I find the similar “scandals” that occur across a range of activities especially interesting, as I’ve written about before. One of them, age manipulation, has been the focus of several episodes in the most recent seasons of both shows. One mother mentioned in the fifth season premiere, the episode with Heaven and Honey Boo Boo, that it is harder for competitors when they have to “move up” in an age category (say from 3-4 to 5-6).  The fourth episode showed how some parents try to give their kids an advantage by using their “fallback” age when they have to move up in an age category.  Adriana’s mom explained that while her daughter is five she would be competing as a four year-old because the pageant used a 30-day fallback. This means that because Adriana had her birthday within thirty days of the pageant she could compete as a four-year-old.  This also means that she might have been competing against someone who was 3 years and 31 days, while she was 5 years and 29 days– a big difference at that age!

Fallbacks are also used in competitive dance, as the second episode of the new season of Dance Moms revealed. Brooke, one of the featured dancers, was able to compete in a younger age category due to her later birthday in January.  That was legal. But one of her other competitors, from a rival dance studio, actually competed under a false age– which obviously led to her disqualification. This explains why dance teachers are always supposed to have copies of their dancers’ birth certificates readily available, in case anyone questions a competitor’s age (like the dance competition owners, as pictured below).

Even when complaints aren’t formally filed, adults often gossip about the age of competitors.  And, lest you think this is behavior reserved for a group of women who I think are looking for media attention, take a look at this quote from a newly released book called Dance Divas, about a group of middle school-aged girls who participate in dance competitions: “The competition here is really fierce and you just never know.  I saw a girl out there that looked like she was twenty competing in your thirteen year old category. Who knows what’s going on?”

In my research for Playing to Win many of the parents and teachers I met had learned to manipulate competitive activity systems in order to maximize the chance of winning– even in chess.  This was harder to do with travel soccer, which was particularly strict when it came to verifying ages through birth certificates.  Soccer teams had to always have age verification handy and all ages were checked at the beginning of each season. I guess there are fewer divas in soccer. With a new show featuring figure skating moms, Ice Moms, in development, I’m guessing we’re going to see more diva behavior and not less on our television screens though…

1. Mikaela Shiffrin- At just 16 Shiffrin is making waves on the slopes.  Just before the new year she became the youngest female skier on a World Cup podium since 1978, placing third in the slalom.  She is also the youngest US national slalom champion. I’m guessing we’ll hear her name a lot at the 2014 Olympics!

2. Laura Dekker- Dekker is another impressive (if controversial) 16-year-old girl. She just became the youngest person to circumnavigate the  globe alone.  Her record isn’t officially recognized though because after some disastrous recent attempts (like Abby Sunderland, and her brother, Zac, both of whom I’ve written about before), neither the World Sailing Speed Record Council nor the Guinness Book of World Records will recognize those records to “discourage dangerous attempts.”  Dekker’s parents fought the Dutch government for the right to let their daughter pursue this goal (the government thought it was unsafe). No word on what her next record-breaking adventure will be.

3. Jordan Romero- Well, she won’t be breaking the record for youngest person to summit the tallest peaks on all seven continents, because 15-year-old Jordan Romero just earned that honor. At just ten Romero scaled Kilimanjaro and he finished his feat on Antarctica. Currently a high school sophomore I’m guessing he is going to write one heck of a college admissions essay.

4. Sierra Mudra- 16-year-old Mudra also has a great story to tell on her college applications. When she was born she weighed under two pounds. Now a high school junior who has a slight case of cerebral palsy, Mudra hopes to become the first professional skateboarder with a disability.  Based on her story she recently attended The X Games and will soon appear on a billboard in Times Square.

5. Samantha Garvey- The big recent feel-good student story, of course, is that of Samantha Garvey, the 18-year-old high school senior named a semi-finalist in the Intel science competition for her research on mussels (not to be confused with the Seimens competition, which had Angela Zhang as its impressive winner). Garvey achieved this honor despite living in a homeless shelter (though in many ways her teacher, Rebecca Grella, is the real hero of the story).  Though she did not make the final cut of 40 to reach finalist status, Garvey now has an agent and even attended the State of the Union (where, coincidentally, my husband’s research on how much a good teacher is worth was discussed by the President [See slide 36]).  Though her college essays are almost certainly completed, Garvey will have some impressive tales to tell for years to come…

I’ve been remiss in my blogging lately as I spent some extra time bonding with Little Man, taking him on his first important outings (i.e. the bookstore, the New England Aquarium, the jewelry store…) and throwing him a bris party.

What’s a bris? The covenant, or bris, is the oldest continuous Jewish rite.  The brit milah is scheduled eight days after birth (as that is when Abraham circumcised Isaac). And, yes, I said circumcised. So the eighth day of life was not so much fun for Little Man– though, believe me, it was much harder on Mommy. We had a mohel perform the brit milah with only immediate family present at our home so that all of us could really enjoy welcoming Carston into our wonderful community of friends and family a few weeks later.

At his bris party, which essentially was a baby-naming celebration since the actual circumcision had been completed, we highlighted our hopes for Carston Cook Levey Friedman.  His Hebrew name is Shlomo (or Solomon) Chaim. “Shlomo/Solomon” honors John’s Uncle Stuart, who passed away in childhood; the name also means peace, and is more commonly associated with wisdom, both things we wish for him and for the world. “Chaim,” which means life, connects him to all his Jewish ancestors and to an artistic tradition (think “Fiddler on the Roof” and Chaim Potok).

I was particularly moved when our rabbi discussed the meaning of leaving a chair out for Elijah, who is said to visit every bris in the hopes that this child could be the Messiah. More practically though Elijah’s chair symbolizes everyone’s great hopes for every child– who knows, the cure for cancer could lie within our Little Man! My father carried Carston into the room and sat in Elijah’s chair.  You can see him in this picture, which also shows me lighting candles.

I like to say that Carston is our child of light since, like most children, he is obsessed with any kind of light (whether electric or sunlight) and naturally turns toward it. As I lit the candles (which John and I bought nearly two years ago during a trip to Israel, having NO idea we would ever use them for this purpose) John’s father read the below blessing for a newborn child:

There is a new light in our hearts and in our home.

These candles celebrate the birth of our child.

Out of the creative darkness of the womb he has come.

These candles celebrate his emergence into light.

Blessed is the woman who bears a child, for she knows how love covers pain.

Blessed is the man who fathers a child, for he makes a bridge between earth and heaven.

Child of light, you know not yet the love and joy overflowing from our hearts. 

Believe me, as these pictures capture, love and joy overflow from our hearts whenever we look at him.

John beaming with pride

My son fills me with wonder

Carston looks at the world with wonder, too (peering out over Daddy's shoulder)

As part of the covenant we committed our son to a life of learning, love, and good deeds. I love that these are three of the main pillars of my own life already.

The first part of this statement–learning/Torah– really resonates with us, as we are book people. Nearly every room in our home is filled with books and our lives are dedicated to knowledge and learning.  Of course, we hope the same for Carston.  To honor this I made up a wee bookmark (for a wee Little Man) as our party favor.

The beginning of a new chapter...

I also ordered a book cake, with a rabbit on it of course (the Friedmans are OBSESSED with rabbits because John had pet rabbits as a child).

This is my new favorite picture, which captures two of my greatest loves– my son and books.

My loves

In addition to learning we hope our son finds love, with whomever he desires, and that that love is recognized by all. Finally, we hope that he serves others and lives a righteous life, committed to justice.  John and I read the following Parents’ Prayer to capture these three elements.

We dedicate our child to Torah,

To a never-ending fascination with study and learning

With a book, he will never be alone.

We dedicate our child to huppah,

To never-ending growth as a human being capable of giving and receiving love.

With a loving mate, he will never be alone.

We dedicate our child to maasim tovim,

To a never-ending concern for family and community, justice and charity.

If he cares for others, he will never be alone.

We pray for wisdom to help our child achieve these things.

To fulfill the needs of his mind and body,

To be strong when he needs us to be strong,

To be gentle when he needs us to be gentle,

But always there when he needs us.

The birth of a child is a miracle of renewal.

We stand together this day, contemplating a miracle.

We stood surrounded by the great love of so many friends and family from so many parts of our lives. It was a fascinating group full of neat connections and we all shared in this simcha together.

Surrounded by familial love

And friends, big and small

The Hebrew word for joy is simcha, which is also the word for party. Little Man clearly brings us much joy and gives us a reason to party. As you can see, he is looking forward to even more parties in his future…

Mommy got this made for me to remind everyone: Save the Date for my Bar Mitzvah in 2025!

* All photographs courtesy of Mark Manne Photography

A LITTLE BOY, NO OLDER THAN 8, almost leaps out of his chair, screaming, “It’s so easy! It’s so easy!”

Standing at the front of his classroom, Robert Kaplan, a teacher and cofounder of the Math Circle, one of many after-school math enrichment programs in the Boston area, gently chides him. “No, I don’t think it’s easy,” he says. “And it’s not nice to say it is when we’re struggling with the problem.”

It’s not easy for the parents, either, sitting in the back of classrooms during lessons like this and trying to puzzle out a problem themselves. These are folks who have been through the boom and bust of Baby Einstein and Baby Mozart, and who of course want the best for their children’s developing minds. Now they’re trying to decide whether extracurricular math centers, which are spreading through the city and suburbs like a cold in a kindergarten, are worth the investment of time and money.

You can’t drive very far in Greater Boston without coming across one of these schools. Within five minutes of my Framingham home there are four different centers: an ALOHA (an acronym for Abacus Learning of Higher Arithmetic), a Chyten, a Kumon, and the MetroWest School of Mathematics (co-owned by the Russian School of Mathematics). Latha Narayanan, manager of the Framingham and Franklin Kumon centers, calls this small area a “math mall,” and she’s right: Companies with centers in just this corner of the suburbs serve about 1,130 students.

There are at least 14 different programs, with 87 total locations in and around Boston, teaching math enrichment classes to kids (not to mention private tutors, school math clubs, and online instruction). Some of these programs are small – like the Kohlberg Math Learning Center in Harvard Square, which has 12 students, and Girls’ Angle, a Cambridge center with anywhere from 10 to 20 at any time, or Kaplan’s Math Circle, which operates in classrooms on Harvard’s and Northeastern’s campuses and has 156 students and a handful of teachers, including Kaplan and his wife, Ellen. Other programs, like the Newton-based Russian School of Mathematics, which has almost 6,000 students, and the New Jersey-based Kumon, which has 6,192 students in the area, are huge. And they have different teaching approaches: Kohlberg uses a physical learning innovation – blocks made to fit together in groups of 10, 100, and 1,000 – to teach kids in a one-on-one setting; Girls’ Angle offers individualized teaching without a set curriculum; the Russian School offers classroom-based instruction using a set curriculum; and Kumon has a curriculum but offers one-on-one instruction.

With so many programs, parents may wonder if their children shouldn’t be enrolled just to keep pace with their classmates, to say nothing of getting ahead. How can parents know that these programs work and then choose among them?

CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING!

You can see the print version (as a PDF), with some beautiful pictures, by clicking HERE.

[Note that the answers to the puzzle on page 24 got cut off. The solution is: Next triangle blue (rightside up); 15th is blue (upside down); 44th is white triangle (top facing left). You can also see this online HERE.]

You can also see a PDF version of the web version by clicking HERE.

1) This year’s Pageant was a real Pageant, complete with an entertaining production. The crowning moment of Miss Wisconsin, Laura Kaeppeler, captured this well.

Yes, those are mascara-tinged black tears running down her face.

My first reaction via Twitter (I LOVED live-tweeting the Pageant this year) was that this was a major pageant faux pas. I mean, we have waterproof mascara and/or false eyelashes for a reason. But upon further reflection I feel that this Tammy Faye Baker-esque moment was actually pretty amazing and encapsulates the return to glamor I think marked the 2012 Pageant.  What says pageantry more than too much make-up? And, what says pageantry more than a dramatic crowning moment? I mean, the black streaks didn’t approach reality starlet Lauren Conrad-level of black streaks, but combined with that completely ridiculous crowning bouquet, the whole picture is deliciously over-the-top.

I also think that most of the Top 16 (exception Miss Alabama, who I TOTALLY didn’t get, but more on her below) were a glamorous and beautiful bunch. It was one of the best Top 5s in recent memory. And more people than usual got to see it.  Apparently the number of viewers grew over the two-hour broadcast, which some attribute to the blowout in the Patriots-Broncos game (One of my most popular Tweets during the Pageant/football game was: “Switching between Pats game and #MissAmerica. It’s not fair that Tom Brady is prettier than pretty much all the contestants.”).  Interestingly, I’ve always said that pageantry and football are good female/male counterparts to one another; and, as I’ve written about elsewhere, parents have a better chance of having a son play in the Superbowl (don’t get any ideas Little Man!) than having a daughter compete in the Miss America Pageants.

2) Speaking of the Top 5, my pre-Pageant predictions were pretty much spot-on.  It was clear based on preliminary winners (including the final two standing, WI and OK), that the judges picked early faves and stuck with them.

I predicted four of the Top 5 (AZ, OK, WI, and NY) so I feel like a cemented my status as a pageant prognosticator for the next year!

[Note: I find it fascinating when looking at this picture (though the fact that the crown is askew bothers me!) that three of the five are wearing white dresses (but, good Lord, don't get me started on NY's strange gown with that thigh-high slit, pointy boob neckline, and those awful earrings) and AZ's silver/nude is pretty neutral as well. Miss WI/America's black dress really helps her stand out.  She claimed her dress reminded her of Kate Middleton's wedding dress, a comparison I still don't get beyond the color difference.]

3) While I did enjoy this year’s Pageant quite a bit, there were two things I disliked.  Well, the first thing I HATED. That would be the way that the Top 12/13 was formed. Based on judges’ scores three contestants were eliminated.  Then, in a “twist,” the other “eliminated” contestants were able to vote one of them back in.  How? Well they had to physically line up behind one of them.  Seriously. It was like an awkward game of playground dodgeball where instead of throwing balls, pointy and painful crowns were hurled instead.  And, of course, Miss AL who was voted back in was immediately eliminated again by the judges who clearly had already eliminated her. A humiliating exercise for all involved.

Similarly, I still dislike the way the Talent portion has been handled the past few years.  The hosts announce the contestants only seconds before they are expected to perform, which makes it really hard to be prepared whether you are a dancer, singer, or musician.  Most people love the talent part (which sometimes can be deliciously awful– Memory sung in Italian by Miss TN this year anyone?!), so why not just make it standard for all the Top 10 and let them know in advance?

I understand that the Pageant is trying to add in more reality TV elements. However let’s not forget that, really, Miss America was the first television reality show.  As such, it is the Grande Dame of reality programming. Miss America, please conduct yourself with a bit more integrity and gravitas. Next year, drop these awful elements!

One thing I would like to see included more in the live broadcast is the contestants’ platforms.  For example, the winner, Miss WI, had a very interesting platform about providing support to children with parents in prison, inspired by her personal experience.  This is clearly part of the reason the judges loved her, but the casual viewer at home wasn’t at all privy to her interesting story.  If platforms aren’t used at all in the Saturday night broadcast, why have them at all?

It will be interesting to follow Miss America 2012 throughout her reign this year to see how she manages to continue to incorporate her platform with the business of beauty Miss America calls for. And to see when she starts using waterproof mascara.

1) This year saw six preliminary winners.  I believe, and many agree, that the Pageant is won in the interview room on Monday.  If the judges like you, they are more likely to give you a boost during other phases of the preliminary competition (like swimsuit). So it’s a fair bet that at least half of these women (UT, WI, TX, OK, NY and HI) will make Top 15.  (I REALLY hope HI makes it far enough into tonight’s live broadcast so that we get to see her jump rope talent routine that actually won the prelim– last year people made fun of AR ventriloquism act and it was actually impressive!).  NY, TX, and OK have been especially hyped, so I’d say they are good bets, and I also expect WI to be there.  30% of tonight’s results are based on the contestants “composite” score from prelims, so these winners tend to not only make Top 15, but go deep (rest of score is 20% swimsuit, 20% evening gown, and 30% talent).

Miss KY won the Quality of Life award, based on her platform, and she has some pageant links (former Miss America 2000 Heather French Henry is apparently a close family friend– a fact that seems especially relevant if you read this hilarious Jezebel take on this year’s crop of contestants, since Henry’s husband is a former lieutenant governor of KY).

2) Certain states get talked up a lot on pageant message boards (I find this Voy board, Pageant Central, funny at times, and they will run a live Pageant chat, if you are interested.)  Many of the prelim winners have been Internet standouts from the start. Other “hyped” contestants include CO (daughter of former Miss America), SC (media darling for weight loss story), AZ, GA, IA, and NH. I would love to see NH go far and perhaps bring home the crown to New England, though this is probably less likely (while I enjoyed seeing Miss MA crowned in July, I don’t think this is the year MA will *finally* get the crown). I personally think GA and IA have the Miss America “look,” but don’t know how far she will make it.

Carston and I have been studying this year’s Program and here are a few random observations he wanted me to share with you:

* As I’ve mentioned, Miss Colorado, Diana Dreman, is the first daughter of a former Miss America to compete. I found it interesting that in her mom’s “former” update the same picture is used that appears on Diana’s contestant page. I guess they don’t want people to forget…

* I also wonder if there will soon be another daughter competing. Miss America 1988, Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, has a daughter who is Miss Monroe County (MI) Outstanding Teen 2011. (Note that Miss NJ, who could also be a contender, was Miss NJ Outstanding Teen in 2008.)

* Standouts OK, TX, and SC have the most ads in the program book.

* At first I thought saying that Miss OK was first Oklahoman to medal at All-Ireland Irish Dance Championships was a bit much (especially in light of Jig). But then she won talent, so perhaps she is quite amazing!

* NY would appear to be the most academically advanced/accomplished (like the reigning Miss A, who is only 17 and was homeschooled until her senior year of high school).  NY was accepted to college at 16 and finished at 19; she is now 22.

*I found it fascinating that Miss VI, who goes to Barnard, listed Keeping Up with the Kardashians as her favorite show in the program book. Why? Well, because Kris Jenner is a judge!

Hope you feel more prepared to watch tonight and pick out some of these early standouts during the parade of states (my FAVORITE part of the pageant). Carston is all ready, with belles on! I hope to write more early next week with my thoughts on the final result. Until then, enjoy singing “There she is, Miss America, there she is, your ideal…”

Dressed up for Miss America!

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE ON BLOGHER SPORTS!

2012 is not only a leap year, it’s an Olympic year. That means that in the next few months thousands of hopefuls are gearing up for Olympic Trials to try to secure a spot to represent their country at the summer games, to be held in London.  How many of those who have qualified to compete can say that they were also one of the top collegiate scholars in the world? Or that they managed to combine Olympic-level training with Olympic-level academics, studying for a PhD (in Chemical Engineering to boot) while logging in hundreds of training hours?

Amanda Scott can.  This 24-year-old Boulder resident will compete at the Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston this Saturday, January 14^th. Many train full-time to run at such a high level, but over the years Scott has managed to combine high-level running with high-level achievements both inside and outside the classroom.

Growing up in Virginia Beach, Scott started playing soccer around age four.  It wasn’t until her sophomore year of high school that she started running competitively, unlike many younger kids today.  But she quickly excelled and ended up pursuing cross country as a collegiate sport, instead of her childhood sport of soccer.

Scott selected Vanderbilt University for its academics, but also for its sports opportunities.  She recommends, like Jennie Finch, that girls be proactive about the college athletic and recruitment process. One specific tip is to reach out to coaches via email to establish your interest and a personal connection.A few months before graduating from Vanderbilt in 2009 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Scott traveled to Annapolis, MD to interview for a prestigious post-graduate fellowship at the University of Cambridge.  Even at such a stressful and crucial time in her academic and professional career, she had to make time to do a workout.  Just before her interview for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship (a program that generously supports full-time graduate study through an endowment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), she squeezed in a training run on the U.S. Naval Academy track.  This actually came up while she was being questioned by a panel of world-class scientists, showing she was more than a one-dimensional chemical engineer.  That year Scott was one of only 37 Americans selected as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

While in Cambridge, Scott acquired a Master’s (MPhil) in Advanced Chemical Engineering, and a newfound love and appreciation for running as a sport.  Organized, university athletics are far more social and less competitive in England than they are in the United States.  Running without any pressure actually led to more races.  Scott recalls, “I was having fun just running without any pressure from myself (or coaches or teammates).”  In this more relaxed atmosphere she decided to try a marathon as “something different and just for fun.” After completing the London Marathon that year, she was hooked.

A move the following fall to Boulder to pursue her PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder brought new academic challenges and exposure to a new, outdoor-inspired running community.  During the always difficult first year of graduate school with non-stop work she found time to run and train with friends, running another marathon. It became apparent that she might be able to make the qualifying time for Olympic Trials.

To young runners and scholars, Scott offers the following wisdom and advice based on her own experiences: “The more that I enjoy running, the better I do at it.  Whenever it becomes too stressful or too much like a job I don’t do as well.  You have to do what you are passionate about and then you’ll succeed.”  She cautions that you also have to pursue your interests for yourself, and not be too competitive, which can lead to burnout and injuries.  Scott credits her parents for being supportive, and not pushy, particularly at a young age.

Following her own advice to follow your passion and find what you enjoy, Scott decided to take a break from academics and work at Crocs.  She had previously spent a summer at Nike analyzing materials used in running shoes.  Working on performance and recovery shoes allows her to combine her two passions—running and chemical engineering.Shortly after starting her new job she traveled to Indianapolis where she ran a personal best to qualify in 172^nd to run in the Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston.  Scott knows that this will be an experience of a lifetime.  She hopes to run another personal best and meet some of her running idols, like Desiree Davila, Shalane Flanagan, and Kara Goucher.While it’s unlikely that we’ll see Scott running in the Olympics this summer, her remarkable accomplishments both inside and outside the classroom maker her an excellent role model for young girls, showing them that athletic achievements at the highest level are possible while still achieving academically at the highest level, both in the US and abroad.  And, who knows, maybe at the next summer Olympics in 2016 the next generation of elite female runners will be wearing a performance shoe designed by runner and chemical engineer Amanda Scott…

Our Little Man, Carston Friedman

During labor I spent a good amount of time on Facebook and Twitter. It was amazing to feel like so many friends and family were part of the process.

I was ready with my custom hospital gown, pillow case, and essential supplies.

A Twitter friend, Sarah Buttenwieser, sent me a message after he’d arrived, part of which said: “#everythingaltering.”

That phrase, “everything altering,” kept running like a loop through my head over the next 24 hours. I kept saying to myself, “Everything is altering. Everything is altering.” Of course, the link to “altar” and worshiping him and all the promise he holds (as the Midrash says, “With each child the world begins anew”) was not lost on me either.

I also kept thinking about the choice of tense. Everything alterED the moment he entered the world. As any mother knows, the moment when that little human life is both forced out of you, by you, and also slips out of you, on his own, is indescribable.  Everything changed in that moment.

And, yet, my husband, John, and I still remained ourselves. Life shattered for a brief moment and was then put back together with so much more love than we knew before. We were fundamentally changed and fundamentally the same all at once.  Case in point: On the day we left the hospital an article about John’s research (which I’ve written a bit about before) appeared on the front page of The New York Times (and check out Nicholas Kristof’s column tomorrow, which also discusses this work). He spent the next several hours on the phone with reporters and even doing a live interview from home.  I snuck in half an hour of work on an article I have coming out next Sunday in The Boston Globe Magazine on afterschool math enrichment centers.

So much the same, yet completely different.

Because it is not that everything alterED, but that it is alterING.  Every sigh, sound, thought, movement has a new meaning. And this is a continual process of negotiating new challenges together and renegotiating identities and expectations.

As I take in lots of wonderful advice (one wonderful example written by Rebecca Sullivan, “Pilfer Disposable Hospital Underwear?“) and continue to share our evolving journey with loved ones, I look forward to finding out where this altering will take us as individuals, as a family, and as professionals.

This Saturday will capture many of those changes. We’ll spend the morning following the US Marathon Trials, since John is a serious runner and running fan.

A future marathon man?

Then we’ll watch the Patriots game (Go, Tom Brady!).

Go Tom Brady!

Finally, we’ll switch to the Miss America Pageant. This will be the first time in many years that I won’t be watching with friends while hosting a pageant party. Carston has been studying up on his favorites though. Once the preliminary competitions end tomorrow night, I plan to post my thoughts and predictions on this year’s interesting group of contestants.

Studying this year's Miss America program book

In the meantime, we’ll be altering away.

Maternal love

ETA: I love that motherhood means entering new conversations and dialogue. Continued thoughts from Standing in the Shadows blog!

Modelland, which came out in September, is pure Banks. It’s a bit overblown and overly long, with lots of invented model-ly words.  But, it’s also fun and silly. Now let’s be clear, as an author Banks is no Suzanne Collins, who wrote the Hunger Games trilogy, which is a truly exceptional and riveting series for readers of all ages, and a trenchant commentary on social life, inequality, competition, and competitive reality television.  But Modelland, which clearly has echos of the war games involved in Collins’ work, is subversive in its own way. In Modelland (both the physical setting and the novel), girls are the stars and boys are the accessories.  There is definitely an element of girl power, even though looks still matter. And it’s not always the most beautiful girl who is the star either (though, of course, it doesn’t hurt). There is a focus on female careers, and not leaving for a man; when a girl does leave for a member of the opposite sex it doesn’t go so well. In addition to this message of female empowerment Banks slips in more mundane beauty lessons. For instance, through one terrifying challenge the girls learn why they shouldn’t share make-up products or buy knock-off products/accessories. Like I said, a bit silly, though with a somewhat useful message.

Award-winning Young Adult author Libba Bray’s latest, Beauty Queens, is also a bit silly– but, like Banks, she promotes a message of subversive girl power even as she talks about beauty.

In Beauty Queens all the contestants in a teen beauty pageant go down in a plane crash on an island.  Only a few survive and those who do have to continue fighting for survival (so, again, a bit of a Hunger Games element)… While still preparing for a possible beauty pageant. Through the experience the girls, and the reader, learn that girls can be innovative and strong, while still wanting to look good and be true to themselves.  There are some jokes and observations about child beauty pageants (my favorite is when contestant/survivor Tiara, who started doing pageants at two weeks old, says she won Grand Supreme and one of the non-traditional state pageant queens responds by asking, “Do you want fries with that?” [page 45]) and competition among girls (“Compete is a rather ugly word, isn’t it?” [page 2]) which give the book a sarcastic edge that some teen readers in particular will appreciate.

It may surprise you that I read and write about so many Young Adult (YA) novels on this blog (for example, these dance novels and Wolitzer’s new book on Scrabble tournaments).  But it shouldn’t.  The topics covered in YA (especially those about topics I study, like organized sports and kids’ activities, dance, beauty pageants, etc.) and the sense of immediacy in the stories make them interesting reads.  A recent piece in The Boston Globe by Meredith Goldstein helps explain why so many recent YA books (think Twilight, which I did read, but just couldn’t get into the series itself) have had crossover appeal.

In any case, while Modelland and Beauty Queens are fun reads, if you’re going to try out a YA novel for the first time, I definitely recommend the Hunger Games trilogy– especially before the movies come out.  And if you’re still hooked, try Bray’s or Banks’ take on what I call the “beauty games.”

One female athlete who definitely does deserve to be called a hero– for her performance both on and off the athletic stage– is world champion sk- jumper Lindsey Van.  As I wrote about back in April, Van donated bone marrow to a man she has never met. When asked recently to donate again, to the same man, Van didn’t hesitate (even as the donation process impacted her training for the World Cup season).

Van’s long-held supremacy in ski-jumping may be coming to a close, as an up-and-coming American ten years her junior just won the first women’s World Cup ski-jumping event. Sarah Hendrickson, at only 17, also qualifies as a Pint-Sized Phenom.

It will be exciting to watch both Van and Hendrickson battle it out in the years leading up to 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the first year women’s ski-jumping will be included in the Olympics (Van has previously sued to get it included, so I hope she will be able to compete in a few years)!

Another exciting teen phenom is Kelly Cobb, a freshman soccer player at Duke. Cobb has emerged as a soccer star, albeit from an unlikely place: Alaska.  A recent profile in The New York Times included some great tidbits– like the horrible sunburn she got in NC because she’s not used to playing outside, the time a moose interrupted her team’s soccer game by standing in front of the goal, and an encounter with a black bear during an icy run.  I have a feeling we’ll be hearing much more from Cobb in the next decade or so.

While we all might cheer Cobb, Hendrickson, and Van from our couches, another group of women (some of whom definitely qualify as athletes) often cheer from the sidelines. Cheerleaders remain popular companions to male team sports like basketball and football.  With the rise of competitive cheer many are considered athletes in their own rights.  And now an organization wants to show you that they are brainy as well. “Science cheerleaders” are a group of current and former NFL and NBA cheerleaders who also hold science degrees and/or jobs in science.  Check out their website to see how they promote science education through sports and cheer. I think it sounds like a neat organization that can positively impact young girls in a number of ways.

As cheerleading continues to evolve in interesting ways it’s important to remember that barriers to participation by sex still exist in cheer, and in other sports.  A cheer team in Michigan was recently disqualified from a statewide competition for having male cheerleaders. In this case having boys on the team isn’t allowed, even though there isn’t an option for males who want to participate.   This is the opposite of how things work in Massachusetts (funny enough, MA is now my home state, though MI is where I grew up), as I’ve written about before. Boys are allowed to play on girls’ field hockey teams and swim teams, which is sometimes met with resistance.

What do you think? Should girls be able to play on boys’ teams (as often happens in wrestling, for example), and vice versa, when similar opportunities aren’t available for both sexes?