This week's entry stems largely from my acute frustration after reading Tanya Lee Stone's Almost Astronauts. The book is fantastic - really really well done - and I can't recommend it enough (It will be formally reviewed in my September column which is all things Moon Landing). What bothered me is that I was raised on the Space Coast of Florida and watched rockets launch from my front yard and yet I had never heard of the women in the Mercury 13 - not once. They never showed up in college either, when I studied Aviation (including Aviation history and they were all killer pilots) or when I studied history (which included the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo programs). It's not that I would have decided to be an astronaut if only I had known about them, but rather that I had no clue that women did this then - before I was born. So I got to looking at nonfiction in general for teens, especially books written about real women and real girls and real subjects that would interest teenage girls who, like teenage boys, generally have no idea what to do with their lives, and what I found was monumentally disheartening. Lots of mythic history (hello Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher), lots of dead history (poor Amelia Earhart and Marie Curie), lots of commonly known and celebrated but not likely to be repeated history (go Rosa Parks!) but books about women scientists and anthropologists and pilots (who didn't disappear) and marine biologists and artists and writers and museum curators and horse trainers and volcanologists and on and on and on?

Not so much. I should clarify that I'm looking for something more than the short standard biographies and NF titles provided in series for middle grade readers. What I'm looking for is something that dwells between child and adult (as teenagers do) and also offers insight into how ground breaking and amazing women traveled their paths from girlhood to woman. That's what I haven't seen so much of and what I long to discover.

So here is a discussion that has, surprisingly, proven to be the toughest for our panel. The question: How about the real girls? We all know that teen nonfiction is not a popular genre for publishers. The assumption seems to be that teens can jump right into adult NF for information they might need for reports, etc. To me though the adult titles are often densely written and more importantly do not address subjects teens would be interested in - or don't present them in a manner that would be more appealing to teens (more pictures, etc.) What subjects do you think should be addressed in YA NF that teen girls would want to read about and just as important - should read about? Who are the real girls and real issues we are missing and how would learning about them help the girls of today?

Beth Kephart: "I have had the great privilege of spending a lot of time with teens not just my own son, but young aspiring writers, the kids from church, the crowd of adventurous souls with whom I traveled to Juarez, and also, in that virtual way that all of us here understand, the younger bloggers who daily teach me so much. These kids are smart. These kids are outrageous in what they already know, in what they already reach for, in what borders and barriers they already cross.

They yearn, it seems to me, for place. They yearn to know more about worlds that are not theirs, about people they've not met. The anthropological. The sociological. The tribal. The vanishing. I'm not talking about guidebooks. I'm not talking about textbooks. I'm talking about books that respectfully, intelligently, seductively open worlds to teens.

Zetta Elliott: "While visiting my mother last month, I opened a drawer in my old desk and found a high school report I’d written on Wuthering Heights—on the front cover was a lovely image of Brontë, which I distinctly remembered cutting out of the musty encyclopedias we kept in the basement! As a professor, I began instructing my students not to use secondary sources because plagiarism was an issue, and I felt it was important for them to develop their own ideas and analyses instead of relying on theories developed by others. It can be hard for young people to develop their own voice and/or opinion when they’re told over and over that they lack the experience and/or expertise to come to their own conclusions. I’d like to see more nonfiction for teens that incorporates source material, like Tonya Bolden’s Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl. I also believe nonfiction writers need to meet teens where they are—and that means incorporating lots of audio and visual content. I begin most of my classes with music because it’s appealing, accessible, and presents text (lyrics) in a different way. We study television commercials, films, essays, fiction, poetry…there are so many ways to approach a given topic. Teens need to understand that history is a story anyone can tell, so long as you substantiate your claims. "

Laurel Snyder: "Ooh! Ooh! Well, it seems to me that part of the problem with nonfiction is that teens are already being crammed full of "information" at school. So, even if you write a good biography of, say, Abigail Adams, who was an amazing woman, I can't help thinking it'll be met with groans of "Mooooore schoolwork?" Same with anyone likely to appear on an AP history test.

BUT! As an author, I wish all the time that I had the resources to research and write nonfiction that's off the beaten track. Biographies and histories of things that never make it into textbooks. I wrote a story for BUST a few years back, about the women of the carnival freakshows. Written well, a book about such women (or just one) would be a chronicle of an age, as it would touch on how/why these women found their way to the carnie world. Many were immigrants, or women of color. Many had disabilities. Some lived in partnerships with other women.

Likewise the dance world (I'd die to write about Anna Pavlova), the theater world, etc. Incarcerated women. I read a CRAZY biography of Tallulah Bankhead last year! WOW! I think dramatic stories like that, from outside the mainstream, would provide an alluring window on history.

Maybe I'll get around to it, once my kids are a little older and I can travel and do the research."

Lorie Ann Grover: "I do believe teens can access adult nonfiction without hesitation, Colleen. So, this hasn't been a concern for me, currently. However, with two teen girls in my house, I can say that when the perfect topic crosses their path in a YA format, that book is well-loved. A perfect example is Deborah Reber and Lisa Fyfe's In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers. The work is toted about, read again and again, and shared with friends. The nonfiction is accessible and pertinent. In the same vein is The Great Jobs series by Blythe Camenson. Particularly in our house, Great Jobs for Geology Majors and Great Jobs for Anthropology Majors have been checked out repeatedly from the library.

Believing teens can access adult works, I ask myself what subjects are particular to teens that maybe could be explored more? How about: health for teens, more series on careers, dating and relationships, teen finances and savings, and goal setting as a teen. I'm thinking practical topics that are particularly relevant to the teenager.

I'd personally love to see a collection for teens about teen life around the world. Maybe that's a future endeavor for my cultural anthropology major...

Jenny Davidson: "I hear you on the need for accessible and interesting nonfiction books on issues that will be of interest to girls in particular - but isn't it possible that there just isn't a big enough market for it to make sense for publishers and writers to invest their resources this way? It is my strong opinion, as a reader and a writer, that a wonderfully well-written adult nonfiction book will be accessible to thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds who are fully fluent readers. What would be an example? Well, let's say Anne Fadiman: her book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is in no sense a YA title, and yet I think it would be of considerable interest to many high school students. Popular science writing, at its best, also crosses over in this way - the essays of Oliver Sacks, for instance (or I think of books like Armand-Marie Leroi's Mutants or Jonathan Weiner's Time, Love, Memory as books that would also be very suitable for this age group). So that in this case it seems to me librarians are the ones who have the most to offer, in terms of helping steer kids to the real treasures that exist out there but that will not always be clearly designated for teens. Well-written biography in particular can offer girl readers some of the pleasures of a novel but with access to or insight into various fields of history or science or what have you - but I would think that it will make more sense for most biographers, especially if they are doing original research, to write for the adult market in the first place..."

Sara Ryan: "This is another question I can't answer without thinking about my own reading choices as a teen. Here are three nonfiction titles I remember:

1. Our Bodies, Ourselves. It was put into my hands by an older friend who'd intuited that I would soon benefit from some of the information inside. I would never have taken it off a library shelf, but in the safety of her apartment, it was okay to read. 2. Color Me Beautiful. I wish I didn't have such vivid recollections of this title, but I was fascinated by the premise that if you just knew what season you were, everything else in your life would fall into place. 3. Medieval People, by Eileen Edna Power. I was also fascinated by the Middle Ages, and I appreciated that the book was actually about people from the past, as opposed to Important Historical Events.

None of these titles were written for a teen audience, but they were all about subjects in which I had a compelling interest. If I were a teen today, I'd be looking online for equivalents of the first two, since despite my fascination, I found health information and fashion equally embarrassing to contemplate.

The problem I have when I try to think about teen-girl-specific nonfiction is that so many of the subjects that come to mind are exactly the kind of things I wouldn't have wanted to admit I was interested in. And if the topic was innocuous, as with Medieval People, I'd have found a "For Teens!" treatment condescending.

So maybe teen-girl-specific nonfiction is more for parents, librarians, teachers, and the rare but vital Other Trusted Adults to buy, and simply leave somewhere the girls might stumble across it.

Mayra Lazara Dole: "My main concern isn’t educated girls who read. Soon they’ll have a myriad of YA nonfiction titles written by white authors filled with white successful women. I vouch for popularizing Latina/all women of color scientists and athletes while dispelling female myths in order to inspire girls who don't read. It’s my perspective that we need to update/rewrite history texts to include all Latinas and women of color scientists, politicians, athletes, etc., and LGBTQl’s contribution throughout history. Our stereotypes about Latina/women of color, and LGBTQI's tells us who we are as people, play a role in all our decision-making, in who we choose to interact and befriend or shun, and, in how we advance in life and in our careers.

Rain can erode mountains and boulders. As authors, let’s be the rain…

A silly last thought: in order to inspire teens who don’t read to delve into books, I suggest we consider hyper-manipulating titles:

TEEN SEX! = How to prevent pregnancy and STD’s

GO GREEN & GET the GUY! = Encouraging teens to take care of their bodies and the environment.

READ THIS and DIE! = Nutrition, eating healthy foods so you avoid heart disease, etc.

LGBTQI’s RULE THE WORLD! = text depicting gay characters in history.

WHO ARE OUR FOUNDING MOTHERS = ?"

Loree Griffin Burns: "This question reminded me of a phone call I had from a friend a few years ago. Her daughter had to choose a scientist to study for a big school project, and the Famous Scientist List (handed out by the teacher) had only one woman on it. Her daughter wanted to profile a woman, and my friend knew there must be options other that Marie Curie, who was of course a marvelous scientist and worthy of the Famous Scientist List, but who would be profiled by most of the girls in the class.

This sort of thing makes me crazy. There are so many amazing women scientists (and historians and politicians and aviators and writers and so on and so on) to inspire us. Books ARE being written about them, but not a lot of them and they are only slowly making their way into the classroom, or so it seems. Who are the real girls and real issues we are missing? Heavens, I don’t know the answer … but I have an entire list of women scientists to nominate: Rosamund Franklin, Lise Meitner, Barbara McClintock, Maria Reiche, Lynn Margulis, Sylvia Earle, Margaret Morse Nice, Jill Tarter, Laurie Boyer and oh so many more.

How would learning about real women help the girls of today? In much the same way the fiction we’ve discussed will, I think. Non-fiction provides an opportunity for girls to look at other women, other lives, and try them on, compare them to their own lives and interests, wonder about the possibilities. And because of the structure inherent in non-fiction like biography, readers can take a longer journey with their subject, venture out of MG or YA-hood and see women as adults, as mothers, as old women. This view can be tremendously important; I’m thinking of the women I listed above and the very different choices they made in the areas of life partnerships and families and balance. Sure, not many girls think about this stuff in detail during their teen years … but shouldn’t we be sure the issue as a whole is at least present in the world of books we offer them?

While I do think there are real girls and real issues missing from the canon of children’s literature, I think this question is a great time to celebrate the books IN the canon that truly rock. I thumbed through my copies of Russel Freedman’s ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, Ellen Levine’s UP CLOSE: RACHEL CARSON, Richard Maurer’s THE WRIGHT SISTER, and Ellen Jackson’s LOOKING FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE while thinking about this response, and I ended up re-reading most of them. There are piles of non-fiction books out there that have inspired girls and women … and I hope we will talk about some of them here, too!"

Margo Rabb: "One of the amazing things about writing YA books right now is that historically, we're a part of a renaissance occurring in the genre, with the variety, range, and sheer volume of books growing and changing all the time. I really hope that as part of these changes, more YA nonfiction titles will be published. I'd love to see YA biographies of Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, Simone de Beauvoir and other heroic figures I never learned about until I was an adult....I'd also love to see literary journalism in the YA genre. How great would it be if there were books like Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point or Mary Roach's Bonk or Michael Pollan's Ominivore's Dilemma published for YA readers?" (ed note: The Omnivore's Dilemma For Kids was recently published - although as it is aimed at 10 & up it might be too young for teens.)

[Post pics: Artist Frida Kahlo in 1931, age 24; Maritcha Rémond Lyons, first Black graduate of Providence High School; Russian dancer Anna Pavlova in 1912; anthropologist Ruth Benedict; author Anne Fadiman; astronaut Eileen Collins - first female shuttle pilot and first female shuttle commander; Cuban singer Celia Cruz; marine biologist Sylvia Earle (otherwise known as "her deepness"; author Simone de Beauvoir]