Instagram. Whisper. Yik Yak. Snapchat. YouTube. Kik. Ask.fm. Tinder. The dominant force in the lives of American youth today is social media. In 'American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers,' Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales illustrates the effects of the digital world on today’s American girls. Sales spoke to more than two hundred girls nationwide, ages 13 to 19. Documenting massive changes in the way girls are growing up, Sales provides a disturbing portrait of a new kind of adolescence dominated by ever-more-extreme social and sexual norms. The culture she discovers is rife with sexism and a self-undermining notion of feminist empowerment. From beauty gurus to slut-shaming to surprising exhibitionism, Sales exposes the troubling secret world of today’s teenage girls.
