Mary Pipher

All geniuses born women are lost to the public good.

— Mary Pipher

The protected place in space and time that we once called childhood has grown shorter.

— Mary Pipher

All feelings are acceptable, but all behavior isn't.

— Mary Pipher

“The battle for popularity is won, but the war for respect as a whole person is lost.”

— Mary Pipher

“Being fat means being left out, scorned, and vilified.”

— Mary Pipher

Intelligent resistance keeps the true self alive

— Mary Pipher

Telling stories never fails to produce good in the universe.

— Mary Pipher

“When unnatural thinness became attractive, girls did unnatural things to be thin.”

— Mary Pipher

Adolescence is a border between childhood and adulthood. Like all borders, it's teeming with energy and fraught with danger.

— Mary Pipher

I think history is inextricably linked to identity. If you don't know your history, if you don't know your family, who are…

— Mary Pipher

“When I speak to classes, I ask any woman in the audience who feels good about her body to come up afterward.…

— Mary Pipher

I'm a perfectly good carrot that everyone is trying to turn into a rose. As a carrot, I have good color and…

— Mary Pipher

Therapy isn't Radio.We don't need to constantly fill the air with sounds. Sometimes, when its quite, surprising things happen.

— Mary Pipher

I want to write. I have always wanted to write. I do not care it I am not good at it. I…

— Mary Pipher

“Authenticity is an “owning” of all experience, including emotions and thoughts that are not socially acceptable.”

— Mary Pipher

If there's a therapist who wants a writing project, I think there's a need for a book about how the culture affects…

— Mary Pipher

“Teenage girls engage in emotional reasoning, which is the belief that if you feel something is true, it must be true. If…

— Mary Pipher

“Simone de Beauvoir believed adolescence is when girls realize that men have the power and that their only power comes from consenting…

— Mary Pipher

Parents wrongly assume that their daughters live in a world similar to the one they experienced as adolescents. They are dead wrong.…

— Mary Pipher

People come here penniless but not cultureless. They bring us gifts. We can synthesize the best of our traditions with the best…

— Mary Pipher

“Pain, as well as beauty, is necessary to give us perspective. We can place our suffering against the backdrop of time and…

— Mary Pipher

It's important for parents to watch for trouble and convey to their daughters that, if it comes, they are strong enough to…

— Mary Pipher

“Finally I teach the joys of altruism. Many adolescent girls are self-absorbed. It's not a character flaw, it's a developmental stage. Nonetheless,…

— Mary Pipher

True freedom has more to do with following the North Star than going whichever way the wind blows. Sometimes it seems like…

— Mary Pipher

Courage has become Raiders of the Lost Ark, or riding in spaceships, killing people, taking enormous physical risks. To me, the kind…

— Mary Pipher

I think anorexia is a metaphor. It is a young woman's statement that she will become what the culture asks of its…

— Mary Pipher

Adolescents' immature thinking makes it difficult for them to process the divorce. They tend to see things in black-and-white terms and have…

— Mary Pipher

Girls have long been evaluated on the basis of appearance and caught in myriad double binds: achieve, but not too much, be…

— Mary Pipher

“I teach girls certain skills. The first and most basic is centering. I recommend that they find a quiet place where they…

— Mary Pipher

Adolescence is a time when children are supposed to move away from parents who are holding firm and protective behind them. When…

— Mary Pipher

When Europeans arrived on this continent, they blew it with the Native Americans. They plowed over them, taking as much as they…

— Mary Pipher

Teenage girls are extremists who see the world in black-and- white terms, missing shades of gray. Life is either marvelous or notworth…

— Mary Pipher

“Many strong girls have similar stories: They were socially isolated and lonely in adolescence. Smart girls are often the girls most rejected…

— Mary Pipher

“The most important question for every client is "W X ho are you?" I'm not as interested in an answer as I…

— Mary Pipher

In all the years I've been a therapist, I've yet to meet one girl who likes her body.

— Mary Pipher

“She said, "Let's face it, the world isn't exactly waiting for girls like me.”

— Mary Pipher

“It's virtually impossible in America to be heavy and feel good about oneself.”

— Mary Pipher

we are a small, interconnected world; that we are all safe or none of us are; that we are all well cared…

— Mary Pipher

Most parents of adolescent girls have the goal of keeping their daughters safe while they grow up and explore the world. The…

— Mary Pipher

When one of us tells the truth, he makes it easier for all of us to open our hearts to our pain…

— Mary Pipher