Girlhood: Teens around the World in Their Own Voices by Masuma Ahuja is a richly illustrated book filled with the perspectives of thirty teens from twenty-seven countries. This book is organized and presented like scrapbook pages and each teen is featured with an interview, diary pages, and background information about her country. I think this book would be great for late middle school to high school teens and brings up a lot of discussion points from the girls' difficulties to their dreams. The book also provides a way to read about the many different perspectives teens have globally, rather than viewing the teenage experience as a monolith. Special thanks to Algonquin Books for Young Readers and Masuma for the eARC! Girlhood is available now!

Girlhood: Teens Around the World is an exploration of life for teenage girls, both the good and the bad. Sharing the experiences of thirty girls from twenty-seven countries, this portrait of girl life seeks to portray a range of different life experiences and ask difficult questions about those experiences. From young love, to homework, to growing up poor, to being a teen mom, or living through a war, these and many more experiences are a part of being a girl in this great wide world. Many young girls are afforded incredible opportunities, and many are not. Yet, for each girl, they experience their own happy moments, and tragic ones too. To fully understand what it means to be a girl in the 21st century, the girls must be asked themselves, and what they had to say is presented here from diary entries, photos, and context about where they live, all in the girl's own words. This is what it means to be a teenage girl today.

I absolutely love this book about the experience of young girls who all experience life so differently! The layout is really great, and helps the life of each girl to pop off the page. Plenty of photos, questions about interests, direct journal entries (some translated, lightly edited for clarity), and descriptions of family life, neighborhood, and overall context of where they live and risks they might be exposed to are all here. Here is part of a diary entry for Amiya, a mixed-race girl living in London: "My dad and grandma keep saying they want to get me a maths tutor and I'm glad they want to help me. But my grandma is living in Africa right now with my Ghanaian family, so it'll be hard for her to get me a tutor halfway across the world. My dad's a major procrastinator so I doubt it'll ever happen from him."

What's refreshing about the content here is how honest it is. These girls aren't trying to impress anyone with their opinions, they just are who they are. Halina, from Afghanistan, offers inspirational encouragement from her own life: "I started my day with excitement because I participated in a religious competition. I have participated in many competitions but I have not won or got any sort of prizes. Every time a male wins the competition and not a female. However, I never give up. That is why I participate again and again in these competitions. I repeat to myself, "If men can win; we can too." Finally, last week I won second prize in a competition that I participated in at school. That is why my day went great!"

Girlhood: Teens Around the World is a raw, beautiful depiction of life for teenage girls, and also an exploration of the challenges they face. They struggle, they experience joy, they feel sadness, and they live through circumstances where life is often stacked against their success. Yet, they also have motivation, vision, and hope for tomorrow, and the will to succeed and do great things in spite of the obstacles in their way. The book is competently crafted, the photos are vivid, and in many ways it feels like a very personal yearbook of life in many different places. I recommend this book for all readers who want to learn more about the experiences and challenges that teenage youth, and girls in particular, face in this ever-changing world full of opportunity, challenges, violence, tragedy, and hope.

Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices compiled and edited by Masuma Ahuna grew out of a series the author composed for The Washington Post's The Lily. What this book does so beautifully is celebrate our diversity and draw us closer in the myriad ways in which these girls share similar experiences. In a world that seems focused on division, an attempt to unite is cause for celebration.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/02/girlhood-teens-around-world-in-their.html

Review for NetGalley and a publisher's blog tour.

Released on 2/9/21, this is a book that should be in every classroom and every home. A snapshot of 30 teenage girls from 27 countries that is current and relevant. It is both a history lesson and a sociological one and I found it to be quite compelling! I saw my former teenage self in some of these girls and also caught glimpses of my daughters' younger selves. I definitely learned a thing or two about various cultures and customs. I found some things to be true of each girl in the book, regardless of their economic status or where they reside in this great big world. They all worry, mostly about friends, school, family and the always present pressure of what they will be when they grow up. Many have altruistic tendencies and think about the world at large. Some have an easier entry into the world; others are born into extremely arduous circumstances. Almost all are grateful for what they have. I really enjoyed getting to know these teen girls. The book was set up in a way that devoted approximately eight pages to each girl, including journal entries written in each girl's voice and a few small photographs. Thank you to @algonquinyr for permitting me to be part of their blog tour and providing me with a free physical ARC of this book, as well as an e-version in exchange for an honest review. #girlhood #netgalley #algonquinyr #masumaahuja #goodreads #bookstagrammer #blogtour #bookreviewer #ownvoices #booksandmrdarcy #withhernosestuckinabook❤️📚

When I was reading Girlhood, two things enchanted me a lot: that, according to the reports in the girls' diaries, they all have a nice family, and that they are dreamers and their dreams are based on education..

In the texts written by the author, there are several reality shocks with the situation of children and teens - especially girls - around the world, be it the number of abortions of girls due to birth policies (China) or beliefs that families prefer boys ( India), there's also the idea that girls do not need to study, so they end up dropping their studies because of pressure from the family, who want to help them with housework, there is also when the government doesn't help, as for example there are laws in African countries that say that teenage mothers lose the right to continue studying because they are mothers.

The Girlhood format is right in the middle of the magazine style and the scrapbook style (the scrapbook is basically the father of the bullet journal, right?), because it contains images taken by the girls who participate in the project with different features and cutouts, besides there are also images with the polaroid effect.

Girlhood by Masuma Ahuja peeks into the lives of 30 teenage girls across 27 countries. Through a mix of Q&A and diary entries, you learn about their hopes, obstacles, joys, and fears in their own words. The girls discuss race, societal expectations of women, and struggles in their community. The author also provides context about the cities and countries where they live.

One aspect I loved is that it gave space to share joyful experiences from girls living in countries that the US frequently views through a lens of plight and negative headlines.

I wished it pushed a bit further with its diversity and representation. There is a brief description of the selection process, but I’d love to learn more about how they chose who and what to include.

This is targeted for a young adult audience, but anyone could enjoy this collection. Check it out!

This is the type of book I would have loved as a teenage girl, to have on my shelf and flip through. The use of full color and interesting visuals throughout makes it extremely appealing at first glance and you can't help but flip through the pages. I love that it not only teaches about different cultures but highlights how universal certain struggles and interests are for teenage girls across the world. I appreciated the breadth of different cultures, ages, and experiences that were covered. Telling these stories through the personal lens of diary entries and focusing on individual girls makes it extremely relatable and interesting to teenage girls looking to feel connected and heard. This is the perfect timely gift for teenage girls everywhere.

As the mother of a pre-teen, I knew I had to read this book. In it, you get a glimpse into the lives of 31 teens from around the world. The author talks a little about what she learned and then we see snippets from the girls diary entries about their life. There are many similarities yet many differences. It was great to see things from their perspective. It is marketed to 12-18 year olds and I think that is about right. My daughter will be reading it in another year or so.

Thank you to @algonquinyr for the #gifted copy of this book!

5 stars

A celebration of girlhood from all around the world told from the girls themselves... a beautiful, moving, and heartwarming collection of what it means to be female across the globe.

Book construction: ★★★★★
Enjoyment: ★★★★★

Brought about by freelance journalist Masuma Ahuja's series featured on Washington Post's The Lily, which featured a few samples of girls growing up throughout the world, this work broadens the original grouping of young girls and their experiences into one collection spanning 27 countries and including 30 girls and their stories.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. Teenagers, and female teens in particular, experience certain life moments across all borders. And yet their individual experiences also showcase startling differences across countries, socioeconomic classes, racial divides, and the ever-present gender divide.

Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices attempts to showcase what girls' lives are really like—told in their own words. I think it delivers.

From an Argentinian football player with a passion for play to a 16-year-old Cambodian scholarship student learning in Australia (and more), this collection provides intimate snippets of 30 lives. Some are more lighthearted than you'd expect. Some are much darker. Some showcase the resilience of womanhood and others highlight the still too large gaps between the female and male experience.

One of my favorites was Jocelyne's story—mainly because she mentioned an interest in ASMR (a YouTube phenomenon that involves sensitive sounds and microphones, google it!). Jocelyne and I have that in common, but her life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is worlds away from mine in the U.S.

I'd encourage all to check out this collection. It's a quick read due the format of blurbs and diary entires, but a powerful and heartwarming one all the same.

Girl power!

Thank you to Algonquin Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices is one of the most inspirational, empowering and intelligent biography-memoirs of thirty coming-of-age teenage girls and an indispensable guide to navigating those turbulent years knowing they are not alone and gaining strength through understanding that fact. In an appealing scrapbook style, it details girls ranging from ages thirteen through to nineteen located from Brazil to Kazakhstan, Ireland to Vanuatu with each potted biography being complemented by vivid and colourful imagery. Each girl had been asked by Ahuja to keep daily journals from which excerpts were chosen for the book before being accompanied by relevant photographs. Subjects were also asked questions and their lives are given context through details about their country, popular culture, religion and more. Sharing anecdotes on the girls’ everyday, mundane experiences such as challenges at school related to both teaching and the social aspect e.g. bullying, hanging out with friends, crushes and feelings about dating, striving to fit in amongst their peers, home life, shopping, trips to church, it is all here. It is an inviting read compiled with care which lends itself superbly to dipping in and out of, if you only wish to read a few profiles or pages per sitting.

What impressed me the most and was wonderful to see was Ahuja’s adherence to her goal - to show the lives of everyday teens from all around the world, living in a vast wealth of cultures and facing a plethora of different circumstances, and that is what made this book so incredible. I've read and seen plenty of inspiring books on the lives of those who became famous in their field but rarely do you get such an open and honest glimpse into the lives of ordinary girls. I feel strongly that this is a title that should be available both on school and community library shelves and is ideal for home libraries for those age around twelve to nineteen and beyond as it highlights that regardless of situation and country of residence, teen girls’ joys, fears, dreams and issues are generally similar, which is reassuring and comforting knowledge to have while traversing your tumultuous teen years and is very relatable for those reading. Beautifully compiled and entertaining, this will satisfy youngsters’ curiosity about their peers in an interesting and thoroughly engaging fashion. A well-deserved five-stars — I only wish this, or something similar, had been available as a resource to me when I was a teen, but it highlights the progress we have made over the past decade towards creating books tailor-made for youngsters. Long may it continue. Highly recommended.

My thanks go to Net Galley and Algonquin for the review copy. This book becomes available to the public tomorrow, February 9, 2021.

From the beginning, it was plain to me that this would not just be another anthology. Every school library has books that include children from many places around the world, but this one is more diverse than most, and it conveys more of the girls’ own words. Included are girls from 31 countries, and most of them are people of color. The United States does not dominate the collection; there are two girls from the U.S. included, but they are not given anchor positions, and neither is from New York or California.

Each entry contains writing done by the girl herself, more extensive than anything else I have seen; I cannot tell whether some of them have been translated, or if all of them wrote in English originally. There are multiple photographs of each girl, her home, and the things that are important to her. Most are students; one is a mother herself. There are a variety of social classes, though none appears to be from a wealthy family. The girls that live at or near what we in the developed world would call the poverty level, do not speak about being poor, but about everyday life. My favorites are the Cambodian, Syrian, and Irish girls, but they’re all interesting. I am pleased to see several Black girls in the mix.

Though the collection is inclusive, none of the girls appears to be, or says she is, disabled in any way. I would like to see at least one such girl. But more concerning to me is that, although twenty percent of girls worldwide is obese, all of these girls in the anthology are either near the ideal weight, or on the thin side. Ahuja does not say how the girls were selected, but I can just about guarantee that the big girls that view this book will not see themselves. I hope future endeavors along these lines will correct this omission. Right now, the message large girls will have is that nobody wants to look at someone like themselves.

Nonetheless, this is one of the best such collections available today. It would be wonderful if there were a way to offer it in different languages and sell it in other countries, too. I recommend this book for middle and high school girls, and in particular to school libraries and humanities teachers.

Girlhood: Teens Around the World is a compilation of stories that are actual diary entries from thirty teenage girls. The book is somewhat like a scrapbook with a chapter done for each person. It was very interesting to read about the daily life of each girl and their aspirations. This would make a great book for parents to share with their children. One takeaway for me with this book was that no matter where we live, or the differences in the culture and surroundings, we all still have dreams.

Masuma Ahuja collected 31 personal stories from 31 girls around the world. Combined with photos and their selected diary entries, I got to know these girls from their daily routines and goals. They all had their challenges, but they were determined to tackle them. The thing I liked the most is they weren't afraid of dreaming big. Some of my favorites are Claudie (13-year-old) from Vanuatu and Sofia (18-year-old) from Panama.

Gathering all the stories from different languages is not an easy job. The author put significant effort into contacting sources and researching their background stories. I admired the diversity of voices in the story. It made me want to visit their countries after reading their stories. Thank you to @algonquinyr and @masumaahuja for the galley. Special thanks to all the teens that were willing to share their lives in this book!

Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices by Masuma Ahuja is a glimpse into the experiences of girls around the world. Their stories are told in their own words through diary entries and question prompts. The stories are then overlaid with information about the realities of the countries where they live. Each girl is navigating some unique challenges individually and in the community/country around her. My only critique (in a good way) was I wanted more! I was so drawn into each girl's story that I wanted to know what was next for her, how she was doing, and just a general deeper dive into her life. That said, I think this book is also intentionally set up this way to be a conversation starter. The stories of each girl can show other girls similarities around the world while also showing what it's like to live in different countries through the experiences of a real-life person. I also dug that these stories include pictures. Again, you really get drawn into the worlds of these worlds in just a few pages. As a kid, this would have absolutely been a book I was captivated by, and I think it's great that girls today have this collection.

This is a colorful anthology that gives you a glimpse into the lives of teenage girls from all over the world. From as far away as Kazakhstan to as close to home as Bayonne, New Jersey, we get to see these girls' hopes, their dreams, their aspirations. Ahuja includes maps and statistics for each country showing the challenges faced by women in those societies. The personal journal entries allows you to hear each girl's perspective and what she values most in life. Teenage girls will see that despite the differences there are many shared experiences. It is a wonderful to show young girls that they are not alone and that they have it in them to persist and rise above the challenges they face.

I started reading Girlhood with my 9 year old daughter. I wanted her to see how other girls from around the world lived. Although she enjoyed the first few stories, I soon realized that some of these girls' experiences were beyond her scope and maturity level. These were conversations that I was not ready to have with my daughter just yet. As a woman though, I am grateful that this anthology exists and wish that it was available when I was a teenager.

That being said, I think this book would serve well as either a social studies or writing text. Middle school girls would benefit from having this as part of their curriculum.

Special thanks to Amanda Dissinger for access to this title.

Ever wonder what girls in Mongolia like to do? Or wonder about the home lives of girls in Russia? Or what girls in Haiti dreaming of becoming when they are adults? This book answers those questions for us.

Thirty ordinary girls around the world were asked about their families, their friends, their school, and their daily lives. Overall, girls around the world are very much alike. They go to school, hang out with friends, post on social media, help their parents with chores. Their dreams are the same, but how they are attained differ. Some encounter challenges that impact their access to education and, oftentimes, their safety.

The girls in this book shared photographs and diary entries to allow us a peek into their daily lives. Did you know that about 5M students around the world travel to another country for education? Education is so readily available here in the US, but not so much in many other countries.

In many countries, the future of women’s rights remains uncertain. In Nigeria, education is forbidden by the group Boko Haram. In Afghanistan, laws and attitudes shift with the politics of the land. Estimated about 40% of all school-aged children there do not attend school, with about 85% of those being girls. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, transport, water, and electricity are not always guaranteed. In Haiti, 13-year-old Merisena writes of days when her family cannot afford more than one meal a day, of lengthy power outages, and ongoing gang violence. Yet she has big dreams for the future.

Some of the girls have known nothing but conflict in their countries. Some fled their homes for a safer country, leaving behind their homes, friends, and most of their possessions. And while we see Baghdad as a place of war and conflict, 16-year-old Ruqaya sees it as shopping malls, exams at school, and long chats about marriage and life with friends. Some of the girls are dealing with gender identification and some with eating disorders. There is the universal fear of walking home after dark and the possibility of being attacked or worse.

I see this book as a valuable resource that should be in all school libraries.

Thank you to Algonquin for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour for this collection of stories about wonderful girls all over the world.

Girlhood is a collection of 31 chapters, each featuring a different teenage girl. Masuma interviews them, includes a blurb, and then features a few diary entries from the girls.

I loved the scrapbook feel of this book. I did not enjoy reading it on the Netgalley Shelf app, which was the only format it was provided to me in. It’s just not a convenient way to take a book in, but I do feel as though the physical copy of this book would be a great gift for a pre-teen/teenager. I picture it being a wonderful coffee table / conversational book to keep in the house, as well as just a great way to expose young readers to their peers experiences in different parts of the world.

One of my favorite things throughout this book is the mundanity of teenage life. When we’re going through it, it’s all so dramatic and awful, and reading these entries as an adult, it brought a smile to my face remembering this period of my life. But the reality is, while it all feels so major, the story is mostly the same – went to school, studied, slept, did some chores, hung out with friends or family, failed a test, etc. It’s very cool to see girls from 29 countries, living in a wide variety of circumstances, all going through some of the same things and feeling the same way about them. There are of course, stories from places that are vastly different from what we are used to in America, like Merisena from Haiti, who cannot leave her house some days due to the violence and enjoys watching TV with her family if there is electricity, which is not a guarantee. Things that I take for granted as an adult and am beyond frustrated when the cable goes out due to a storm, is just a part of life for some of these girls. It’s a really good reminder to enjoy the little things and appreciate all that we have.

I don’t want to discredit any of these girls and their stories, but there were some who really stood out to me, so I’d like to mention them. Chen Xi from Singapore had amazing diary entries. Her enthusiasm and personality just poured out of those pages. Emilly, an 18 year old wife and a mom! I am 35 and I still can’t believe I’m a mom sometimes, so it’s incredible to see such a mature 18 year old, taking life and really making it her own after dealing with so many hardships growing up. I loved Emma from Ireland’s message on trying to keep your head up because you never know what the next day will bring. Hearing the hopeful story of Halima from Afghanistan, who refuses to give up, despite how much harder it is to succeed as a woman in her country, made me realize that while the U.S. still has improvements to make concerning women’s equality in the workplace, we are still very lucky compared to so many places.

My 12-year-old girls and I read 𝙂𝙄𝙍𝙇𝙃𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉𝙎 𝘼𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘿 𝙄𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙄𝙍 𝙊𝙒𝙉 𝙑𝙊𝙄𝘾𝙀𝙎 together and really enjoyed it. Masuma Ahuja collected the stories of 30 young women from 27 countries to create a snapshot of their experiences, interests and dreams at this pivotal point in their lives.

With diary entries from each teen, you get an intimate look at their day-to-day lives and the scrapbook-like format provides photos and details that make not only the girls come to life but also the places they're from. My daughters and I talked about a lot of the issues discussed in the book - teen pregnancy, educational opportunities, poverty among them - and we loved being transported around the world and seeing how young women deal with similar issues no matter where they are.

Thanks to Algonquin Young Readers and NetGalley and the author for a copy to review.

Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices is a raw, honest look at what it is like to be female and a teenager across the world. Masuma Ahuja's project tried to ascertain what it was like to grow up as a girl in Iraq. What keeps a girl up night in New York or in Nigeria? But this isn't just a book of biographies. Just as answers to any of these questions of what life and friendship is like, their homes definitely impact their responses. Ahuja wants girls to understand where these other girls are coming from. Even if you were to ask 5 girls in the US the same question, you would get very different answers based on where they live and their upbringing. Each girl in the book has a few diary entries, but there is also information from Ahuja about the girl from interviews and about the area that they live in. When reading about all of these girls, readers can see how different the areas are that they come from, but also how very similar they all are.

Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices is fabulous. It is different. It is important. These are real girls that our own young girls can relate to. These are real lives lived across the globe in different kinds of situations, showing the bigger world that is out there. Girlhood is the ultimate in giving us mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.

Girlhood let’s us get a glimpse into the lives of 30 teenage girls. These girls may be teenagers and have the same fears and issues, but many suffer from adult issues they will never escape from. Masuma Ahuja shares their stories and let’s their voices shine.

Ahuja begins Girlhood by sharing startling facts with readers:

About 130 million girls between the ages of 6 and 17 are not in school. This could be due to culture, marriage, or having given birth. Females are still considered property. I live in the United States and I was horrified to see that in eight years time, about 250,000 kids under 18 got married. Some of them were 12-years-old!

Females are not just prohibited from school, but from sports, voting, and getting a higher education. Forget about going after their dreams.

This does not stop girls from trying and some from succeeding.

Ahuja takes us around the world to meet these ladies. Girlhood is filled with candid photos of them living life. Showing us snapshots of the world they live in. Ahuja also shares statistical information about topics that directly affect these females.

We get to see what they like to do for fun and what their dreams are. We listen to their voices as Ahuja shares their life with us. Take a trip around the world and listen.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.