title: Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She Is Changing the World
author: Dan Kindlon
description: Bestselling coauthor of Raising Cain, a look at the emotional lives of boys, Kindlon's new subject is the "young woman who is destined to be a leader. She is talented, highly motivated, and self-confident." These alpha girls, Kindlon suggests, gain a sense of emancipation from the accomplishments of their mothers, a sense that was lacking in previous generations: as a post-feminist cohort, "they are the living, breathing embodiments of the inner revolution that women in the last generations so ardently desired and fought for." Buttressed by well-organized informational charts, Kindlon's lucid look into the social and psychological world of these young leaders is well-paced and includes substantive interviews with the alpha girls themselves. In addition to providing an inside look into the alpha girls' lives, and the feminist tradition which they inherit, Kindlon's work explores the relationships alpha girls have with the men in their lives-fathers and boyfriends, mostly-particularly in collegiate and post-collegiate life. With comprehensive chapters on alpha girls at work, in love and in the family, this study is a must-have for anyone looking to understand the upcoming generation's driven, confident and successful females.<br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: For my LA alpha girls, Katie Davis, Tina Hay, and Mary Clare Williams.
  
  And NYC alpha boy Tom Dolby, who brought us together.
  
  I’m always honored to sit at your lunch table!!
  
  Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
  
   **—Erica Jong**
  
   _We have the playaz and we have the playa haters Please don’t hate me because
  I’m beautiful, baby._
  
   **—Notorious B.I.G.**
  
  WELCOME TO THE SEVENTH-GRADE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. Otherwise known from now on as
  “The Rank.” Don’t ask us what smells—it’s probably just the new menu at the
  ref!
  
  But on to business! Did you ever wonder if popularity can be bottled like
  cheap celebrity perfume? Well, we did too. And we decided to find out what
  exactly makes an it girl “it.” What makes a golden girl shine? And why do we
  call them the Beautiful People when they exhibit so much Bad Behavior?
  
  Here at Miss Gamble’s, the Ones to Watch are the triple threat known as the
  Ashleys. When one of them coughs, all of us catch colds.
  
  So what does it take to follow in their Ji