Declarations of Independence: Empowered Girls in Young Adult Literature, 1990-2001

Female empowerment especially among girls is one of the most significant issues to come out of the 90's, and one that will continue to play a significant role in the new millennium. But how do we define empowerment? And more importantly, how do we identify its characteristics within literature? With problems like teenage eating disorders and pregnancy still very much at the core of American society, it is no surprise that a book as important as Declarations of Independence is the latest addition to Scarecrow Press's Studies in Young Adult Literature. Authors Brown and St. Clair use their collective expertise to uncover and trace the development of the young female protagonist from the role of submissive fairy-tale maiden to the spunkier more independent girls who now appear with increasing frequency in young adult literature. This next generation of heroines is the model with which today's readers can readily identify and who the authors believe, become agents of social change for young women.

Through careful research that draws on recent scholarship about female adolescent development,