Author Spotlight: Liz Funk
Posted by meredith on 02-17-2009
Today's Author Spotlight is on Liz Funk and her non-fiction debut Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls. I've had the pleasure of working with Liz as a member of our Youth Advisory Board, and can seriously only marvel at her ability to manage college, a burgeoning freelance career and everything that comes with publishing your first book.
All the more reason, teens, twentysomethings and their parents should pay attention to her advice on how to handle the pressure to be perfect. Supergirls Speak Out is on sale now, but we're giving away a free copy to the first three commenters to share their experience with "supergirls."
Ypulse: What made you decide to expand "Supergirls" beyond your personal story?
Liz Funk: The short answer is that I really wanted to write a non-fiction book and the pressure on girls to be perfect was an issue that I already knew a lot about and was already credentialed to write, as a feminist-y 18 year old. The long answer is that I wrote this book because I had to. Growing up, I was keenly aware of all the demands made of girls, and the constant contradictions that defined "growing up girl."
I had always wanted to be a sharp op-ed columnist, but I also wanted people to like me, and I wanted to be a feminist intellectual but I also wanted to be desirable and pretty, and I saw so many other girls struggling with the roles for girls today. I also saw so many girls, like me, who were consumed by the pressure to be perfect and seemed to be covering up their insecurities with their accomplishments.
I started to write the proposal for Supergirls Speak Out in January of 2007, and it was a really fortuitous time to be taking on this topic, because there was a lot of media buzz about overachieving girls, and I really wanted to deliver the Generation Y take on perfectionist girls, from inside the phenomenon.
YP: Do you see a common driving factor (or combination of factors) behind the "supergirls" phenomenon? What do you think has invigorated it so much in recent years?
LF: I think the biggest problem is that in the face of this extremely high-paced, high-pressure youth culture, very few teens have the solitude or even the time to be alone with their thoughts, experiment with their personalities and their tastes, and figure out why they matter. Sexism also plays a role: girls today are taught — largely by the media — that their value lies in how they look, how they make others feel, and what others think of them. I think the media plays a huge role in illustrating the ease of attaining perfection.
Look at "Gossip Girl!" Blair and Serena are well-dressed, pretty, rich, charming, desired, popular girls who almost never say anything stupid or look ugly… and they're going to go to Ivy League schools. But in defense of "Gossip Girl," the images of women in the media have always been perfect; I don't think that Generation Y has a good grasp of media literacy. I think that when previous generations of teens watched "Baywatch" and the original "90210," they knew, Okay, this is entertainment; these women are professionally skinny and pretty, and I don't need to look like this. Anecdotally, although a lot of factors contributed to the eating disorder I struggled with in high school, I initially started the diet that spiraled into anorexia after religiously watching MTV’s "Spring Break" programming in the 8th grade and deciding that I really wanted to be a skinny, pretty beach babe (I also really wanted to go to Harvard at that point in my life, too).
So, in short, girls want to be everything they see in the media — accomplished, intelligent, beautiful- but because they want to be a perfect 10 at everything they attempt, the pressures make them go mad!
YP: Are there any steps parents can take to help their daughters with this internal struggle or is there something that these girls can do for themselves? As a recovering supergirl, how do you manage the stress?
LF: I think communication is the most important thing for parents, in terms of identifying whether their daughter is a supergirl and helping their daughters. Parents need to ask their daughters, "What time are you going to bed?" "Are you drinking coffee?" "Why are you working so much? Are the teachers giving you this much homework or are you making it into a lot of work because you want everything to be perfect?" I think a huge factor in terms of the supergirls' stress levels is that the supergirls take tasks that were originally manageable and reasonable and make them into huge productions, partly because they want everything to be perfect and partly because the supergirls are trying to distract themselves from an inner void that they look to fill with work and being constantly busy and rushing around.
As such, a big part of managing the stress was realizing my intrinsic worth. When I was in the height of my supergirl days — my freshman and sophomore years of college — I was working so hard and trying to do everything because I was trying to matter. I really didn’t think I had any value outside of my resume and what other people thought of me. I wanted a career and a romantic life and a glamorous New York City life, because I didn't think that when I was in neutral, I was worthy of others’ attention or affections. I had a mental meltdown my junior year of college, and in the subsequent holiday vacation, I spent an entire month painting and sleeping and just sitting on my couch thinking, trying to find myself.
YP: Now that the book is published and your graduation is on the horizon, what comes next for you?
YP: To be honest, I have no idea. And as a supergirl, that's scary! I hope to keep doing what I'm doing — writing books, writing freelance and writing opinion pieces, book publicity, blogging, and Facebooking! I'm also going on a book tour — I'm giving lectures about Supergirls Speak Out at Columbia, Duke, NYU, GW, the University of New England, and a bunch of other fun places. And I'm taking a vacation; I'm planning on going to Paris for a month over the summer. I think I'm going to plan a city tour of all the places that they went in the Da Vinci Code and retrace the characters’ steps in their search of the Holy Grail. Because that's how cool I am. I don't think in the height of my supergirl days that I would have admitted that.
For more coverage of YA books and publishing, check out the Ypulse Books Channel sponsored by the NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL: FIND BEAUTY CHALLENGE! (LB Teens).
Categorized under: Author Spotlight, Books & Print
February 17th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
"I was working so hard and trying to do everything because I was trying to matter. I really didn’t think I had any value outside of my resume and what other people thought of me. I wanted a career and a romantic life and a glamorous New York City life, because I didn't think that when I was in neutral, I was worthy of others’ attention or affections."
Yes yes yes!!! I remember this experience well, and it's still hard to try to explain to the tween girl in my life that you don't have to be perfect at everything for them to be worthwhile!
February 17th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
It's hard not to try to be a supergirl when you see how hard it is to get into college and then how tough it is to get a job once you graduate. Parents need to remind their kids, and themselves, that the meaning in life won't be found in how much we earn.
I've tried to guide my teen daughter's media consumption, but if I had it to do over again, I'd be MUCH more careful about the books she reads. When she was younger, she read Gossip Girls and nearly ALL the other chick lit books, and I think it gave her a warped view of what's important for a girl to strive for. She's doing ok, but every once in awhile I'll get the impression that these books had a negative impact.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I will admit that I was a Supergirl. Even as 24-year-old professional, parts of me still desire to be that all-around, All-American dream girl. I'm really glad you took the time to write this book. I suffered in many of the same ways you did trying to live up to this idea of a perfect teenager. It's becoming a serious problem in young girls today, and hopefully this book will bring the issue to the table. All it takes is a bit of education to start activism and hopefully this book will do just that.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Although I was not a supergirl myself, I was friends with a few in high school. One friend in particular had such low self esteme that she judged herself entirely on her faults. Much like the quote above she didn't think she was worthy of attention unless she was being successful.
I still remember the day she scored a 1600 on the SAT (back when that was the highest score possible) and spent the whole day explaining to everyone that it wasn't a perfect score because the test was graded on a curve.
We put such pressure on girls today, to be athletic, smart, beautiful, smart, etc. But there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all of that. Maybe we should start meaning what we say when we tell kids they can be anything they want to be, even if that is just average.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
thank you so much for writing a book about this. as a girl in high school right now, i feel like this is such an important subject to learn about, because it really is everywhere, and so hard not to get pulled into yourself. Congrats on your first book!
February 17th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I thought there was absolutely nothing wrong with being/trying to be a Supergirl…
Until I read about the negative side-effects, and realized that I've been ignoring those exact symptoms – figuring that they're signs of weakness or incapability. As a basically-obsessive-compulsive type of "supergirl", I cannot be told that I'm not good enough for something or can't do something. But ironically, the only one who tells me that is MYSELF.
In my opinion, we think there's nothing wrong with us because most of the pressure is self-inflicted. What I think is just personal weakness might really be a red flag, telling MYSELF to slow down, for my own sanity. We're taught to be tough, to be superhuman, and so we end up ignoring our own sense of "enough".
Our generation is insatiable. What's the cure?
February 18th, 2009 at 7:53 am
I think that Supergirls believe that Blair and Serena are fictional, but we're afraid our friends, family, and boyfriends don't see it that way. I remember when guys would comment on how gorgeous Mandy Moore was, and even though I knew about the airbrushing and money behind her image, I thought to myself that if that's what they wanted me to look like, that's what I'd have to look like, no matter how unattainable it actually was.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
This book caught my eye at Border's this weekend because I felt it was the perfect combination of Opehlia Speaks and Overachievers: Secret Lives of Driven kids – yet wonderfully scripted for young women of today. As a graduate student at a new england university, i still struggle with supergirl characteristics – where a five page resume is not enough and only 30 hours in a day would be enough for me to get 6 hours of sleep…this book presents a fresh look at a troubling, serious topic facing young women who aim high and have great expectations. thanks for the insight and sharing your story.
March 7th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
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