Underestimated by Chelsey Goodan

In UNDERESTIMATED Chelsey Goodan utilizes her past experiences as an academic tutor and mentor for sixteen years to share “The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls.” Stressing that “teenage girls feel profoundly misunderstood all the time,” Goodan begins with a chapter on Feelings which echoes much of the advice in Charles Duhigg’s recently published Supercommunicators and that, basically, is to listen (even ask what is needed) rather than immediately try to advise or fix a situation. Goodan calls this “holding space” and illustrates its application in a subsequent chapter called Choice where she facilitates the purchase of an alarm clock to help with chronic tardiness. A few examples of other chapter titles (there are over a dozen) are those which deal with Perfection, Friends, or Identity. Goodan acknowledges that this work is TOUGH and she includes a Feelings Wheel in Appendix 1 plus a “guide in Appendix 2 that explicitly gives you words to expand conversations and five realizations at the end of each chapter to develop connections not only with teenage girls but also with yourself and others.” While Goodan acknowledges that her text is not clinical or academic, she does include bibliographic notes which comprise about five percent of the text. There is valuable information here (particularly those questions) although the teenage voices are not as vibrant as I had expected. UNDERESTIMATED is written for involved adults (teachers, coaches) and parents; it may be most valuable if its first reading is before the teenage years. Otherwise, those experiencing conflict and miscommunication may find the tone too “preachy.”