If you're looking for a book that -- for once -- doesn’t treat adolescence as a time of impending trouble but instead introduces it as a wonderful and emotional opportunity to grow and learn with and from your daughter, this is it. Nancy L. Snyderman, health columnist and television medical correspondent, brings personal perspective as a mother of two daughters to bear in her latest book, written with author and mother Peg Streep. Based on the authors’ experiences as well as interviews with mothers and father of budding and blooming teenagers, Girl in the Mirror adapts adapt Martin Buber's "I-Thou" theory to child-rearing. It embarks on a journey towards womanhood, offering guidelines for parents every step of the way. Gone are the stereotypical views of female adolescence; in their place are moving and empowering descriptions of approaching maturity.

The authors reassure mothers that their teenage daughters are not necessarily going to rebel or succumb to the sexual stereotypical standards that the media bombards them with. They show how “combining a realistic assessment of the dangers in society with and appreciation that appropriate, healthy risk-taking is part of learning responsibility.”

If you have ever wanted to end the tension in your mother-daughter relationship and to sit down together and discuss your opinions on womanhood, sex, drugs, boys, fashion, etc., but you haven’t quite been able to do it, Girl in the Mirror will help you approach these subjects with your daughters, and at the same time enable you to listen to their thoughts and feelings without your authority or self-esteem being undermined.

Each page is filled with empathy, optimism and enthusiasm as the authors move through complex feelings and discussions such as peer pressure, best friendships, self-esteem and sexual desire. This book is not just a great read for mothers (and fathers) but also for their maturing daughters.