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Bestselling authors to speak on success in womanhood

Marie Pavalko

Get ready to wear pink every Wednesday and throw around the word "fetch"-because Miami University students will get the chance to hear from the author of the book that spurred the movie Mean Girls.

The Miami University Lecture Series is bringing Dan Kindlon and Rosalind Wiseman, both New York Times bestselling authors, to present "Queen Bees or Alpha Girls: The State of Young Womanhood Today" Monday, Oct. 29 in Hall Auditorium.

Chair of the Lecture Series Committee, Lana K. Rosenberg, said that the lecture series became interested in Wiseman because her book, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence, was turned into the movie Mean Girls. Upon speaking with Wiseman, she found out about Dan Kindlon, who was equally as qualified and has written on the same topic.

Ann Fuehrer, associate professor in the departments of psychology and women's studies, said culture has shown through movies such as Mean Girls that women can only be powerful by being competitive. Different models for being successful need to be developed, she said.

She added that many women, especially Miami students, have a generally traditional model for success and that these speakers will introduce more constructive models for being successful.

"These speakers are extremely interesting to the (Miami) population because these are two of the best known people who have looked at the development of young women in our society," said Richard Little, a committee member for the Lecture Series.

Queen Bees and Wannabes has been a New York Times bestseller twice since 2002, and Wiseman's most recent book, Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads, touches on issues such as how parents can become a model of positive behavior and values for their children.

According to the press release, Wiseman is the co-founder of the Empower Program, a nonprofit organization that reaches 10,000 youth and educators and empowers them to stop the culture of violence. She is also an advisory member of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence and for the Liz Claiborne Love is Not Abuse campaign. Wiseman was a recipient of the Lanterns Social Justice Award from the Black Women's Bar Association of Los Angeles.

"I have been a fan of Mean Girls since it came out, and am also a fan of Rosalind Wiseman's work with women's issues," said junior Emma Kozan. "I am excited to attend the lecture to hear what she has to say."

Dan Kindlon, author of Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She is Changing the World is a research and clinical psychologist and a professor at the Harvard University School of Public Health in the department of Society Human Development and Health, according to the press release.

Besides writing Alpha Girls, Kindlon has written Too Much of a Good Thing, Tough Times, Strong Children, and has co-authored the New York Times bestseller, Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys.

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