Firsts

Firsts: Modern Rites of Passage for Young Women

Heather — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:25:59 +0000

Many countries and cultures have formal ceremonies that mark the passage from girl to woman. These rites of passage, however, are not so obvious to some women growing up in the United States. Some formal rites of passage you may be familiar with are the Jewish Bat Mitzvah, the Hispanic Quinceanera, or the Catholic Confirmation. But what if you don’t participate in one of these formal ceremonies? Do you miss out on important things? This website aims to catch those of you who feel like your coming-of-age invitation was lost in the mail. Although there may be no balloons or cake or VIPs, in the immortal words of Neil Diamond, “Girl, you’ll be a woman soon.” You should be able to see a little of yourself in some of the rites that we chose. Remember: “It’s the journey, not the destination that’s important.”

Social Butterflies Declaring Independence Identity Crisis Bodyworks Taking Charge

About Firsts

Sheela — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 03:14:11 +0000

The Firsts website was created by Library and Information Science students at Drexel University in Sandra Hughes-Hassell’s Resources for Young Adults class (also known as Info 684). Here’re some thoughts about how we came up with the idea of Firsts, the selection criteria we developed for the resources we selected, and some information about how we put together the website for the project.

Our Process

Sheela — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:16:18 +0000

We made a standing appointment to meet after class each week (our own weekly ritual included Fran’s passing around of tic tacs) and in between conversations ranging from knitting to computers we came up with Firsts. Our initial meeting was mainly testing the waters. We had chosen a topic – ‘Coming of Age’ – and had to decide how to approach the topic to create a resources website aimed at teenagers. We were all over the place the first couple of times we met; we had a lot of ideas – everything from gang initiations to debutante balls. We decided that we were going to at least focus on teenage girls in the United States as a way of narrowing the topic down – we all remembered what it was like to be a teenage girl growing up in the US. At our second meeting we finally decided to focus on Rites of Passage, and after looking at various cultural rites of passage – like those mentioned in our main introduction – we started thinking about what happens to girls that don’t have those rites.

Heather found a great book called ‘It’s your Rite’ that helped us clarify what might be meant by Rite of Passage. Girls without formal rites still grow up, right? They have other sorts of rites to rely on, informal rites. Our big break came the third time we met, we started thinking in terms of ‘firsts;’ we had a huge brainstorming session where we wrote down every kind of big first we’d gone through growing up, anything we could think of: these were a teenage girl’s modern rites of passage. Later we managed to break down the list into four categories, one for each of us: Bodyworks, Declaring Independence, Identity Crises, and Social Butterflies. We later added a fifth category – Taking Charge – as we found materials that didn’t fit into any one category. We also added a category for Parents and Educators.

Selection Criteria

Sheela — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 20:25:44 +0000

When looking for resources for this site, we looked for what we dubbed the “4 As” : Authority, Affiliation, Authenticity, and Appeal.

* Authority - these sites come from credible sources such as government agencies, respected organizations, as well as personal experience testimonials
* Affiliation - these resources are frequently referenced by other reputable sites, professional respect for the information contained in the site, longevity of site or organization
* Authenticity - these resources are “real,” they have a true, authentic voice and speak to their audience on their level — not condescending, too technical, or preachy.
* Appeal - referenced list generated in Resources for Young Adults class–to include appropriate language, color, graphics, readability, easily navigable, interactive, recognizable voice, relevancy…basically will girls like it enough to look through it and find the information they need?

About the Website

Sheela — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:18:06 +0000

The website was designed with two concepts in mind: teen magazines and blogs. When our group initially met and decided that we were going to create a website for teenage girls, we started thinking about the formats that’re accessible for teen girls – one obvious one is the teenage girl magazine. We looked at teen magazine websites and really liked the vibrancy: the bold colors (pink!), the provocative headlines, the engaging text, and the interactive elements like polls. Another idea that came up later on in our meetings was making the website into a blog – it’s a format that internet savvy teens (and as we are creating a website we could assume some level of internet competency) are very familiar with. Once the blog was set up, we also liked how everyone could change and manipulate her own posts and how the website really turned into a team effort.

After we discussed blogs, I installed several different blogging tools on the website and tested them to try and figure out what worked best. I ended up choosing Wordpress for a few reasons – it’s fairly robust with a variety of potential plugins (like polls) and with some changes could be used as a Content Management Tool rather then just a blog, it has a really great indexing system where we could add a number of categories and subcategories and post items under multiple categories (though we didn’t really use this as much as we could have), and it has excellent documentation – as a tech writer I appreciate good documentation, and as a not particularly technical person – I can handle basic HTML but can’t do much beyond that – I needed really great documentation if I was going to mange to customize templates (the template I chose is called Kiwi) and deal with the code stuff.

About the Images

Sheela — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:19:31 +0000

When it came to images, my first thought was to look at fonts – all star images, butterfly images, American flag images, and some feature images used through the site were based on image fonts. Other images came from the AIGA’s Symbol signs website, the Microsoft Office Clip Art Website, and from iStockPhoto.com (where I had a lot of unused credits). Images were put together with a variety of tools including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Macromedia Flash, Microsoft Paint, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Initially, I almost went the way of photographs rather then clipart, but when I put together some test ideas, our group decided that the clipart won over photos – the clipart conveyed more of the feel we were going for, and it was easier to manipulate which was a plus. I also ended up sticking to black and white clipart as I thought it worked with the bright colors used throughout the website. I will admit that most of the images were put together the week before the website was turned in, when I found some time to play. Our initial website design did not include all the images that this version does – the initial design did have the Flash rollover, but it only had one header similar to the main page header.

About Us

Sheela — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:20:33 +0000

So who are we? We’re all Library and Information Science Masters students at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Basically, we want to be librarians when we grow up.

Heather at thirteen with her niece and nephew.	Heather Dunbar hed42@drexel.edu My name is Heather and I am finishing up my last quarter at Drexel’s iSchool. Currently, I work as a librarian in a school district nearby. Although I never participated in any “formal rites of passage,” I did experience some of the firsts we talked about. I remember my time as teen feeling very exciting, confusing, overwhelming…just a jumble of feelings. I think that many of my firsts whether pleasant or not made me into the strong person I am today.
Fran as a teenager.	Fran Grossman fen22@drexel.edu I grew up in the New York suburbs and attended high school in the mid to late 60s. Civil rights protests, Vietnam, anti-war protests and activism were a part of school life. People felt that they could change the state of the world — and did as the next few years showed. Many of the issues of today were faced by the teens then. I currently work part-time as an aide in a middle school library and part-time at a not-for-profit organization that helps people who have had transplants and people with catastrophic spinal cord injuries.
Sheela at sixteen.	Sheela Nath sn76@drexel.edu I’m not sure about growing up. For me the transition to adult just seemed to happen — like when seasons change and one day you spot the first crocus blooming and realize its not winter anymore. Sort of look-around-and-there-you-are kind of thing. Though during the time I was full of anger and angst and the whole trying-to-fit-into-my-own-skin kind of thing. I have a background in technical writing and am currently working on my degree in library science as it’s a field where you keep learning new things.
Nicole as a teenager.	Nicole Snyder nms35@drexel.edu I am a budding public librarian! Prior to this librarian stage of my life, I wanted to be everything from a teacher (taught at a zoo with tons of animals and crazy kids for years), to a lawyer, to a sociologist, to just about everything else imaginable. I like knitting, sewing and all sorts of crafty goodness! I went to a small Catholic high school in northeastern Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, I graduated with only thirteen others! Both of my proms were more of this obligatory bore-fest than something that I was excited about. When I went to junior prom, I took a boy I met at a summer camp type of thing. At the after prom party he started to make me feel uncomfortable, physically, so I called my Mom and my Stepdad and had them drive him home (and from them on referred to him as ‘the grabber’). For my Senior Prom I took one of my very best friends who just so happened to be a fourteen year old freshman. My car broke down that day and he (of course), didn’t drive yet, so we were stuck without a ride until my grandfather let me drive his convertible Aston Martin (translation-really cool car) to the prom. We were the coolest (well, not really). It was a super fun prom, way better than the one with ‘the grabber’! Check out Nicole’s library blog here.

Social Butterflies!

Nicole — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:36:07 +0000

There are so many exciting and not so exciting aspects to being a teenager. Social interactions are one of them. Whether you are really excited and confident about getting into the dating scene or getting ready to attend big events or if you are really dreading it - there are a lot of good things out there to help guide you through the process. The way you hang out with people and who you hang out with might be changing and you might be wondering if what’s happening with you is what’s normal for everyone else.

Dating, Crushing and Getting Over It! Proms and other big events Your prom, Your way: LGBT Proms

Parents can text kids on prom night!

Nicole — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:25:40 +0000

You might think its lame - but hey, it can save lives.

“A program is being launched across the United States to encourage parents to text message their children on prom night - to remind them not to drink and drive. Newsday reports. …”The parents are doing the text-messaging through the non-profit Century Council, based in Washington, D.C., which seeks to eliminate underage drinking, as well as drinking and driving among teens. Parents can have the text messages sent to their kids by simply going onto the council’s Web site, www.centurycouncil.org, punching in the phone number, date of the prom and ZIP code. The message will be sent electronically at 8:30 p.m. … According to the National Highway Safety Administration, 713 youths under the age of 21 were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes during prom and graduation season last year.”

Dating, Crushing and Getting Over It!

Nicole — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 01:34:01 +0000

Books

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dating for Teens by Susan Raben
This book seemed a little bit silly to me at first, but now I think that it is totally the textbook to what to expect when starting to or thinking about getting into dating. Your first kiss, first date, first crush, first heart break can all be so overwhelming and nerve-racking as well! What I like about this book is the way that it reads really practically– most of the author’s advice is just about being yourself and putting on your “game face”; however, she still gets into some of the heavier topics like sex, abuse and other issues that can occur. This book is a great place to start!

The Teen Survival Guide To Dating & Relating: Real-World Advice on Guys, Girls, Growing Up, and Getting Along by Annie Fox and Elizabeth Verdick
Annie answers questions from real teens via the internet, mail and telephone. She has a whole lot of experience in knowing what real teens are going through. Also, this book isn’t just about relationships with others: she talks about how you need to know how to be comfortable with yourself and your own emotions before you can take on someone else’s. This book is written for both guys and girls so it can be a good way to see what members of the opposite sex are thinking or how they are approaching things. Like most books on the topic, this book does look at some of the heavier issues that might be on your mind like sex, depression and uncontrolable emotions. My favorite part was reading about how to get over and recover from when things don’t go exactly as planned.

Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a Gurl by Esther Drill, Heather Mcdonald, Rebecca Odes
Ok, so this book is more general than dating specific, however, it completely rocks. These “gurls” are the minds behind the popular and awesome website gurl.com. They tackle issues that many other books don’t bother with like lesbianism, masturbation, and let’s face it- obsession. They write in tone that is honest and really fun to read. To be honest, this book tells you EVERYTHING. I like the honesty because as a teen you might hear about a lot of things that you don’t know about, and this book explains them all. Whatever it is that you want to know, this book definitly covers it!

Is It a Date or Just Coffee? : The Gay Girl’s Guide to Dating, Sex, and Romance by Mo Brownsey
This book is a funny, entertaining and incredibly informative read on “gay-gal” relationships. This book is similar in tone to the other books reccomended, however it is completely devoted to the issues that lesbian, or lesbian-curious teen girls may face. This book is truly one of a kind.