Given the rapidly growing presence of girls online, serious academic inquiry into the relationship between girls and the Internet is imperative. Girl Wide Web is an innovative collection of cutting-edge research exploring a wide sweep of issues related to the ways adolescent girls interact with the Internet. Employing a range of methodologies and theoretical perspectives primarily within cultural studies, the authors examine a variety of topics - from instant messaging and web-diaries to online fan communities and Internet advertising that targets young girls. Taken together, these essays provide a rich portrait of the complex relationship among girls, the Internet, and the negotiation of identity.
«This collection of well-researched and stimulating essays about girls' Internet use thoughtfully explores the intersection of girlhood, technology, and identity development. From personal home pages to commercial websites to instant messenger and chat, the various applications of the WWW are investigated with an eye toward girls as unique users, creators, citizens, and audiences. The book challenges popular constructions of girls as technologically naïve, culturally duped, and vulnerable, and instead reveals how girls use the WWW to produce and reproduce culture, to communicate, and to navigate childhood and adolescence. 'Girl Wide Web' makes significant contributions to our growing understanding of girl culture at the start of the new millennium.» (Susannah R. Stern, Communication Studies, University of San Diego)