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Do you worry about your daughter?

... Or a girl in your life you care about? Are you concerned about today’s stark rise in depression and anxiety among adolescent girls? If so, you’re not alone.

If you want to strengthen your bond with your daughter and empower her to thrive in a world full of challenges and uncertainty, you've come to the right place.

In today's fast-paced society, it's essential to equip your daughter with the tools she needs to navigate the times we’re in.

The course I’ve created for you has been carefully designed to provide you with the essential skills to foster a resilient, compassionate, and confident young woman, and to create a nurturing environment where she feels safe, valued, and free to express herself.

Providing your daughter with a neuroprotective environment is the most important line of defense against depression and anxiety.

 

Rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts in girls have reached epidemic proportions. Why is this happening now? And why are girls more likely to struggle as they enter puberty compared to boys?

I’ve set out on a journey to uncover the answers to these questions. I’ve interviewed dozens of neuroscientists and medical experts about their recent findings on girls’ mental health, and hundreds of girls whose journeys illustrate the struggles young women face in our modern world.

It turns out that a neuroprotective environment – one in which the conditions that foster a sense of being safely seen, deeply connected, and valued – is crucial for ensuring that our daughters feel secure and connected within themselves, their families, and society-at-large.

To learn more about what's happening to our girls, why, and how we, as parents and educators, can help make this difficult passage into adulthood easier and more joyful for the girls we love so fiercely, watch the powerful video series below.

Video 1: There is a reason why our girls are struggling, and the new science tells us why.

Depression, anxiety, and suicide rates are soaring among girls, and recent research reveals the hidden reasons. Dive into the groundbreaking research on how female biology influences how stress impacts the brain during puberty, and the powerful neuroprotective strategies every parent needs to know to help their daughters thrive in today's challenging world.

 

Video 2: What happens to girls’ brains when subjected to unrelenting toxic stress during puberty?

Discover the fascinating link between the influx of estrogen, toxic stress, and the teenage female adolescent brain. Learn why girls face unique challenges during the teen years and empower yourself with knowledge to protect and support your daughter through this critical phase of development.

 

Video 3: Childhood has changed drastically for girls growing up in today’s culture. 

We’ve lost what I call the safe “in-between” years, between the ages of 7 and 13. These once-protected "in-between" years are overshadowed today by social media pressures, sexualization, and performance-based judgments from every direction. Unravel the impact this has on girls’ mental health and self-worth during this vulnerable phase of brain development. It's time to reclaim a safer, empowering world for our girls.

 

Video 4: Unravel the surprising link between social threats, emotional distress, and how these affect the female adolescent brain in unique ways.

Discover the evolutionary origins of this connection and the damaging consequences social stress can have on girls as they come of age. Find out how you can empower and protect your daughter with powerful neuroprotective strategies.

 

Video 5: We have inadvertently created a social-environmental world that may be altering the female adolescent brain during a vulnerable window. 

But we can ameliorate these effects. As parents, educators, and practitioners, we can learn the art of nurturing healthy connections and reducing toxic stress to unlock girls’ full potential. Here are some tips to get you started! 

 

Wondering what you can do, as parents, to help your daughter grow strong and flourish?

 

Years of research into the latest insights from neuroscience, coupled with hundreds of interviews with girls have helped me uncover a new and powerful blueprint for how we can create deep psychological safety for, and a deeper connection with, our girls.

I’ve put together dozens of powerful strategies all parents can apply to help downshift a girl’s stress response and build up her ability to adapt and self-manage in positive ways, even in the face of unrelenting modern stressors and challenges.

Parents, if you want to learn the skills to raise your daughter in ways that foster resilience and emotional well-being, while empowering them for their futures, I invite you to join my new online course, Growing Strong Girls.

Fostering a Deep Connection with Your Daughter

$197

Growing Strong Girls Part 1

  • Lay the foundation for a relationship built on trust, respect, and understanding.
  • Become more emotionally present and better equipped to support your daughter during tough times, providing her with an unwavering sense of security and stability.
  • Help your daughter develop an unshakeable sense of self-worth and resilience that will guide her through all of life's ups and downs.
  • Cultivate a deep sense of psychological safety, ensuring your daughter trusts you as a source of support in times of both difficulty and joy.
  • Create a positive and uplifting atmosphere that soothes your daughter’s nervous system (and yours!) while strengthening your connection.
LEARN MORE

Navigating Important Conversations with Your Daughter

$197

Growing Strong Girls Part 2 (coming soon)

  • How to set the stage for and navigate difficult conversations with your daughter.
  • Learn when and why you overreact during high-stakes parenting moments (and how to change that!).
  • Step-by-step scripts for what to say (and what not to say!) during important conversations.
  • How to apologize and make a repair when you make a mistake (and what parent doesn’t make mistakes?)?
  • A plan for addressing social media use and developing social media literacy.
  • And powerful ways to reconnect with your daughter even if there has been a period of disconnection between you.
COMING SOON

It’s never too late to better the lives of our daughters and the girls we care about. I hope you’ll join me in creating a healthier and more empowering passage between childhood and adulthood for our daughters and all of our girls.

Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Donna is an award-winning science journalist and speaker. Her latest book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media, was named one of the best health books of 2022 by The Washington Post and Mashable.

Donna’s other books include The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine, named one of the best books of 2020 by Wired magazine, and Childhood Disrupted, a finalist for the Books for a Better Life Award. Her writing has appeared in Wired, The Boston Globe, Psychotherapy Networker, Stat, The Washington Post and Health Affairs.

She has appeared on The Today Show and NPR and is a regular speaker at the Child Mind Institute, the Harvard Division of Science Library Series, UCLA Health, Rutgers, Johns Hopkins, Learning & the Brain, Children’s Hospital Association, and the University of Arizona.

Donna is also the creator and founder of the narrative writing-to-heal programs, Breaking Free From Trauma, and Your Healing Narrative, which help participants to create a new, powerful, inner healing narrative that calms the body, brain, and nervous system.

You can find her on Instagram: @DonnaJacksonNakazawa