RECOMMENDATIONS

Parents and other family members who:
	Serve as positive role models by showing respect for girls and women, and expressing confidence in girls' aspirations.
	Embrace all aspects of girls' identities--including their sexuality, their perspectives, and their priorities--and provide a respectful context where girls can raise questions and voice their concerns.
	Encourage girls to do well in school by discussing their studies with them, exploring potential areas of interest, supporting their achievements, and becoming involved with girls' schools.
	Encourage girls to explore their strengths and develop their talents in all fields, especially those not traditionally thought of as "female."
	Advocate for equal programs, facilities, equipment, and publicity for girls and boys in school- and community-based athletic programs, and support the involvement of girls who have traditionally not seen themselves as athletes.
	Help girls to respect their bodies and discourage the development of eating disorders by rebutting negative cultural messages about body image, and encouraging healthy behaviors.
	Provide access to non-judgmental information and resources to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Offer guidance and support to help girls make healthy decisions about a range of types of sexual activity.
	From a young age, foster girls' sense of entitlement to respectful treatment, and teach them that they can speak out against behaviors of others that hurt them.
	Support girls' involvement in community groups and extra-curricular activities, help them to develop leadership skills, and encourage them to take action to promote constructive social change.
	Raise boys in ways that foster their respect for girls and women.
Educators and schools that:
	Promote gender equity through classroom and school practices, model respect for girls and for people of all cultures, and offer students positive images and balanced information through innovative curricular materials.
	Encourage girls to explore a wide range of subjects and potential careers, especially those in which girls and women are traditionally underrepresented.
	Support and respect girls' efforts to balance school, social, and family challenges.
	Offer girls more leadership opportunities and vehicles for active exploration of their interests and talents.
	Help students to probe issues of gender, race, class, culture, sexuality, and disability, and to challenge attitudes and behaviors that stereotype or discriminate.
	Encourage girls to participate in a wide range of extracurricular activities, including athletic activities, in an atmosphere of respect for girls and women.
	Formulate and enforce publicly stated policies against sexual harassment and discriminatory practices, and protect the rights of students who file harassment claims.
	Offer comprehensive sexuality education programs that promote discussions of sexual health, provide students with clear, meaningful information and resources, and demonstrate respect for students' diverse sexual orientations.
	Give teachers, counselors, and other school staff the time and space to work together to enhance their effectiveness, and encourage educators to pursue ongoing professional development activities that help them to better meet the needs of diverse student bodies.
	Demonstrate respect for students' cultures and native languages, and work collaboratively with families and communities to understand and support the needs of all students.
Adult mentors who:
	Understand and are committed to the communities in which girls live.
	Assist girls in recognizing and confronting the impacts of harmful attitudes and behaviors.
	Address and challenge problematic images of girls and women in the media and school curricula.
	Serve as positive role models--women who are strong, competent, and actively involved in social issues, and men who are supportive and respectful of women and girls.
	Help girls to explore their strengths, develop their skills, achieve in school, and envision a wide range of options for healthy and productive futures.
	Provide a safe context for girls to raise questions, grapple with confusion, voice their concerns, and develop strategies to deal with their concerns.
Researchers who:
	Design studies to learn about girls' strengths, resilience, and the conditions that support their well-being, rather than simply focusing on risks and negative behaviors.
	Understand and present girls as multifaceted individuals who live in diverse social contexts, and have a wide range of needs, perspectives, and experiences.
	Promote more nuanced, layered understandings of the ways that gender interacts with race, ethnicity, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, culture, and disability in shaping girls' identities and social experiences.
	Situate studies of girls' issues in critical analyses of the problematic social practices, inequities, and dominant cultural assumptions that contextualize girls' lives.
	Present data in ways that show the intersections of age, gender, race, social class, and sexuality, rather than offering separate analyses for each category (i.e., youth in general, race comparisons, gender comparisons, etc.).
	Expand research categories to move beyond such practices as characterizing race as only "white," "African American," and "Hispanic/Latino;" oversimplifying notions of "sexual activity" as only heterosexual intercourse; and using narrow concepts of "achievement" as only quantifiable performance on standardized tests.
	Collaborate with advocates and activists in developing research agendas that focus on girls' concerns, and collect data in ways that tap the perspectives of diverse groups of girls and adults.
	Incorporate girls' narratives into research studies, and involve girls in the design, implementation, analysis, and presentation of research so that they can learn new skills, help shape research agendas, and think critically about their own and others' experiences.
	Resist one dimensional portrayals of girls as either passive victims or independent heroes, and instead look at the multiple ways that girls both resist and incorporate problematic societal messages.
	Expand research on "women's issues" (such as rape, battering, harassment, and pregnancy) to incorporate the experiences of adolescent girls.
Health care professionals, advocates, and other helping professionals who:
	Demonstrate sensitivity to gender and cultural issues that affect a wide range of girls' behaviors and mental health, including depression, eating disorders, and sexual health practices.
	Challenge economic barriers and social conditions that threaten girls' (and boys') health and safety in their homes, schools, and communities.
	Implement a holistic approach to health by moving beyond the treatment of disease to promote girls' positive feelings about themselves. Encourage girls to reject behaviors that threaten their psychological and physical well-being.
	Provide constructive health education that empowers girls to make choices that are healthy and appropriate for their own lives.
	Encourage girls to critique cultural messages (e.g., images equating extreme slenderness with female attractiveness) and practices (e.g., smoking, unprotected intercourse, drug and alcohol misuse) that may hurt them.
	Provide confidential information and access to reliable contraception, pregnancy and STD testing, and abortion services.
	Help discourage the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents by supporting condom distribution and needle exchanges, and providing information about their proper use for HIV/AIDS prevention.
	Listen respectfully to girls' questions and concerns about sexuality, peer relationships, school experiences, family concerns, and other developmental issues. Provide them with the space and guidance to work through their own solutions.
	Help girls to cope with the effects of victimization, discourage their involvement in criminal activities, and work to eliminate differential treatment of girls in the juvenile justice system.
	Work collaboratively with girls and their families, understanding and respecting their cultural and religious values.
Policymakers, activists, and other opinion leaders who:
	Understand that support for girls requires social and institutional change, and that a focus on individualistic strategies to raise girls' self-esteem or label girls as "at risk" can mask underlying societal inequities.
	Challenge popular images in school curricula, program materials, and the media that promote gender, racial, and ethnic stereotypes.
	Develop and support programs to counteract messages that promote harmful behavior such as smoking, drug use, unprotected intercourse, and excessive dieting.
	Develop and support affordable, confidential gynecological and other health care programs that are accessible to all girls.
	Support policies and legislation that provide adolescents with access to a wide array of reproductive health options, prevention and treatment of STDs, and sexuality education programs.
	Challenge welfare reform policies that restrict or deny needed benefits to teen mothers and their children.
	Educate the public about the prevalence of violence against girls. Ensure that girls benefit from programs and other advocacy efforts on behalf of women who are survivors of rape, battering, and harassment.
	Expand public awareness of rape to acknowledge the large number of rapes committed by family members and acquaintances, and the high proportion of survivors who are adolescent girls.
	Support teacher training and professional development programs that help educators to cultivate classroom practices that promote girls' achievement. Encourage them to develop and use curricular materials that highlight the work of all women, and men of color, and promote understanding of non-Western perspectives.
	Increase awareness of the impacts of poverty on girls and their families. Expose the racism and sexism that underlie the large discrepancies in income, employment, and poverty rates between white families and families of color, and between married-couple families and female-headed families.
	Support job training programs for teens and their family members, and provide quality, affordable daycare that allows parents to work and/or continue their education without compromising the well-being of their children.
Funders who:
	Support programs in communities, as well as at the state, national, and international level, that promote girls' health, recreation, safety, leadership, and achievement.
	Finance educators, researchers, and advocates working to develop and implement curricula that promote gender equity and cultural awareness.
	Fund innovative teacher and counselor training programs, and continuing education programs that encourage adults in schools to work on gender and cultural issues.
	Fund job training and professional development programs for teens and their families.
	Support the development of quality, affordable daycare programs in workplaces, schools, and communities, and fund elder care and home health care programs so that adolescent girls are released from adult family responsibilities.
	Fund victim services, immigrant rights, and disability rights programs that support girls, their families, and their communities.
	Support programs for girls who may be marginalized in school and community programs, including lesbian and bisexual girls, immigrant girls, girls of color, and girls who are from poor or low-income families.
	Fund community-based health care organizations that provide quality, affordable, preventive health care for girls and their families; accurate and confidential sexuality education for adolescents; and confidential family planning services, abortion services, and services to detect and prevent HIV/AIDS and other STDs, and to offer care for those who live with such diseases.
	Support programs and consciousness-raising efforts that promote healthy behaviors and encourage adolescents to resist such practices as smoking, binge drinking, drug misuse, excessive dieting, and engaging in unprotected intercourse.
	Finance the efforts of schools, programs, and community groups to form partnerships through which concerned adults can share insights and work collaboratively to support the needs of girls.