The Big Book of Girl Stuff

by Bart King

  As a result, women who wear high heels a lot often get back problems, corns, bunions, and sprained ankles. Spiked heels or “stilettos” are especially harmful. If high heels are shoes you’d like to try, you might want to start with a low pair of heels until you feel comfortable walking around in them.

  Stupid Joke! Question: What do you say when you tickle a rich girl?

  Answer: Gucci, Gucci, Gucci! [11]

  Cool Flip-Flops!

  If you have any fake flowers around, use them to spruce up your flip-flops. Just cut the flower from its stem and glue it to the strap of your flip-flops. Styling!

  Jewelry

  Most jewelry doesn’t have any useful purpose. So what? It looks good! Wearing these decorations dates way, way back to prehistory. One of the oldest types of jewelry ever found was a cowry shell necklace from 20,000 years ago. Here’s a cool bracelet you can make yourself:

  Toothbrush Bracelet

  This fun homemade jewelry is a good reminder for dental care too!

  You Will Need: One old (or new!) plastic toothbrush in a color you like (Barbie or the Little Mermaid toothbrushes are perfect), a pot, two pliers, a parent helper, small bowl of cold water, oven mitts

  1. Fill the pot with water and bring it to a boil.

  2. While the water is heating, pull out any bristles you can from the toothbrush with your pliers.

  3. When the water is boiling, put the toothbrush into it for 45 to 60 seconds. (Put on your oven mitts while the toothbrush boils.)

  4. Grab the pliers and pull the toothbrush out of the water. Now take the other pair of pliers and hold onto the two ends of the toothbrush. Turn the ends to bend the toothbrush into a horseshoe shape that will fit around your wrist!

  5. Once the bracelet is the right size, put it into the bowl of cold water to cool it off. It will harden quickly and you’ll be ready to show it off right away!

  Another reason girls like to wear jewelry is because an item has personal meaning or a special power. Charm bracelets are like this. “Charms” are also sometimes called talismans. Originally, these charms didn’t have to be on a bracelet; they could be pinned to clothing, the hair, or attached to your backpack, handbag, or belt. Charms like these have been found that are 30,000 years old!

  Some charms, like stars, hearts, horseshoes, and four-leaf clovers have become worldwide symbols. If you start your own charm bracelet, you can use the ideas above, or come up with charms that reflect our own interests. (Maybe a cell-phone charm? How about a loofah?) Once you get a few charms, it’s hard to stop collecting until your bracelet is full of symbols that tell a story about who you are.

  Charm Meanings

  Egypt: Scarab (beetle) = life; Cobra = protection

  Judaism: Star of David = protection from misfortune

  Hinduism: Ganesha (a god with an elephant’s head and human body) = luck, protection

  East Asia: Turtle (tortoise) = Wisdom, long life, strength

  Buddhism: Buddha = happiness and wisdom

  Medieval Europe: Ladybugs = wealth, success, health; Heart = love

  Mediterranean cultures: Shark teeth = protection from evil and poison

  Christianity: Crosses are popular, as are medals that show saints on them

  Cool Anklet

  Finally, here’s a simple anklet idea: You just need a thin strip of leather cord and some beads. Cut a cord long enough to go around your ankle twice and tie a knot at one end. Then put beads on the cord until you’re almost at the point where the cord goes around your ankle once. After your last bead is in place, tie a knot after it and then tie the anklet off. Cut off any leftover cord.

  Rings

  The most well-known rings are probably wedding rings. Have you ever wondered why married people wear their wedding ring on the third finger of their left hand? It’s because the ancient Romans thought that there was a special nerve that ran from that finger to the heart.

  Although we think of diamond rings as traditional for weddings, that’s only been the case for a short time. Up until the 1940s, diamond wedding rings were not that popular. Most wedding rings had colorful stones on them: Emeralds, opals, sapphires, and rubies were some favorites. (For tips on making the famous “Dollar-Ring,” see the “Fun Stuff to Do” chapter)

  But in 1947, a big diamond producer came up with an ad slogan to sell their gems: Diamonds Are Forever. The ads stressed that of all the gems, only a diamond could express love and eternity. People bought it! And they bought diamond wedding rings and engagement rings too. And people STILL do this (often just because everyone else does) because of an ad long ago.

  *The Irish Claddagh ring has the design of a heart held by two hands. You can wear it two ways: If the heart points out (away from you), that means you’re available. If it points in (toward you), it means you have a boyfriend.

  Final Fashion Tip: Smile a lot. And always wear clean underwear.

  “Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one’s own, it is always 20 times better.”

  —Margaret Oliphant

  How Important are Looks?

  “Dolphins. They think they’re so cute. Oh, look at me, I’m a flippy little dolphin, let me flip for you.”

  —Chum in Finding Nemo

  Have you ever wondered about what makes one thing “cute” and another thing “icky”? Why are panda bears and penguins cute, while warthogs and vultures aren’t? Researchers have figured out some of the things that people consider “cute” on animals (or stuffed animals) and humans (or stuffed humans).

  It turns out that any harmless or baby-like quality can make something seem cute. For example, anything that is a bit like a human baby is cute. So a baby monkey is cute, but so are baby birds and puppies. If an animal or young child walks slowly with a little teeter-totter from side to side, we find that adorable—floppy arms and legs and a bit of fuzz are also a plus. Other cute markers include:

  Head: round

  Eyes: the bigger and brighter, the cuter! (They should of course be set on the front of the face.)

  Nose: small and flat

  Ears: big and round

  Skin: loose

  No animal (or person) has all of these traits, but two or three may be enough to make it cute. But this kind of “cuteness” is different from “beauty.” (A girl might want big eyes, but she probably doesn’t want big ears and loose skin!) So how does beauty affect how we think?

  “Women must suffer to be beautiful.”

  —Dumb Saying

  Whatever! We all wonder how we might look if we changed something about ourselves. For some people, a change in exercise, diet, fashion, or a haircut is enough. Others think that “cosmetic surgery” is the answer. (This is plastic surgery that a person chooses to have done to make themselves look better.)

  Cosmetic surgery is far more popular now than it ever has been. In the last thirteen years, it’s had a 700 percent increase in the United States. And 87 percent of all plastic surgeries are done on women.

  And it’s not just in the U.S. that it’s in demand. For instance, Brazil has more plastic surgeries than any other country. The Brazilian culture prizes beauty so much, they even have beauty contests for women in prison! In nearby Venezuela, it’s not unusual for teenagers and tweens to have plastic surgery as well.

  The people of Iraq have very serious things to do, like trying to rebuild their country. And yet there was a 100 percent boom in the popularity of plastic surgery for Iraqi women in 2005. Why? With more TV sets, they could see music videos from other countries, and many women felt their noses were the wrong size or shape. And one of the most popular plastic surgeries in China and Japan is to have the eye “widened” by removing part of its eyelid. This makes the person’s eyes look less Asian and more “Western.” Is this a sensible decision?

  What about you? The way to look your natural best is with exercise, a good diet, and getting enough sleep. But there is a chance that at some point in your life, you will think YOU need plastic surgery. We
won’t try to talk you out of it, but think about this: Don’t be afraid to be yourself! (Okay, we lied. We tried to talk you out of it!)

  Liposuction!

  Liposuction sucks! No, really. It is a surgery where the doctor sticks a hollow metal rod into a fatty area of a person’s body and vacuums out the fat. If this sounds gross to you, it should. It is also the most popular form of plastic surgery, with about 300,000 people in the United States getting their fat sucked out each year. Liposuction is also one of the few plastic surgeries that men have as often as women.

  Most Popular Female Liposuctions

  thighs

  buttocks

  abdomen

  Most Popular Male Liposuctions

  love handles

  neck

  head

  Botox

  Botox is a brand name for something that is sometimes injected into a woman’s face. The Botox paralyzes any face muscles around the area where it is administered, which smoothes out the skin and gets rid of some wrinkles. It also gets rid of the woman’s ability to have any facial expression. (Doctors also sometimes inject Botox into armpits to prevent medical problems like sweating too much.) Many actresses have Botox injected into their faces to look good . . . but of course, it’s kind of hard to “act” when your face can’t move!

  Botox is short for botulinum toxin a dangerous poison. A little Botox paralyzes muscles for about four months. A lot of Botox can give a person botulism, which paralyzes a person all the way, forever.

  Smile, Smile, Smile! It takes over 200,000 frowns to make a permanent wrinkle in your forehead.

  Try It Yourself!

  Don’t worry, you’re not going to inject any toxin into your face. The forehead is one of the more popular spots to get a Botox injection, which is why it’s sometimes called Forehead Freezing. To understand what it feels like, try sticking a piece of duct tape to your forehead, with another little piece of tape between your eyebrows. Now, almost any time you make a facial expression, the tape will crinkle and feel tight against your skin. That’s exactly the kind of expression that Botox prevents—the NORMAL kind!

  The Fashion and Beauty Hall of Shame

  Join us in this tribute to the bottom seven worst fashion ideas of all time!

  7. The Fake Butt

  The bustle (or, as we like to call it, “the fake butt”) was a round wire attachment that a woman wore under her skirt and over her rear end. You could come up behind a girl wearing one and set a plate of doughnuts on her bustle without her knowing it. Thankfully, by 1900, the bustle had gone extinct . . . or is it just waiting for a comeback?

  6. Hobble Skirts

  One male designer invented something called the hobble skirt. The hemline of these long skirts was so tight that a girl wearing it had to hobble along in it with tiny little steps. (No woman could come up with an idea that lame!)

  5. Head Squishing

  It’s not usually a good idea to mess with the brain. But that hasn’t stopped people from changing the shape of their skulls because it “looked better.” In Central Africa, the Mangbetu people used to wrap up the heads of female infants in pieces of giraffe hide to give the girls cone-shaped heads (a sign of beauty and intelligence.) And the Chinook Native Americans used to flatten the noggins of babies by attaching vices to their skulls for over a year. Their foreheads would end up being no more than two inches above their eyebrows. Dang!

  4. The Fake Tummy

  Hundreds of years ago in England, men exaggerated certain parts of their body. One example of this was the peascod-belly. This was a false belly that a man wore underneath his clothing. (That’s right, he TRIED to look like he had a potbelly!) The peascod-belly was usually a wooden frame stuffed with rags or sawdust. An English noble with a fake belly once approached Queen Elizabeth in her court, and when it split open, the embarrassed noble spilled his “guts” all over the floor!

  *In the 1700s, European men often wore “hose.” If they didn’t like the shape of their legs, the men would strap on fake calf muscles underneath the hose to make themselves look more buff.

  3. The Power of Television

  Fiji is a beautiful island in the South Pacific. The people of Fiji have always valued big, full-figured women. In 1995, American television came to Fiji, and many teenaged girls reported feeling “fat.” Since then, almost 20 percent of Fijian girls have become bulimic (purposefully throwing up after eating) to control their weight. Harvard Professor Anne Becker said, “I never expected 2,000 years of tradition to be washed away by a couple of years of [television].”

  2. Gone With the Wind! (Thank goodness!)

  The movie Gone with the Wind has a scene where Scarlett O’Hara tries her hardest to get into a tight vest laced in the back called a corset. The corset was kept really tight by being tied off with long laces that squeezed a girl’s upper body. (If someone described a woman as “strait-laced,” it meant that they were very strict.) The corset was supposed to give the figure support, but they were worn so tight that girls often fainted in them. This is why women got the reputation of fainting a lot; a man would faint too if he were wearing a vest that cut off all his circulation!

  1. Foot Binding

  About one thousand years ago, wealthy Chinese families began the tradition of foot binding. Really tiny feet were once considered a sign of beauty for women in China. When a girl was five, her feet were wrapped up so tightly in bandages that they almost folded in half. Naturally, this hurt. It also prevented the feet from growing properly.

  The best kind of foot was called the “golden lily,” which was a three-inch foot. THREE INCHES! Your middle finger might be longer than that. Next best was the “golden lotus,” which was a bit larger. To get to these tiny sizes, the girl’s feet were squeezed into a smaller set of shoes every two weeks. One Chinese woman recalled the torture she went through as being so bad, she couldn’t eat or sleep. But she was willing to live with it, because, in her words, “no one wanted to marry a woman with big feet.” Fortunately, it has been illegal to bind a girl’s feet in China since 1912.

  *During the time of foot binding, the worst insult a girl could hear was to be called “large-footed.”

  * * *

  [11] If you don’t get it, Gucci shoes are an expensive brand of shoes made in Italy.

  Food and Dieting

  “Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”

  —Fran Lebowitz

  After a lot of research on flavors and nutritional content, scientists have come up with the proper name for good food: NUM-NUMS!

  Just kidding! Speaking of scientists, as you may know, The Five-Second Rule states that any food dropped on the floor can still be picked up and safely eaten if it doesn’t sit for more than five seconds.

  Jillian Clarke, a high school student from Illinois, did a scientific study of this rule. She found that:

  Food dropped on the floor can get germs in less than five seconds. Dang!

  Women were more likely to pick up and eat dropped food than men. Go figure!

  Different versions of The Five Second Rule have been around for more than 600 years. For example, in Mongolia during the rule of Genghis Khan, there was a similar custom called The 12 Hour Rule.

  Candy or cookies are far more likely to be picked up than vegetables. Surprise!

  This chapter is devoted to food! Knowing how to make your own meals will help you avoid fast food, which can be dangerous. For example, what if you dropped some french fries on your sofa? They would become couch potatoes, and then you’d never be able to get rid of them!

  Taste Buds

  Have you ever wondered why some people REALLY hate broccoli or can’t handle hot sauce? It’s because no two tongues taste things alike! Even though you might think that the same foods will taste the same to people, they don’t. We’re all different.

  For example, one out of four people is a “super taster.” These amazing folks can have up to one hundred times more taste buds than other people. What that means
is that food can taste much more powerful to super tasters than it does the rest of the population. If the food has a strong flavor—like onions or grapefruit—it can really do a number on their mouths.

  *The hottest taste in the world comes from the habanero pepper in Mexico. It is hundreds of times hotter than the jalapeño pepper and will leave your mouth burning for hours afterwards.

  Test Your Taste Buds

  Can you deactivate your tongue?

  You Will Need: A tongue, dark chocolate, tonic or mineral water.

  Your tongue only has a few taste buds that can detect bitter flavors. These taste buds can be easily overloaded using this easy experiment. (Note: Dark chocolate is sometimes called bitter chocolate because there is very little sugar added.) Take a swig of the tonic water and let it swish around in your mouth for a moment. Then swallow it. Now take a bite of the chocolate. You can’t taste it! It just feels like a load of wax in your mouth. Weird!

  *Cool black coffee will also work with this experiment.

  Now here is another kind of taste test: Do you know what the five main flavors are? Let’s see, there’s sweet, salty, sour . . . and, uh, bitter. That’s four. What’s the fifth one? Check below if you give up. [12]