Supergirl Syndrome Practically Perfect in Every Way?

1. Supergirl SyndromePractically Perfect in Every Way? Youth Worker Journal Youth Culture Lesson

2. What happened • Jordan Wight, a senior at Alhambra High School in California, is “student body president, captain of the cross country and track teams, and homecoming queen,” according to the Contra Costa Times. • She is, the paper says, a “Supergirl.”

3. Supergirls, such as Wight, don’t have super powers. Wight tells the paper her only real “down time” comes during track practice. She’s not alone. “Other people are working just as hard as I am,” she says.

4. Youth are under growing pressure to succeed in every area of life— academically, athletically, socially. Many researchers believe girls, in particular, are at risk.

5. Some girls feel pressured to be everything to everybody. They must be smart. They must be pretty. They must be sweet. They must be athletic. It’s what you might call “the Supergirl Syndrome.”

6. Some of this is because college admissions are growing ever more competitive. The University of California-Berkley, for instance, rejected hundreds of 2007 applicants who had 4.0 grade point averages in high school.

7. Pop culture— dominated by beautiful, successful women who have it all and do it all—probably doesn’t help, either, experts say.

8. You have to look a certain, narrowly defined way. You can’t be taking care of family and friends, and studying all night, and practicing all afternoon and looking relentlessly hot without giving up sleep altogether. This is physically impossible to do. Even more, psychologically, you’re living up to a false self. -- Stephen Hinshaw, author of The Triple Bind: Saving our Teenage Girls from Today’s Pressures

9. Talk About It: • Are girls under more pressure to be “perfect” than boys? • Do parents and teachers expect more from females than they do from males?

10. Do girls expect more from themselves? • Do they get more upset than boys do if they feel like they haven’t met their own goals or expectations?

11. Do boys expect girls to look and behave a certain way?

12. It’s important to have goals and, sometimes, to push yourself; but do you try to do too much, or expect too much of yourself sometimes? • How do you know when you’re stretched too far?

13. What’s the best way to deal with unrealistic expectations? • Talking with your parents? • Friends? • Praying about it?

14. What the Bible says • “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matt. 6:25)

15. “Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; He heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.” (Ps. 39:6-7)

16. “Do not love the world or anything in the world … For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)