What is The Modern Ophelia? As noted in my first post, this blog was inspired by the book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. Shakespeare-lovers are probably familiar with the character of Ophelia, from the play Hamlet. If you do not know who Ophelia is, she is a young woman who became so distraught with her life that she dressed herself in heavy clothing and drowned herself in a river. Hamlet was written several hundred years ago, yet the character of Ophelia strikes resemblances teenage girls today, including myself. This is where the title of my blog came from. Although the lives of girls today are drastically different from Ophelia's, the emotions of Ophelia and girls like myself are not so different. Adolescent girls today are modern versions of Ophelia. On a side note, I love this book so far. You can check out an excerpt of the book here.
This brings me to the blog itself. Each week I will be publishing a post that links to one of the topics discussed by therapist Dr. Mary Pipher in this book. The author focuses on teenage girls because they seem to change severely with the arrival of puberty. Usually, this is a negative change. Pipher even says "girls between seven and eleven rarely come to therapy. They don't need it. I can count on my fingers the girls this age whom I have seen." Therefore, these posts will cover problems that usually don't arise until junior high or high school, such as eating disorders, drugs, self-injury, suicide, depression, parents, body image, teen pregnancy, boys, confidence, and so on. Being at the end of my teenage years, I, like many other girls, have had much experience with these issues. I have either faced these problems myself or watched someone close to me go through it. These posts will reveal a side of me that people don't often see. It is not because I'm ashamed of my history. The past is the past, and I've learned a lot from myself and my friends going through these things. I know that I am not even close to being the only one to have faced these problems. I know this will sound very sad and cynical, but going through these problems is "normal" for adolescents. Not everyone will face the same struggles or to the same degree as others, but we all can find common ground with these topics.
Those who know me know that I am very open with my life, especially if sharing my experiences helps others. I know not every girl is confident enough to speak up about their internal struggles. I am not proud of all of the decisions I have made, but I am grateful that they have taught me so many things. I hope this blog will be able to give girls the confidence they need to seek help if there is a problem, or to help them not feel so alone in this crazy time in life called "growing up."
This blog is not just for teenage girls! Boys face these problems as well. However, for them it is usually not as severe or common. Why is that? I hope that by the time I finish Reviving Ophelia that I will have a better answer to that, seeing that this question is one that Dr. Pipher seeks the answer to. This blog will be written to relate to adults as well. Parents may see a glimpse into their teenager's life a gain a better understanding as to why teenagers behave how they do. Teenage boys and girls who haven't faced certain issues can learn what some of their fellow classmates struggle with in daily life. I will provide a lot of personal anecdotes and news articles to show the seriousness of these problems. I know that everyone is going to get something different out of what I post, but I hope in some way or another, it will teach you something or enable you to reach out to someone who struggling through these issues. And if you are someone who is currently struggling through these issues, I will show you that you are not alone.
