Anonymous wrote:Soon your friends will seem more important to you than your parents and that is okay. But your parents will be the only ones that will have your back for the rest of your life. So when you are feeling like crap and need to talk, remember that they were once in middle school too.

Love this!

It gets better. Repeat 1000 times.

Middle school sucks even for popular kids- everyone struggles with feeling secure.

Read the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Taylor- great, candid discussion of all those questions you have but feel to ackward to ask.

Every single boy wants to get in yours pants. Beware.

Anonymous wrote:My advice for middle school girls? It will be over soon.

Because middle school sucks. Period.

My daughter honestly loves middle school. Does that make her weird? Maybe it is because she goes to an all-girls school.

Either way, I don't think telling kids that school sucks is the way to look at it. It just gives them a reason to rationalize their grades, behavior and so forth.

Soon your friends will seem more important to you than your parents and that is okay. But your parents will be the only ones that will have your back for the rest of your life. So when you are feeling like crap and need to talk, remember that they were once in middle school too.

My advice for middle school girls? It will be over soon.

Because middle school sucks. Period.

Sometimes you will work very very hard and still not win. it's ok - just enjoy what you are doing.

This really hit home watching the Olympics. It must be a snowboarder mentality - but everytime a snowboarder fell, even when it meant they were out of the competition, they still smiled, shrugged their shoulders and cheered their teammates on. Although many other competitors in other sports react with dignity, I really felt the snowboarders were more at peace with the loss. I love that attitude and that is what I want for my daughter.

Anonymous wrote:I wish someone had told me that it is a nearly universal truth that middle school sucks. I'd probably have spent less time wondering what was wrong with me.

+1000

I was not prepared for my best friend since preschool to ditch me and be the ring leader of mean girls that taunted and harassed me my entire 7th grade year. It sucked and really hit my self-esteem for a long time. I was excited about middle school, my parents were immigrants so they didn't know that middle school was actually a really rough time for most kids so I really had no clue what I was going in to and I was already at a vulnerable place because my dad had just died a few months before school started.

I would tell your daughter that there are a wave of hormones and people change, friendships change and to not let it get the best of you. Make new friends, join clubs and get involved. Stay true to yourself and find your interests.

Have you heard of The Girls Leadership Institute? If not, you might want to check it out. I've thought about sending my daughter when she is old enough. I wish they had them in the area. http://www.girlsleadershipinstitute.org/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm 12:29 and I had a lot of problems with your advice which is what my parents gave me. I could never stand up to others because I was always looking for the good in them/benefit of the doubt. Be kind to others was always the hardest one for me because I tried to hard to be nice to the people who were mean to me. As an adult, I can interpret this correctly but as a tween, this advice was not good.

I think that the difference between being kind and being nice is an important thing to talk about, especially for middle school girls, but not only for middle school girls.

Oh I love this one. Wish I'd learned it earlier myself!

If you are going to use this you better explain this well. I'm not sure that I truly understand the difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm 12:29 and I had a lot of problems with your advice which is what my parents gave me. I could never stand up to others because I was always looking for the good in them/benefit of the doubt. Be kind to others was always the hardest one for me because I tried to hard to be nice to the people who were mean to me. As an adult, I can interpret this correctly but as a tween, this advice was not good.

I think that the difference between being kind and being nice is an important thing to talk about, especially for middle school girls, but not only for middle school girls.

Oh I love this one. Wish I'd learned it earlier myself!

Anonymous wrote:

I'm 12:29 and I had a lot of problems with your advice which is what my parents gave me. I could never stand up to others because I was always looking for the good in them/benefit of the doubt. Be kind to others was always the hardest one for me because I tried to hard to be nice to the people who were mean to me. As an adult, I can interpret this correctly but as a tween, this advice was not good.

I think that the difference between being kind and being nice is an important thing to talk about, especially for middle school girls, but not only for middle school girls.

OP, i think the mix of aspirational and pragmatic is important. Be yourself, love the glove - both are necessary.

OP here--there's some great (and terrible) advice here. I will marinate on it...