My co-author Lisa Rice and I spoke jointly to an assembly of high school girls at Wesleyan, one of the top private high schools here in the Atlanta area. I have to admit I don’t think that I originally gave these high school girls enough credit for being willing to really listen to what we were saying about what the guys really wanted and needed. 
They actually received it so much better than I thought they would, and I realized that every teenage girl is surely interested in boys, and what’s going on inside their heads-and that’s a good thing. A lot of them were also willing to hear some of the more challenging things, like the fact that the boys are laughing, and how they treat each other. Also, because the boys are so tender inside, they are generally very careful and often don’t share their real feelings with girls.
The girls were also much more willing than I thought they would be to really listen to what we were telling them about their troubles. I was really encouraged and realized that we have to give our young women a lot more credit these days for being willing to hear things that may be challenging. Now, of course, it is questionable if they, like adult women, will actually want to do anything about it- that’s the challenge that all of us have. At least for today I was quite encouraged about the reception of the message for young women only.
Photo Credits : Laura Negri - Communications Department, Wesleyan School