First, Pipher blames the low self respect of adolescent girls everything from parents to peers, but mainly faults our society as a whole. We are all guilty of getting caught up in the media, television, and magazines. "Have you seen Rosie? She has lost so much weight!" "Oprah gained all of her weight back and more!" These are just a few of the comments that are made after watching two of the most watched talk shows. I know these comments sound harmless, but to a young girl who is struggling with the perfect body image these comments reinforce the importance of appearance. Pipher also points out that intelligent girls are more prone to depression because they are more aware of their surroundings and therefore more aware of the new constraints they face as they leave childhood. Our society idealizes tall, dark and very skinny women. Thin is one thing, but "we" like skinny enough that it kills. I really like when Pipher uses the quote from Monica, a depressed fifteen year old, who had a hard time making friends because of her weight. "All five hundred boys want to go out with the same ten anorexic girls," she pleaded. This kind of put some humor in a very serious matter. Television, movies, and magazines are at the root of glamorizing thinness and sexuality, and even encouraging the use of drugs. Our society also puts women on the back burner. Men are wonderful, powerful, and successful and women need to put sugar and creme in their coffee. Pipher attributes this attitude to the schools of adolescents. Schools treat girls and boys differently. Boys are twice as likely to be seen as role models, more likely to receive teachers attention, and more likely to speak up in class. Junior high school is when girls began to drop in their academics. This may be due to the fact that girls place being popular as a higher priority, or they might give up on their hopeless efforts at trying to gain the teacher's approval. Pipher also believes that an adolescent girl's thoughts and emotions effect their relationships and actions, and can be a cause of their problems. Girls' emotional immaturity makes it hard for them to hold on to an identity of themselves as they often idealize characteristics of other girls. One thing that I noticed while reading "Reviving Ophelia" is that two girls can come from totally different backgrounds, be a part of different social cliques, and have an enormous gap between their intelligence but still have the confusion and anxiety of becoming a woman as a common bond. Girls during adolescents cannot think clearly; everything is a dramatic event. For example, a pimple can keep an eighth grade girl from attending a football game. This seems ridiculous; however, this petty problem seems almost as major as a death in the family at the time to the girl. Sometimes, a girl going through the stress of adolescence just needs emotional comfort. This was true of Cindy age four

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1970
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)