Girlhood, Translated

Understanding Young Women in the Age of Therapy Speak

By: Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell M.D.

A clear-eyed child psychiatrist reveals how “therapy speak” and the culture of self-diagnosis is reshaping the inner lives of adolescent girls and young women—and what to do about it.

Why do young women so often describe their feelings and personalities as signs of psychiatric illness like ADHD, OCD, anxiety disorders, and depression? Is there any other way for girls growing up in today’s “therapy culture” to understand and manage their emotional lives? In this engaging and compassionate book, Dr. Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell argues that therapy speak is alienating girls from themselves and from those around them, and offers both girls and the adults in their lives a way to find the language they need to reconnect.

Drawing on her deep experience in adolescent psychiatric care, Dr. Garfinkle-Crowell helps us understand why girls now seek validation and support through diagnostic labels they discover largely on social media, and why speaking in shorthand about trauma, toxicity, and anxiety disempowers girls and flattens their emotional lives. Meanwhile, parents and other concerned adults often respond to this heightened therapy speak with alarmism or dismissiveness, which only makes the problem worse, even when everyone has the best intentions. We are left with a culture in which girls are—rightly, desperately—asking for healing and connection, but in a language that cannot get them either.

Through storytelling that is warm, vibrant, and refreshingly authentic, Dr. Garfinkle-Crowell exposes the forces confronting today’s youth and guides us through the power—and peril—of therapy culture. Girlhood, Translated shows how both girls and those who care about them can break free of the language of illness, start telling their own stories in their own words, and return girlhood to girls.

Critic reviews

“Understanding girls today is impossible without seeing the culture that shapes them. ‘Therapy speak’ has puzzled parents (me included)—and the impulse to dismiss or overreact is real. Dr. Garfinkle-Crowell explains what it means, why it's happening, and—importantly—how to respond with nuance and care. She brings seasoned medical guidance, keen cultural insight, and a deep reverence for the girls she treats. This is a voice you can trust and a resource you will rely on throughout your daughter's young adulthood.”—Rachel Simmons, New York Times bestselling author of Odd Girl Out

“This fine book by an excellent therapist and writer offers readers a deep understanding of the internal and external problems of girls today. Garfinkle-Crowell takes on the current issue of diagnosis as identity and, with vivid examples, unpacks old problems and new. Best of all, she gives us ideas of how to help girls explore who they truly are and learn to tell their stories with their own true voices. I recommend this book to all who have contact with teenage girls.”—Mary Pipher, New York Times bestselling author of Reviving Ophelia and Women Rowing North

“Smart, compassionate, and bracingly clear, Girlhood, Translated distrusts quick labels while honoring real suffering. It gives parents, teachers, clinicians—and girls themselves—language more spacious than diagnosis. This is the book I want in every home and staff room: case stories with a novelist’s eye, a scientist’s care, and a translator's ear.”—Peter Fonagy, PhD, award-winning author of Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self

“This is a phenomenal, brilliant book, written in a voice that is a delightful trio of funny, wise, and compassionate. It is essential reading for anyone who works with or cares about girls. Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell is in the pantheon of Carol Gilligan, Mary Pipher, and Lisa Damour.”—Catherine Steiner-Adair, Ed.D., author of The Big Disconnect