Girls on the Verge

Girls today face a bewildering array of choices when it comes to want kind of women they want to be. In Girls on the Verge, 27-year-old Vendela Vida goes to whatever lengths necessary to investigate a wide variety of both traditional and contemporary rituals girls use to fashion their own identities.From sneaking in the back entrance of a debutante ball in Houston, to watching young brides tie the knot in drive-through wedding chapels in Las Vegas, from observing quinceaneras in Miami posing for their `sweet fifteen` photographs while wearing tiaras (and sometimes even bikinis) to participating in a witches` Halloween gathering in Salem, Vida interviews, imitates, scrutinizes, and socializes with young women who are making a lifetime commitment to a group of other young women, a gang, or a boy-all before they`re even 21 years old. Some of these initiations are sanctioned, and even organized, by their parents, others are done in spite of-or perhaps because of-their parents` objections.With humor, insight, and illuminating detail, Vendela Vida penetrates the experience of a young woman coming of age today in a post-feminist, post-nuclear-family, post-`you`re a woman when you get your first period or lose your virginity` culture. Girls on the Verge explores girls` struggle to forge an identity and secure a sense of belonging through various rituals-rituals that they create or embrace without even necessarily understanding the comforts they seek or the repercussions of their often all-too-adult choices. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.