Okay, okay. I wrote a few weeks ago that I was completely swamped and nearing the completion of my next book. Well, I still am, on both counts. The good news is, my editor gave me a one-month extension on my manuscript deadline. The bad news is, that means one more month that I’m busy, busy, busy and unable to post as frequently on Smart Girls Know as I would like.

Ah well…I can only only do what I can do. And today, that means giving you a sneak peak of my new book cover, hot off the presses…er, hot off the Simon Says website! Here it is in all its glory… I LOVE IT! It’s a great motivator to keep me writing (and to keep me from getting stressed out while doing it!). Enjoy!

Peace & Love,

Debbie

Hello! The website and blog for one of my favorite magazines for girls, New Moon Magazine, is currently featuring an interview with yours truly about my book In Their Shoes. I was interviewed with one of New Moon’s blog interns, who asked some great questions and also turned the tables on me by asking me to walk readers through a typical day in my work life.

Read it here for all the details!

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Get Involved

If you haven’t tapped into New Moon Magazine yet, it is the best thing going for girls ages 8-14. As described on their website, there are lots of ways to get involved in the magazine beyond just reading it:

If you live near Duluth, Minnesota, you can apply to be on the Girls Editorial Board (GEB). The GEB meets twice a month in Duluth to edit articles and decide what to publish in New Moon.

Like to write or draw? Click here to see our writers’ and artist guidelines!

Do you have inner beauty? Nominate YOURSELF as a beautiful girl!

If you want to be involved in New Moon but don’t live near Duluth, check out the Computer Advisory Board (CAB). The CAB meets once a month to give feedback about New Moon and brainstorm ideas for future issues.

The New Moon Club gives girls even MORE opportunities to share their voices outside of the magazine! Get an official club button, access to member-only chats, content, and much, much more!

The New Moon Blog is a place to talk about the things we see around us—from a girl’s perspective! We’ll post movie and book reviews, news about girls, opportunities for girls, information about what’s happening inside New Moon, and more!

Adventure Vacations are IN

When I was a teenager, summers were usually spent hanging out at my parent’s house, working at the movie theatre at the mall, or volunteering at a camp in Maryland. Once a summer, my sister, parents and I usually loaded up the Plymouth Voyager (an ancient minivan) and headed down to Ocean City, NJ to hang out on the beach and cruise the boardwalk for a week. Occasionally we’d trek to some random Sheraton in a town like Syracuse or Gettysburg so my dad could attend a “Corvair convention” (Corvair’s are a type of car from the 60’s that my dad used to be obsessed with) while my mom, sis and I hung out by the pool.

Mello vacations like that wouldn’t pass muster today, according to a new report by Harris Interactive. According to the report:

• 78% of teens desire a unique, once-in-a-lifetime vacation event or activity that will provide them with bragging rights
• 84% of teens favor real-life action on vacation, such as participating in adventurous activities, to playing video games at their hotel
• 68% of teens want to explore a new place on vacation
• 49% want to see a celebrity while on vacation

The report also says that parents today are often letting their kids have a big say in where the family goes on vacation.

I think it’s great that teens are looking for more adventure on vacations, especially since taking safe risks and doing adventurous things like swimming with dolphins or rock climbing is proven to build up self-esteem.

Volunteer Vacations

If you’re up for an adventure and you want to do something outside the box, check out the book . This book lists vacation opportunities around the world where you can volunteer while vacationing. Want to visit the Caribbean? You can build housing there in exchange for free room and board and a cultural experience better than you’d get on any resort. Have you dreamed of visiting Nepal? Sign up with Volunteer Nepal Himalaya and enjoy the satisfaction of seeing Nepal from a local perspective while making a positive difference, all for the cost of your airfare. Read Volunteer Vacations for hundreds more opportunities for you and your family.

What’s your dream vacation? Share your thoughts here!

Adventure Vacations are IN

When I was a teenager, summers were usually spent hanging out at my parent’s house, working at the movie theatre at the mall, or volunteering at a camp in Maryland. Once a summer, my sister, parents and I usually loaded up the Plymouth Voyager (an ancient minivan) and headed down to Ocean City, NJ to hang out on the beach and cruise the boardwalk for a week. Occasionally we’d trek to some random Sheraton in a town like Syracuse or Gettysburg so my dad could attend a “Corvair convention” (Corvair’s are a type of car from the 60’s that my dad used to be obsessed with) while my mom, sis and I hung out by the pool.

Mello vacations like that wouldn’t pass muster today, according to a new report by Harris Interactive. According to the report:

• 78% of teens desire a unique, once-in-a-lifetime vacation event or activity that will provide them with bragging rights
• 84% of teens favor real-life action on vacation, such as participating in adventurous activities, to playing video games at their hotel
• 68% of teens want to explore a new place on vacation
• 49% want to see a celebrity while on vacation

The report also says that parents today are often letting their kids have a big say in where the family goes on vacation.

I think it’s great that teens are looking for more adventure on vacations, especially since taking safe risks and doing adventurous things like swimming with dolphins or rock climbing is proven to build up self-esteem.

Volunteer Vacations

If you’re up for an adventure and you want to do something outside the box, check out the book . This book lists vacation opportunities around the world where you can volunteer while vacationing. Want to visit the Caribbean? You can build housing there in exchange for free room and board and a cultural experience better than you’d get on any resort. Have you dreamed of visiting Nepal? Sign up with Volunteer Nepal Himalaya and enjoy the satisfaction of seeing Nepal from a local perspective while making a positive difference, all for the cost of your airfare. Read Volunteer Vacations for hundreds more opportunities for you and your family.

What’s your dream vacation? Share your thoughts here!

In case you missed watching it live, you can still download and watch the concerts from yesterday’s LIVE EARTH, a global music event aimed at promoting awareness of climate change. The concert series opened in Sydney and then moved across the globe for concerts in all seven continents.

The concerts packed major star power, and featured artists like The Police, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer, Black Eyed Peas, James Blunt, Keane, Dave Matthews Band, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Keith Urban, Ludacris, and many more.

Visit the LIVE EARTH website to download videos and pics, check out people’s blogs about the concerts, read up on the latest in living green, and even sign the pledge to join the movement to take action against global warming.

LIVE EARTH was the creation of environmentalist Al Gore. Well done, Al!

How much time do you spend hanging out in the great outdoors? Whether you’re hiking, jogging, or just hanging out enjoying the warmth of the sun on your skin, spending time outside and soaking proven to be good for the mind, body, and soul. Unfortunately, it’s something that fewer and fewer teens today are doing.

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, children’s advocates, environmentalists, business execs and political leaders are worried that the current generation is going to be “disconnected from nature.” These experts say that this negatively impacts teens’ “emotional well-being, physical health, learning abilities and environmental consciousness.” They’ve even come up with a new name for it: nature deficit disorder.

From the article:

From 1997 to 2003, Sandra Hoffert (family studies professor at the University of Maryland) found there was a decline of 50%, from 16% to 8%, in the proportion of children 9 to 12 who spent time in such outside activities as hiking, walking, fishing, beach play, and gardening.

Hofferth’s study also showed an increase in computer play time for all children and in time spent on television and video games for those ages 9 to 12. And it found increases in sleep time, study time, and reading time.

The article also talks about the benefits of being outdoors, noting such positive side-effects such as:

• reduced stress
• improved cognitive development
• improved creativity
• improved cooperative play

Click here for a detailed list of the benefits of playing in the outdoors.

What has been your experience? Do you enjoy spending time outside just for the sake of it? if so, what benefits do you get from communing with nature? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

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On a personal note, I grew up spending hours and hours playing outside. The backyard of our house was thick with woods, and my sister and I hung out there with the other neighborhood kids climbing trees, exploring, and getting dirty every day after school for years. Even though now I’m more of a “city girl,” spending time just “being” in nature, whether in Manhattan, LA, or Seattle, is still high on my list of things to do everyday. Over the years, I’ve realized that spending time outside, usually just with my dog Baxter, is almost a spiritual thing for me. It’s how I relax, chill, breathe…connect.

Cyberbullying in the News

Have you ever been the victim of “cyberbullying?” According to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, you’ve been on the receiving end of cyberbullying if anyone has ever:

• spread a rumor about you online;
• taken a private email, IM or text message you sent them and forwarded it on or posted it where others could see it;
• sent you a threatening or aggressive IM, email or text message; or
• posted an embarrassing picture of you online without your permission.

If you answered yes to one of these questions, you’re not alone. 32% of teens ages 12-17 polled have experienced at least one of these situations.

There’s so much hype about cyberbullying these days, but what’s the reality? Is it really a new epidemic? Is it worse than the kinds of bullying that teens in past generations had to endure when it came to emotional warfare and physical bullying?

Here are a few interesting stats from the Pew/Internet study, released on June 27:

• girls are more likely than boys to be victims of cyberbullying
• users of social network sites (like MySpace or Facebook) are more likely to experience cyberbullying
• 17% of girls say they’ve had a private communication they’ve written be forwarded on to others without their permission
• 15% of girls say they’ve received threatening or aggressive online messages
• 16% of girls say they’ve had a rumor spread about them online

I thought it was interesting to read that, despite all the attention in the media about cyberbullying, most teens (67%) say that bullying and harassment happens more offline than online.

When I was a teenager, bullying was rampant, at least the kind of emotional bullying that girls tend to practice…the “relational aggression” that includes things like ostracizing, spreading rumors, telling secrets, putting down, name-calling. Looking back at my years in high school and middle school, the most basic tools for this type of bullying were notes passed in class and the occasional embarrassing Polaroid (yes, I’m talking pre-digital camera days). Nothing was immediate. Rumors took time to spread, it was literally mouth to mouth instead of the blast zone that can be covered in the blink of an eye by pushing the “send” button on your email.

What are your thoughts on the statistics released by this study above. Does this reflect your experience?

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Olivia’s Letters: A Cyberbullying Story

There was a really interesting story about a young victim of cyberbullying on the Today Show last month. Olivia Gardner was in sixth grade when she had an epileptic attack at school and the torment began. Olivia was tortured by bullies, who even went so far as to create an “Olivia Hater’s” page on MySpace. The bullying got so bad that Olivia eventually transferred schools, twice, but unfortunately the bullying followed her, growing in momentum.

That’s when two teenage sisters, Emily and Sarah Buder, heard about what was happening with Olivia. They began a letter writing campaign to Olivia, encouraging their friends to write letters of support and love to her. Amazingly enough, over time word of the campaign spread all over the world, and “Olivia’s Letters” have come in the thousands, from all over the world. Olivia is now “recovering” from her experience, thanks to the support of thousands of people who have written to tell her they care for her. She is being homeschooled by her mom. You can watch the original Today Show piece here.

What an incredible story…it’s such a testament to the whole notion that the smallest idea can have a huge impact. That two teen girls started an international campaign through the simple act of writing a letter is just the coolest thing ever. And hopefully Olivia’s story will help other victims of bullying know that they’re not alone and that they can get through it, no matter how bleak things look.

Read more about Olivia’s story in this article in the Marin Independent Journal. If you want to write a letter to Olivia yourself, start your letter off with the two words, “Dear Olivia” and send your note of encouragement to Olivia’s Letters, c/o 293 Corte Madera Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941 or email .

Hello…I’m back! I’ve been busy trying not to get stressed while writing my book about how not to get stressed. I think I managed to do it. Anyway… I’m back!

Did anyone catch the series premiere of The Best Years on The N last Friday night? It’s a new drama about Samantha Best, an orphan who gets a full ride to an Ivy League college in Boston. The premiere was about her first days on campus, and I was instantly hooked! Great characters, excellent writing, cool music…the whole package. If you missed the premiere, they’re playing throughout the week, or you can watch the whole thing online here.

I have some friends at The N who worked hard on this show, so kudos to you Alyssa, Robin and Amy! I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Oh, and don’t forget…it you want to hear how The N comes up with ideas for new shows and creates all the cool stuff we see, listen to my interview for In Their Shoes with The N hot shot Amy Friedman here.