The Wallstreet Journal posted an enticing article called Advice on Helping Teen Girls Thrive. This article talked about different ways we could lend a hand to teen girls with mood swings confirmed by the latest research and studies. This information would only be beneficial for us to talk about at Big Sister Gossip, seeing as we pride ourselves on helping out our listeners.
There were many direct and indirect quotes that stood out to us. Lisa Damour, psychologist and director of the Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio, was the main source of information in the article, was saying that if you just guide a girl to name what she’s feeling inside, it can really help her to be calm. This hit us very unexpectedly, seeing as just how true it is.
From a young age, if you asked teachers for help with a homework question, they talk you through the problem so that you can understand how to solve it, rather than just give you the answer outright. The same thing applies to emotions and stressful teen situations. If you can get a girl to name what she’s feeling, she can solve her problem herself, with guidance rather than just being given the answer.
Michael Y. Simon, an author and school counsellor in New Orleans said: “The No.1 mistake parents make when their kid is in distress is to jump to solve the problem.” We find this correlates with exactly what Dr.Damour said. The way to help kids isn’t to jump in and solve the problem for them because then they won’t be able to work through their problems in the future. Parents should be like a helping hand instead, trying to get their child to talk about the situation and find their own solutions. Seeing as our Podcast is based around giving advice, we will be sure to keep these quotes in mind.
In order to get these quotations, we thought of possible questions that were asked in the interviews. For example, we thought a question that may have been asked to Dr. Damour would be “How would you help your daughter with a problem she’s having?” We also think that a question that may have been asked to Mr. Simon was “What would be the biggest mistake parents make when trying to help their children with a problem?”
If we were ever given the opportunity to ask some questions, we would dig deeper into the uncommon questions people wouldn’t be able to find easily online. A question could be “What’s the worst thing people do without realizing that can trigger a girl’s emotions?” It’s good to be aware of these things because small things tend to bother girls a lot and reducing this can be a big step in reducing anxiety and stress on a daily basis. An unusual one we’d ask is “How can you help calm an introverted teen girl during the peak of her emotion?.” Every article about helping in these situations I’ve read, without a doubt said to talk to them about the problem which magically turns into a calming effect. What if they don’t enjoy sharing their feelings? What would you do to help?
Dating tends to happen a fair amount during the ages of when teenagers develop stronger emotions. A question we are super interested in hearing an answer to is “Does dating overall make teen girls more or less anxious than being single?” When you start liking someone, you tend to give all your attention to them and some things they say or do will make girls overthink possibly causing anxiety.
Another question we would totally ask would be “Do parents have a higher expectation for their daughters than their sons since they mature faster?” We want to look into these questions because it seems in a lot of households this is a problem. Big Sister Gossip experience situation when daughters should know how to clean and cook but the parents don’t have that expectation for the sons. As well as the daughters should be more caring and more mature than the sons. This also supports the assumption in the action where they said girls tend to have a more negative conflict with parents than boys.
The last question we want to ask is “Do girls from single-family mature differently than girls who are not?” Many teen girls live in single-family households and we wonder if it affects their mental health or have different behaviours. Big sister gossip thinks it’s important to help out teen girls who have a missing part during their puberty and give them advice. That’s why we want to go in-depth research into their questions.
Dating tends to happen a fair amount during the ages of when teenagers develop stronger emotions. A question we are super interested in hearing an answer to is “Does dating overall make teen girls more or less anxious than being single?” When you start liking someone, you tend to give all your attention to them and some things they say or do will make girls overthink possibly causing anxiety.
While analyzing the quotations that were used in this article, as well as posing possible questions to ask, it provided us with valuable knowledge we are sure to absorb and use in our Podcast. The sources from the article helped us to realize the most valuable way to help girls, which is really what we strive to do in our Podcast.
Big Sister Gossip 