Growing up can be a strange process. There’s all kinds of questions you have and changes you experience. “Is this happening to everyone else?” you may have asked yourself as a kid. Or maybe you thought “Why is this happening to me and no one else?”
It could be a little scary and overwhelming. Fortunately, for many young women today, American Girl was there to help them through it.
You probably remember American Girl from growing up, whether it’s because of a treasured doll or an eagerly anticipated next issue of American Girl Magazine. American Girl also published “The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls.” It’s a guide to everything from puberty to body positivity to general health and wellness – and it turned 20 years old in September 2018!
That means that a lot of the girls who grew up with the book are also in their 20s and can reflect on all the good “The Care and Keeping of You” did for them.
“When I read the book, it was the first time that I realized it was okay to not look like everybody else,” said Bayley Moore, a second-year philosophy major.
That’s one of the unique things about “The Care and Keeping of You” – the diversity. The illustrations show a variety of girls with different body shapes, hair types and skin colors. It made it easier to learn from because the book likely showed someone who looked kind of like you. It also taught that not all bodies look the way yours does, creating understanding in an early form of body positivity.
“That’s exactly what we all need to see as kids,” said Carly Thomas, a sophomore international studies major.
“The Care and Keeping of You” is divided into different sections based on different body parts and how to take care of them. It covers some basic topics like washing your face but dives deeper into issues dealing with puberty and the changing body. Junior biology and history student Arielle Gregory recalled looking at the section on the different stages of breast growth and tracking her own development.
The illustrations in the book are honest and informative without being too clinical or intimidating. They do what they’re supposed to do – educate.
Freshman journalism major Julia Mitchem said she would sneak her older sister’s copy of “The Care and Keeping of You” and read it under her blanket. “I was just starting to go through puberty and grow breasts and all that fun stuff, so it made me realize how every breast shape is different,” she said. “The book really helped me start my self-love journey and gave me answers to questions that I was too afraid to ask.”
It isn’t always easy to ask your parents questions about tricky topics. That’s true no matter how old you are. While “The Care and Keeping of You” isn’t a perfect replacement for a parent’s advice, it still helped fill in the gaps a little. It answers questions like “What’s the difference between a training bra and a sports bra?” or “How do I put in a tampon?” in a simple, informative way.
It’s not all about the difficult issues, though. “The Care and Keeping of You” gives advice on hair care and explains how braces help your teeth. It helped me realize that I needed glasses after I was getting headaches from squinting at the board. I brought the book to my mom, showed her the section on glasses and told her that I thought I needed an eye exam.
There’s good news for the girls of today and the future, too. American Girl published “The Care and Keeping of You 1: The Body Book for Younger Girls” in 2012 and “The Care and Keeping of You 2: The Body Book for Older Girls” in 2013. The first book is designed for girls 8 – 10 years old, and the second book is for girls 10 years and older. It’s a new and improved version of the original, covering more topics in more detail to help as many girls as possible.
Maybe your parents bought “The Care and Keeping of You” for you. Maybe they wouldn’t let you read it because they thought you weren’t ready for it, so you steal peeks at someone else’s copy. Maybe it helped you learn something new about yourself or how to take care of your body. Maybe it just made you feel good about yourself. No matter what, “The Care and Keeping of You” has been there for girls for two decades, and we’re thankful for that.