Others seem to have handled the writing annoyances that I (Hyzie) found particularly problematic at length; I'll leave mine to the quip here and handle other things. 

This book kept almost making a point and then sliding so far sideways from what the actual meaning was I felt like I was reading an Amelia Bedelia book. 

Girls shouldn't stress themselves out and be comparing themselves to airbrushed models? Why yes, you're right! They should instead be modest and hide and not be prideful? Uh, okay, not where I thought you were going with that.

The weird victim-blaming section on Marilyn Monroe kind of came out of nowhere and left me rather convinced some of the reviews I had read were actually *downplaying* some of the book's faults. 

The problem I really have with this is that it's taking extremely outdated beliefs and dressing them up as "real Christian" views. I have always found it funny and sad that many "real Christian" views don't include any of the nice stuff about loving each other and not judging people that make me continue to identify myself as a Christian and are instead awfully focused on why everyone (except the writer) is wrong and not worthy of being loved by God. 

By the time we got to the gender roles section, I think my eyes had glazed over. If I never see "men aren't men anymore and women aren't women" in anything ever ever again it will be way too soon. Suffice it to say they feel strongly they should be Women (but never feminists!). Their idea of women involves three pillars. Two of them are, honestly, human goals: helping others and nurturing relationships. Apparently men don't get to do those? Or aren't expected to? I'm honestly not sure why those are exclusively female. 

The third one, creating life, is...problematic for me. Sure, being born and identifying as female lets me have children. I think that's neat. Going to try that sometime, for sure. But the idea that that's one of the only three things of value I can bring to the world? And the idea that giving birth is somehow more important than parenting a child? It's all wrapped up in some weird baggage that I feel like should not be present in a book published in this millennium. Not "creating life" doesn't mean you're not a woman. 

The whole "spiritual children" thing they try to pull seems to be a cop-out when they realized some women couldn't have biological children. If giving "time, service, and mentorship" also gives life (and sure, that seems a valid interpretation to me, though how that's different than the "helping others" pillar I'm not sure), then, again, I feel like we've hit a human pillar. Humans should help humans, they should offer time and mentorship when needed and useful and they can, they should nurture relationships with other humans because we are all humans and even the most introverted among us (hello!) needs other humans. This isn't some kind of "girl" thing. 

I admit I didn't really expect to like this going in, but I figured it was worth a shot. I do read a decent amount of religious literature and I'm genuinely interested in how being female in modern times is treated. This doesn't feel modern or relevant to my life in any way, and it's got some harmful ideas in it that are likely to stifle a girl's sparkle if she reads it at an impressionable age. This just creates a new, smaller box for women instead of the one society sometimes forces them in, and it's a shame to see other women doing that.