February 5, 2014 — Haley Kilpatrick

with Louise Kuo Habakus and Alison MacNeil

See on Amazon

Remember middle school? Most of us are immediately transported to the corner of Lord of the Flies and Mean Girls. Haley Kilpatrick, the author of The Drama Years, tells parents of tweens to pay close attention. There’s a lot going on and the stakes are high.

Our kids are navigating puberty, friendships, social status, celebrity role models, technology, sex, hobbies, school work, money, and their evolving relationship with us… the parents. Whew!

What do we need to know?

What can high school kids teach us?

What can we do? (and can we handle the answer?)

Haley Kilpatrick is the founder and Executive Director of Girl Talk, a national nonprofit organization through which high school girls mentor middle school girls to help deal with the trials and triumphs of the “tween” and early teen years. She is also a former preteen who remembers occasions when she ate alone in the school restroom to avoid being left out in the lunchroom, until she found a source of confidence and hope in an older high school girl who helped her to understand that she was not alone. Haley started Girl Talk in 2002 at the age of 15, and has built it into an organization that now reaches 35,000 girls in 43 states and 6 countries and that aspires to reach many more. She has been honored by Glamour Magazine, Huffington Post, and People Magazine, and featured on NBC’s Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNN, HLN, and TBS. Haley lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Louise Kuo Habakus is Executive Director of Fearless Parent, lead host and producer of Fearless Parent Radio, and mom of two. She is a published author, runs the non-profit Center for Personal Rights, lectures widely, and has appeared in numerous media outlets, including ABC World News Tonight, Fox & Friends, and The New York Times. Louise was a Bain consultant and a C-level executive in the financial services industry. She holds two degrees from Stanford University. She is an advisory board member of GreenMedInfo.

Alison MacNeil, MSW, LICSW is a social worker and psychotherapist with more than 15 years of clinical experience. She holds degrees from Trinity College and the Smith College School for Social Work. Her professional background includes positions with a community mental health center in southeastern Massachusetts, Family Services of Greater Boston, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Healthcare Associates. Alison is a published author and a co-founder of the Thinking Moms’ Revolution.