, but I was still stunned by what had transpired. How had my status update, one in which I remarked about how inspired I had been by the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, become the spark for cyberbullying by two people who don’t even know each other?

I don’t want to go into details about what was actually said. Suffice it to say that one friend pushed the other’s buttons, lines were drawn in the sand, and there was no looking back. In reading the comments, I totally understand how those buttons were pushed, and sympathized with the friend who was attacked in the first place. In fact, I’m unfriending the person who started it all because our values are completely at odds with each other and I frankly don’t want the unhealthy, negative energy around me. But here’s the thing – even though it was started by one person, even though I was equally offended by that one person’s comments, it took both friends to keep the conversation going, to keep the back and forth going back and forth.

There are all kinds of cliches to sum up how I’m feeling about this whole event, like turn the other cheek, don’t pour fuel on a fire, it takes two to tango…you get the point. But what I really want to say is, whatever side of the discourse you’re on, whatever your belief system, hate is hate. Intolerance is intolerance. And trying to make someone feel bad about who they are is bullying. Plain and simple.

I’m not writing this because I want my friend to feel bad for getting dragged into an online sparring match that I know was very upsetting to him. He has apologized to me for the whole thing, and of course I accept this. I guess my plea is that people be more thoughtful with the intention we put out into the world by the things we do and the things we say. There’s a difference between intending to defend ourselves and intending to make someone else feel bad.

So, I present you all with this challenge: the next time someone gets you riled up by saying something hurtful, pushing your buttons, trying to drag you into an uncomfortable conversation, of even making a rude comment to your Facebook status update, take a pause before you take action and ask yourself, what is my intention here? If it’s negative in any way, shape or form, do yourself a favor and walk away or make a different choice. You may not have the last word in that moment, but you’ll definitely feel less angry in the long run, not to mention be making a strong statement that says, the cycle of bullying stops here. And how great would that be?

This past weekend, seven girlfriends and I rented a house on Whidbey Island for a girls getaway weekend. There was lots of chill time – reading, playing pool, lounging by the fire, wearing pajamas until well past noon.

I think it was late Saturday afternoon while sitting in the hot tub when I turned to my friends and announced with a mixture of surprise and glee, “I don’t think I’ve even looked in the mirror today!” In that moment, it suddenly occurred to me that no comb had gone through my hair, no concealer used to dilute the circles under my eyes (which I could only assume were there), no mascara brushed across my eyelashes. There was something so liberating about just being with this group of confident, amazing women as we shared painful memories, laughed until our ribs ached, and spazzed out to 80s music (well, I think that was mostly just Sara and me), all without considering once what I looked like on the outside.

So I loved hearing about this inspirational group of Texas high school students who started a movement at their school called Redefining Beauty. One day a week, girls participating in the growing movement come to school makeup-free, with the goal of promoting self-confidence and female empowerment.

The founders of the movement, which has grown popular within their Texas high school and has started to spread to other schools in the area, are Samantha Gibbs, Lauren Gilby, Laura Kelly, Nina Smith, Emily Gates and Caroline Tessler. The girls say the inspiration for the campaign was Operation Beautiful, a campaign founded by friend and honorary Smart Girl Caitlyn Boyle, which encourages women and girls to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find with a goal of reminding women that we are all beautiful, that we are all enough, just the way we are.

Says Redefining Beauty co-founder Samantha Gibbs, “We wanted to do something like that at our school and makeup is just one way for us to make girls feel like they are beautiful, and to shake that image that everyone sees, and know that you, yourself, are really beautiful.”

What I love most about this movement is that these girls aren’t just talking about the old adage, beauty is only skin deep – they’re owning it in a powerful way. By making the choice to not wear makeup, even this one day a week, these girls are getting to experience the same thing I experienced this past weekend – the joy of looking beyond appearance within a supportive community. And hopefully this is a community that will continue to keep growing and growing and growing…

Hi Smart Girls!

I’m so excited to share the news that the next 3 teen-authored memoirs in the Louder Than Words series I created for HCI Books comes out today!

In working with this second group of Louder Than Words authors, Hannah Westberg, Alexis Singer, and Chelsea Rae Swiggett, I’ve once again had the honor of supporting and working with three incredible teens who pushed themselves outside their comfort zones, asked the hard questions, and bared their souls. Like the first three memoirs, the newest books in the series deal with similarly pressing, and important, issues.

In Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced By An Online Predator, author Alexis Singer tells us about getting caught up in an unhealthy cyber-affair with a man she met online. Hannah Westberg gives an intimate glimpse of life as a teen with mental illness in Hannah: My True Story of Drugs, Cutting, and Mental Illness. And lastly, Chelsea Rae Swiggett powerfully writes about the challenges of living with severe anxiety disorder in Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety and Social Phobia.

I hope you read their stories and let the authors speak to you from the page. Because I know that each Louder Than Words author wanted to write their book for exactly that reason—to share what they’ve been through in the hopes of connecting with and helping other teens who might be facing similar challenges.

You can check out the series and get to know the inspiring young authors behind the books on the Louder Than Words site by reading their blogs, listening to their playlists, delving into their bios, and watching the book trailers.

Thanks so much for letting me share my good news with you, and I hope you like the series!

XOXO
Debbie

PS… Watch book trailers for all three memoirs here!

I don’t typically write these kinds of posts, but an important voice for young girls – New Moon Magazine – is in jeopardy, and Smart Girls Know wants to help keep it alive. Aimed at girls ages 8-13, New Moon fills a void in the marketplace of media for girls by offering something unique and positive, something that empowers its readers in an authentic way.

There is so much I LOVE about the magazine. Here are just a few of my favorite things about New Moon:

• It is truly created by girls for girls – the magazine and site has an all-girl editorial board made up of girls ages 8-12 that drives the great content you’ll find inside and edits the magazine
• New Moon is 100% advertising free, so that means there’s no need to deal with the kinds of media images you’ll find in traditional girl and teen magazines that research shows makes girls feel insecure and less confident about themselves
• New Moon offers opportunities for interested girls to get published in each issue

All of these things are great, but what would a magazine be without fantastic content? New Moon has that in spades, too. New Moon is all about helping girls discover and honor their true selves, engage in meaningful pursuits and dialogue, and express their voices in ways that matter.

Because this magazine is ad-free, it counts on the support of funders and subscribers to keep it afloat. Right now New Moon is in a particularly difficult financial crunch, and its future is at stake.

To do our part, Smart Girls Know has become an affiliate of New Moon. As an affiliate, Smart Girls Know is offering a $10 discount off the price of a year subscription, which includes 12-month unlimited online access to New Moon’s informative site. Typically affiliates earn a commission on sales, but Smart Girls Know is forgoing its commission to support the future of the magazine. To take advantage of this special offer, click here.

If you feel so moved, please help Smart Girls Know make sure this distinct voice and outlet for girls doesn’t go away!

XOXO Debbie

When I was a teen, there wasn’t much, if any, alcohol in the house. The drinking of alcohol was reserved for Christmas or Thanksgiving, when my mom would break out a bottle of syrupy sweet blush wine. Occasionally, my parents would let my sister and I have a sip, but that was about it. My parents were fairly strict, and would never have knowingly allowed my friends and I to partake in any alcohol at the house.

Though I suspect they knew I drank every now and then, I also knew it was completely against their rules. As a result, most of my teen drinking occurred at the house of friends, where we’d either dip into a parent’s liquor cabinet, or a friend with an older friend would get us a couple of six-packs. Drinking was something that happened on some weekends in high school, usually at bigger parties, and only occasionally to excess.

So I was interested to hear a story on the radio the other day about teens drinking habits being impacted by their parents’ attitudes towards drinking. According to the story on NPR:

Alcohol researcher Caitlin Abar from Pennsylvania State University found that parents’ efforts do play a role in shaping their teens’ behavior. She studied how parents deal with their high school teenagers regarding alcohol use while still at home, and she then checked after the teens’ first semester of college. Her study of 300 teenagers and their parents was published recently in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

“Parents who disapproved completely of underage alcohol use tended to have students who engaged in less drinking, less binge drinking, once in college,” Abar says.

And conversely, a parent’s permissiveness about teenage drinking is a significant risk factor for later binge drinking.

“The parents who are more accepting of teen drinking in high school were more likely to have children who engaged in risky drinking behaviors in college, compared to those children who had parents that were less accepting,” Abar says. The researchers also asked the teens about their parents’ drinking patterns and found that parents’ own drinking behavior influenced a teen’s later alcohol use.

This more permissive attitude some parents embrace today in which they allow their teens and possibly their teens’ friends drink as long as it’s at home and they’re being “safe” is referred to as the European model, since many countries in Europe are more lax about drinking age limits and families often allow their children to socially drink with the idea that they’ll learn to drink responsibly.

But new research shows this isn’t actually the case. “The more teenagers drink at home, the more they will drink at other places, and the higher the risk for problematic alcohol use three years later,” says researcher Haske van der Vorst.

What do you think of the findings of this research? To be honest, when I went to Penn State as a freshman, I definitely took partying to the extreme on more than one occasion. And in some ways, I think that my strict upbringing regarding drinking made the easy access to alcohol in college to tempting to say no to.

What is the attitude towards alcohol in your family? Is it completely forbidden? Do you think that by making it accessible to teens, it becomes less of a big deal?

There’s a new magazine on the block, and it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for more substance than your standard teen mag fare, but still with a cool, fun design and great content.

From the website, “Kiki Magazine is for girls who love life, appreciate creativity, and recognize good ideas. A Kiki reader thinks for herself, has her own look, and is on her way to being a confident, strong, and smart young woman. She’s a girl with style and substance!” Style and substance…what’s not to like about that?

In each issue of Kiki, which currently comes out four times a year, you’ll find articles and info on fashion, history, design, designers, accessories, and biographies; tips on using all kinds of different art tools, sewing and create-your-own projects; a look at creativity and culture in different countries; a behind-the-scenes look at the fashion industry; articles about grooming, health, and exercise; book reviews, recipes, and reader profiles; and games, puzzles, quizzes, and design-your-own activities.

Besides the truly great content of Kiki, what I love most about this magazine is its great design and accessibility. It’s gorgeous to look at, easy to peruse through, and it is ad-free, so there’s no worry about being bombarded with media images that might contradict the empowering content you’ll find inside.

One more thing I love about the Spring 2010 issue? It features my book In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers in its Book Club section. Thanks Kiki!

To check it out, visit the Kiki Magazine website where you can learn more about the current issue and subscribe, or go to your local Barnes & Noble or Borders (if they’re not already carrying it, ask them to!).

Most of us do…care what others think about us, that is. When it comes to things like the people you hang out with, the activities you do, the way you talk, and your personal style, chances are you’re at the very least considering how others will perceive you as you make your choices.

Some might say it’s human nature. Well, a new study by Dr. Amanda E. Guyer of the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that for teen girls, this reality of worrying about what others think about them – and therefore their potential depression and anxiety based on this – gets more intense as they progress through teenhood. The study was based on brain science, and looked at how certain regions of the brain were activated more strongly when they thought they were being evaluated by another teen. The more “high-interest” the peer was (prettier, popular, more interesting), the more strongly the brain reacted.

I’ll be honest…worrying about what others think of me is something I’ve struggled with from a very young age. When I was younger, I felt I was too short, too goofy, too plain Jane, and I was sure others saw me this way, too. And while I can’t say that I 100 percent don’t care what others think of me today, it’s definitely not such a big deal anymore. Now, I try to remember that most people are thinking about themselves and their own stuff, not sitting around considering the way I dress or parent or what kind of car I drive. And that’s incredibly freeing thing. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to figure it out.

And just to show you that I am OK with whatever you want to think about me, I’m including one of the most embarrassing photos of me I could find…a nice shot from college, complete with dorky glasses, goofy grin, and stuffed animal. Think what you want…go on, I can take it!

How about you? Do you care what others think of you? How does worrying about others’ perceptions impact your life?

After a bit of flip flopping over where to drop off my books for this year’s Operation Teen Book Drop, I ultimately decided to head down to my local public library.

After checking out a book waiting for me on the hold shelf, I planted a copy of my book CHILL and the Louder Than Words memoir, MARNI on the community resources shelf and snapped a photo.

Started by readergirlz in 2007, Operation Teen Book Drop is held in honor of Support Teen Literature Day in conjunction with Guys Lit Wire, YALSA, and If I Can Read I Can Do Anything. As part of Operation TBD, more than 10,000 new YA books have been donated by publishers to go to teens on Native American tribal lands, and more than 100 YA authors (including yours truly), librarians, and teens are dropping off YA books in their own communities.

Want to be a part of Operation TBD? Grab a favorite YA book, download the official book plate to stick inside, and leave the book in a public space for some lucky teen to discover. Then head over to readergirlz for the TBD Post-Op party at the readergirlz blog, tonight at 6pm PST/9pm EST.

You ever have those moments where you just realize, “Hey, I love my life!”? That pretty much sums up my weekend, since I got to spend Saturday and Sunday hanging out with hundreds of other writers and illustrators of children’s and YA books at the annual conference for SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators) of Western Washington.

As a writer, I spend much time alone in my little office upstairs, my only company being my white shepherd Baxter who tends to sprawl out under my desk. So to be surrounded by others who share my passion for writing and connecting with people through stories and words on the page, was just what I needed. I came away from the weekend with pages full of notes on everything from creating believable characters to plotting, new friends and professional acquaintances, and enough inspiration to last me a good long while.

Here are some pictures from the big weekend, where I got to hang with the very funny and inspirational author of 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher; National Book Award finalist for her novel Lips Touch, author Laini Taylor; the wonderful Mitali Perkins (author of Rickshaw Girl and the First Daughter series); Holly Cupula, whose debut novel comes out this June; Suzanne Young, author of series (and about a cabillion other forthcoming books…she is one busy writer!); Liz Gallagher, author of the YA novel ; Heather Davis, whose newest novel , just came out yesterday (happy book birthday!); and Kevin Emerson, musician and author of the Oliver Nocturne series. I hope some of their literary genius rubs off on me!