GIRLS + CONFIDENCE According to the 2018 Ypulse Confidence Code poll, girls’ confidence levels drop by 30% between the ages of 8 and 14. The most commonly reported reasons for this are related to physical changes and body image concerns girls experience during this time. However, girls’ self-esteem and confidence are related to not only their physical appearance, but also their internal perception of themselves and their abilities.
A GUIDE TO
girls
Rapid and significant growth and changes—physical, neurodevelopmental, psychological, behavioral, emotional, and social—occur during the many stages of adolescence. At GPS, we know that in order to best educate and guide girls through these formative years, we have to know girls—their motivations, development, experience—and then use that knowledge to not only establish curriculum and programs designed for how they learn best, but also provide an environment and culture that best nurture them.
“These years are a time of incredible growth; the only other time in a child’s life when they changed this rapidly was between birth and age two.” —PHYLLIS L. FAGELL, MIDDLE SCHOOL MATTERS
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MORE FROM THE POLL: » Th ere is virtually no difference
in confidence between boys and girls until age 12. After that, a confidence gap opens and doesn’t close through adolescence. At age 14, boys’ confidence is 27% higher than girls’.
»B etween their tween and teen years,
girls’ confidence that other people like them falls from 71% to 38%.
» More than half of teen girls feel
pressure to be perfect.
» 3 in 4 teen girls worry about failing. »B etween ages 12 and 13, the percentage
of girls who say they’re not allowed to fail increases by 150%.
»N early 8 in 10 girls want to feel
more confident in themselves.
Source: Claire Shipman & Katty Kay, authors of The Confidence Code for Girls, YPulse, 2018
