Strong Is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves

by Kate T. Parker

Paperback, 2017

Status

Available

Call number

155.43

Collection

Publication

Workman Publishing Company (2017), Edition: Illustrated, 256 pages

Description

"Girls being fearless. Girls being silly. Girls being wild, stubborn, and proud. Girls whose faces are smeared with dirt and lit up with joy. So simple and yet so powerful, Strong Is the New Pretty celebrates, through more than 175 memorable photographs, the strength and spirit of girls being 100% themselves. Real beauty isn't about being a certain size, acting a certain way, wearing the right clothes, or having your hair done (or even brushed). Real beauty is about being your authentic self and owning it. Kate T. Parker is a professional photographer who finds the real beauty in girls, capturing it for all the world to see in candid and arresting images. A celebration, a catalog of spirit in words and smiles, an affirmation of the fact that it's what's inside you that counts, Strong Is the New Pretty conveys a powerful message for every girl, for every mother and father of a girl, for every coach and mentor and teacher, for everyone in the village that it takes to raise a strong and self-confident person."--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
A very uplifting collections of photographs of girls being girls. Some of the quotes from the younger ones are great.
LibraryThing member Dreesie
This inspiring book has some text at the beginning of each chapter, and each photo has a short quote from the girl photographed, as well as her name and age.

Parker celebrates the different ways American girls are strong, and traits that mean different kinds of strength. Friendship, talent, and
Show More
bravery also get repeated mentions.

Great photography, I would love a follow-up on these same girls in 10 years. And maybe 20.

Great for girls of all ages.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MHanover10
I absolutely love this book. The girls are so strong and the quotes are great. Beautiful photos throughout.
LibraryThing member smorton11
There is nothing that makes me angrier or more upset than people criticizing anyone for trying to express themselves. Kate Parker opens the book with an introduction that starts with a story about her hair getting in her way when playing soccer and how happy she was to have it chopped off into a
Show More
bowl cut. When I was 6, I did the same thing. I wanted to be just like Kerri Strug. I wanted to play ice hockey. I used to pester my parents for an older brother and was given the explanation that as the oldest child, I would not be getting an older brother to play hockey with. (Little did my parents anticipate they would get divorced and I would get my older brother! But that’s beside the point.)

Basically, I wanted to do everything – play sports, play instruments, run races, ride by bike around our lake, jump in the stream beside my dad’s house, take art classes, read constantly – I had more interests than there were hours in the day to pursue them, which is still the case. And the greatest thing about my childhood? My parents let me. Regardless of my parents’ differences, they were united on at least one front : my sister and I were allowed to pursue basically anything that we wanted, we were allowed to try anything we wanted, even shop in the boys clothing section if that’s what we wanted.

I wish there was a book like Strong is the New Pretty around when I was a child and had to explain to the boys in my class and my friends’ parents that being a tomboy was perfectly acceptable. Kate Parker takes the approach to raising girls that my parents did and for that, I am most grateful to her. As one of my friends is expecting her first child, a girl, in a few short months, I want her daughter to know that she can be whatever, and whoever, she wants to be, both when she’s a kid and when she grows up.
Show Less

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

256 p.; 9.5 inches

ISBN

0761189130 / 9780761189138
Page: 0.5051 seconds