DIGITAL GENERATIONS

Children, Young People,

and l{eut Medra

Edited b)

David BuckinghamRebekah Willett

Institute of Education, (Ini,aersity of London

TEA TA\AIRENCE ERLBAUM ASS.CIATES, PUBLISHERS2006 Mahwah, NewJersey London

Copyright O 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.AII rights resewed. No part of this book may be reproduced inany forrn, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any othermeans, without the prior written perrnission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishersl0 Industrial AvenueMahwah, New Jersey 07430w.erlbarrm.eom

Cover design by Ihthryn Houghtaling Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Digital generations : children, young people, and new media / edited byDar.id Buckingham and Rebekah Willett.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-8058-5980-2 (alk. paper)

- ISBN 0-8058-5862-8 (case)1. Intemet and children. 2. Internet and teenagers. 3. Electronic games-Social

aspects. 4. Digital rnedia-Socia.l aspects. I. Buckingham, David, 1954-II. Willett, Rebekah.

Hq784.r58D53 2006303.48'33083--dc22 2005043509

CIP

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper,and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

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chapterl 0

It's a gURL Thing:Community Versus Commodityin Girl-Focused Netspace

Michele PolakMiami Unioersity

'You asked what was wrong and I said nothing. Then I turned around andwhispered everything" (Jennifer, 2004). I found this quotation on thehome page of an AOl-hosted web site entitled Jennifer\ Hell. As a scholardoing research on online discourse, I find it difficult to avoid the large partof the internet that has been appropriated by gURLs, a virtual space that issurfed, occupied, created, criticized, and well managed by tech-sar"ly girls.

That girls would occupy such a space, one both private and public at thesame time, is curious because given the option to speak aloud-or occupyspace and claim recognition-is not a position of familiarity or comfort formost adolescent girls and many girls often opt for silence and nonrecog-nition of their identity. The move to silence in girls at the onset of adoles-

cence has been well documented by grrl culture researchers. Pipher (i994)wrote, "somethins dramatic happens to girls in early adolescence" (p. 19);

Stern (2002b) noted, "Girls use their silence as a strategy for navigatingsafely through life" (p. 226); and Gilligan (1982), the psychologist who firstnoted the shifting of voice as girls reach adolescence, indicated that, "Girls

struggle against losing voice and against creating an inner division or split"(p. xxiii). ThatJennifer would choose to place such a quotation on herhome page, however, is fitting: The internet has allowed her to be comfort-able in the familiarity of her silence, yet has also allowed her a space to ex-

plore the voice she is learning to use. Jennifer uses her voice in this space

well, by creating a home page full of graphics and animations and a bannerthat reads: "Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me."

t77

r78 POI-AK

As Driver argues in this volume (chap. 13),'Youth make use of the in-ternet as a realm to try out, play with, and per{orm their identities and de-sires through provisional combinations of images, words, and narratives."As such a platform for exploration, cyberspace allows girls to enter insearch of iclentity, in search of a voice. A venue that allows Lhe preteen orteen girl to try out her changing identity and maturing voice against-orwith-both textual and graphical imagery can offer a step toward empower-ment, leading to that sense of self that often eludes the adolescent girl. Assuch a space, a girl-focused netspace that is permeated by all interesrsmarked gzdis occupied by web sites designed/orgirls and &y girls, all addingtheir pages to a girl-defined virtual space.

Yet the internet, however vast and malleable it may be, needs to be evalu-ated in terms of purpose and audience interaction if it is going to contrib-ute to the development of adolescent girls. When I began analyzing girl-focused netspace, a clear division became evident: There are web sitescreated for girls by corporate sponsors-commercial web sites-that areclearly marked for promoting consumer culture (Hawisher & Sullivan,1999, p. 274), offerinu girls a space that allows for play and somerimes inter-action. Yet the concept of product is always in the forefront, framing theseweb sites in a commodity structure; web sites created for girls by nonprofitor educational sponsors-institutional web sites (Hawisher & Sullivan,1999, p. 277)-teetering between aiding the growth of girls' developmentand benefiting the sponsor who hosts the site; and personal web sites cle-ated by the girls, with no commercial input unless hosted on a freeser-ver,which limits commercial ads to top or side banners. The audience is clear inthese personal web sites: girls and all things girl defined both by rextual in-put and imagery. The rhetorical aim for the personal web site is overwhelm-ingly to build community. Here girls have creared a space for playing withidentities and for their voices not only to be heard (or seen), but also to beshared with other girls-a space in which girls can enter and speak in theirown language and with content that best addresses their interests. A spaceto enter is exactly what the developing adolescent girl most needs.

The metaphor of navigation through unfamiliar space is prevalent in themany texts that discuss girls and their relation to the cultural environment.As early as 1982, Gilligan noted that there is often "an active process of dis-sociation, of knowing and then not knowing" (p. xxii) , a moment of uncer-tainty when a girl's identity is not yer established. Pipher (1994) argued thatthe surrounding cultural environment makes claiming an identity difficultbecause girls "are coming of age in a more dangerous, sexualized and rne-dia-saturated culture" (p. 12). This loss of self and loss of voice hinders notonly emotional stabiliry through adolescence, but also creates a fragmentedself as girls enter into adulthood: "The edge of adolescence," argued Brownand Giiligan (1992), "has been identified as a rinle of heightened psycho-

10. IT'S A gURL THING L79

logical risk for girls" (p. 2). Eating disorders, sexual promiscuity, and bodymodif,rcation such as cutting and branding are patterns that develop in ado-

lescence and can carry into adulthood. Girls often take to "writing on thebody" in this manner in their struggle to find their voice, a space in whichto be recognized. Girls' struggle to be seen and heard is notjust manifestedin such physical acts, but also in "the makings of an inner division as girlscome to a place where they feel they cannot say or feel or know what theyhave experienced" (Brown & Gilligan ,1992, p. 4). Silent girls grow up to be

silent women as "[w]ith loss of voice also comes loss of self" (Iglesias &Cormier, 2002,p.259). This notion of navigation becomes one of dif{icultygiven the cultural environment that girls must learn to manage in thesearch for their sense of self. The sexualization of Western culture, in whicha well-defined body image plays a role in popularity, can often be a negative

force in an adolescent girl's development. Add to it the trappings of com-mercial advertising and girls barely stand a chance.

COMMERCIALWEB SITES

"Think GIRL PO\&IER to the Max! Fashion, accessories, toys and so muchmore. . . . In other words-it's all about YOU!"

-Eu ay t h.i. n g G irl. c on t

fu American girls alone are "spendfingl $60 billion [dollars] annually"(Dunn, 1999, p. 108), it is important to recognize the impact that consumerculture has on adolescent development. quart (2003) noted that "kids are

forced to embrace the instrumental logic of consumerism at an earlier-than-ever age" (p. xii), and this notion of buying products is what helps fuelthe social spaces that girls occupy. The commodification of youth culturedoes not offer a position girls are able to navigate when a lack of ability inreason or maturity might hinder choices made. Reaching the buyer is themain purpose for advertisers, and what better way to create a cultural prod-uct than to make the product part of the cultural language of the con-

sumer? Although access for use and command of Internet activities is stillunarguably class- and culturally defined, online rliscourse is better utilizedby this generation of youth than the previous ones. For advertisers aimingto market to the current youth generation, cyberspace is a logical mediumas "the Internet is [. . .] a force for peer-to-peer marketing" (Quart, 2003, p.

39), with the communal sharing of information among its users. Girls have

become m{or players in cyberspace. Do the proper cyber-search for girlsweb site (omitting the words sex and se.x1) and your results will total in thethousands. Stern (2002a) noted, "by offering self-selected descriptors, girlsmore easily create the selves they want others to perceive" (p. 271), and

180

with the personal versus private platform that the internet allows, identity isup for grabs. As Addison and Comstock (1998) nored in their work onyouth and cyberspace, "Electronic networks make it especially difficult andinadvisable to draw fixed borders beLween on-line and off-line cultures andsubcultures" (p. 370). Creating a consumer culture online to parallel thatof real-tirne culture was destined to become successful because there is noseparation here: Girls visit commercial web sites as they shop the mall,"wield[ing] tangible power in dictating popular culrure l. . .l confidentconsumers, secure in their opinions" (Dunn, 1999, p. 111). The rhetoricalaims of such web sites, however, need to be addressed.

My analysis revealed that seldom is a commercial site designed with a girland her still-forming identity in mind. Although outwarclly the site may con-sist of images that match contemporary girl interests and the visual layoutrnay be pleasing to a young conventionally feminine eye with girl-definedcolors and images, the purpose is pure product promotion. Commercialweb sites design pages created in template and column format, which runads in banners, usually on two or nrore sides, completely framing the pagein product. Procter and Gamble's beinggirl.conz-"There's lots to exploreabout being a girl" (beinggirl.com, 2004)-is a web site creared for both theyoun6Jer teen and the older teen, with topics varying from "Self-Discovery"to "Private Issues." Although the site does offer an option for girls to postqllestions and opinions, it is completely framed in graphics of the com-pany's feminine sanitary product line. The site content maintains its focuson puberty and the physical aspecrs of the growing adolescent girl, butmuch of this is meshed in with different advertising on each page throughits banners and sidebars of the same products. Unlike the banners onfreeservers, which host many girls' personal pages, commercial web sites'banners often include animation. Thus, not only is the page framed inproduct, but the product promotion rotates the entire time the page isonscreen. In addition, pop-up boxes occur every time the user moves to anew screen, thus offering more product promotion. In magazine web sitessuch as El,lEgirl.com (http:/ / elleeirl.com/eg /) or CosmoGIRL.com (http:/ /cosmogirl.com/), ads appear not only for subscriptions ro the magazines,but also for the products sold within its pages. Essentially, commercial websites may allow for a girl-{bcused netspace, but it is one that must be sharedwith marketing.

A girl-focused netspace is seldom guaranteed on commercial web sites.For example, kylieklub.com (http:/ /www.kylieklub.collir/), a web site hostedby the British department store, Mackays, emphasizes a club environment,with club activities and discount benefits for members. On the site, how-ever, members have no real interaction: Girls cannot actually submit anywriting, nor are there forums for posting. Barbi.e.comis another web site thatlimits interaction with other girls. Although the parent's page emphasizes,

POI-A,K

10. IT'S A gURL THING

"Barbie.com's mission is to engage, enchant, and empower girls" (Site Mis-sion, 2004), there is no forum r,vithin the site for girls to use their own voice.As much as these web sites may create a space for girls to play, offering quiz-zes, polls, and games, the only real interaction for girls in many of thesecommercial web sites is to submit names and email addresses, making girlspart of the company database, securing their position as a demographic.Mattel's EaerythingGirl.com, a site that showcases a variety of Barbie-relateddolls, opens the top left corner of their site with "NEW? Join now!"(EverythingGirl.com, 2004) and provides login spaces for members whohave already joined the site. Joining requires not only an email addressfrom the user, but also a parent's email address.

For many of these web sites, demographics will show that there is a girlmarket, and the site design plays to such a market. Many commercial websites exhibit conventional and stereotypical girl imagery in their design us-

ing stock photography and pastel colors. A Procter & Gamble competitor inthe feminine sanitary product industry, Kimberly-Clark, offers girkpace.com(http:/ /rwvw.girlspace.colr'/), a site much like beinggirl.com with quizzes,polls, and games focusing on adolescent health care. The site backgroundcan be chosen by the user with options of "flower-riffic" pink, "groo\,ygreen," "blue dazzle," and 'Jr-p 'n roll" yellow, with changes in artworksuch as flowers and butterfhes. zip4tu)een,s.com (http:/ /v'rv'rw.cool-2b-real.com/), a site created byAmerica's Beef Producers aimed at promotingmore red meat consumption among America's adolescent girls, exhibitspink, lavender, and yellow pastel backgrounds with ornate fonts for text.Balloons and smiley faces are used to anchor headings in each column or as

link buttons to open new pages. What these conventionally feminine designformats do is inscribe a specific idea of what constitutes girl and seldom al-

Iow the girl who is searching for that sense of self to explore beyond whatconsumer culture provides her. In realiry, "the idea of a girl market locatinga specific demographic of girls is confounded by the difficulty of defininggirls," according to Driscoll (2002, p. 268)-girls "who dramatically exceed,even for marketing discourses, any singular age range or other criteria." By

confining girls to the narrative of the conventional feminine, even in visualrepresentation, girls' voices are silenced.

INSTITUTIONAL WEB SITES

"\Arho says girls aren't good at math and science?"

-girlsinc.rom

Silencing is a theme that must be addressed in relation to girl-focusednetspace, where institutional web sites are concerned as these web sites of

l8l

t82 POIAK

ten vacillate between promoting empowerment and creating a false senseof girl space. Web sites such as girlsinc.org (http://www.girlsinc.orglgcl)have social organizations behind them that might ensure users that theycreate a space fbr girls in which healthy and positive messages are available.Institutional web sites can offer marginalized girls a space for explorationand learning about their own cultural community free from the trappingsof commodification. sistu,girls.org (http:/ /v,rvw.sistagirls.org,/) is one suchsite. Not only is the contenr posted by the host organizations of institutionalweb sites geared toward the healthy development of the adolescent girl,such web sites accept submissions from girls, allowing them to explore theirdeveloping identities and voice. SmanGirl.org (http:/,zwww.smartgirl.orgl ) ,an institutional site sponsored by the National Science Foundation and theUniversity of Michigan, offers three rnain pages for rheir users: "SpeakOut," with forurns for offering opinions on posted questions; "ExpressYourself," a creative writing forum; and "spread the Word," with options forgirls to write reviews, articles, and commentaries on a variety of topics.Many institutional web sites offer several outlets for discussion, such as elec-tronic bulletin boards, and (like commercial web sites) quizzes, polls, andgames. These are the web sites often recommended by educators and in af-ter-school programs, which is why many of them receive hear,y traffic: Userscan be assured to interacr with a variety of girls of diff'erent ages and fromdiverse backgrounds.

I hold institutional web sites up to the same rhetorical analysis as com-mercial web sites, however. As Hawisher and Sullivan (1ggg) noted in theirresearch on women and cyberspace, "institutional sites emphasize dispens-ing information, though not from an innocent or neutral position" (p.2?7), and this is evident in many of these web sites. Feminist author AudreyBrashich hosts a site for girls entitled Culture of Modeling, for example, com-plete with a message board for asynchronous discussion. Although such aspace for girls can be lauded for promoting critical discussion with forum ti-tles such as "What Profession Should Earn the Most Money?", it should benoted that the first forum on rhis message board is "Help Audrey With Mag-azine Articles She's Writing!" (Brashich, 2004). Like commercial web sites,girl-focused netspace in some institutional web sites is shared with the hostsite's main purpose-one that may not necessarily be completely orientedtoward girls.

A shared space is what must be accounted for when co.sidering silenceor space for voice. What type of censoring occurs if a girl's input does notcoincide with a web site's theme or audience? Moderators are often an is-sue.Jake, who is credited as the site tech coordinator, moderates purptt pya-rnos, an all-girl community-created site. Jake is also referred to as the"PurplePJ's knight in shining armor" (Spotlight, 2004), an indication thatgirls might not acrually be capable of running the site. In addition, keeping

10. IT'S A gURL THING 183

a site active and current is never an issue with commercial web sites becausethey must promote the most recent and available product. With institu-tional web sites, however, an active site is not always available. Because manyof these web sites are created and posted by summer workshops or after-school programs, they are not always kept current once the program ends.gURLwURLd.com (http://www.gURlwURld.coml), for example, a website created during an after-school program in Austin, Texas, was last up-dated in September 2000. An outdated web site such as this limits the op-portunity for girls to interact on a web site because links often become inac-tive and both content and graphics can become outdated.

Interaction is important for girl-focused netspace because interactionleads to community building. In writing about voice and identity develop-ment in girls and women, Iglesias and Cormier (2002) realized that "whatadolescent girls desperately want is real communication" (p. 267). Because"when they are not in school, fgirls] most spend their waking hours withone form or another of electronic equipment, sometimes simultaneously"(Dunn, 1999, p. 108), electronic media is a familiar tool for girls' communi-cation. Many contemporary girls know how to use the tools of digital tech-nology, and their input to the many web sites created for them is clear evi-

dence to this argument. Dunn (1999) pointed out that "this is the firstseneration [. . .] to grow up with true images of female empowerment" andperhaps because of this, "leagues of articulate, thoughtful, and strong girlsare actively creating and maintaining progirl home pages" (Takayoshi,

i999, p. 95).

PERSONALWEB SITES

"Wendy. Female. Chinese-Canadian. From Hong Kong. 16 years. Highschool. Grade ten. Hetero. Lives in Ontario, Canada. Aries. Not as boy-crazy.Romantic. Opinionated."

-Wendy, Ouerprotected

I have found that personal web sites fall into the position of combiningboth the pop culture and contemporary content interests of commercialweb sites and the empowerment messages created by institutional web sites.

Here is where gURls-and they selfidenti$, as gURl-s-are finding a girl-focused netspace free from product promotion and censors with a guaran-teed space for their voice and space for creating identiry, both textually andvisually. In her writing about girls and cyberspace, Takayoshi (1999) ern-

phasized, "by recognizing that girls have created spaces in what can be ahostile environment, we reveal that girls are not powerless (as the negativerepresentations of the web would suggest), but they may have overcome sig-

184 POI-A.K

nificant challenges in creatingWeb space for rhemselves" (p. 96). Likewise,

Quart (2003) argued, "teen authors have become the architects of theirown trademarked identities, strong-willed and mercenary in equal meas-ure" (p. 177). gURLs can find a sense of self here, creating nor only a girlspace for their own voices, but a space for other girls to interact, argue, dis-cuss, brag, and vent about anything with no limitation on ropics tied to anytraditional feminine narrative. gURLs voice opinions on topics rangingfrom the latest beauty product to world politics. With the anonymity the in-ternet pror.ides, a diversiry of themes are up for discussion.

g'URLs' personal web sites are not hard to find, and many are listed inthe several hundred home page directories that inhabit cyberspace. A di-rectory may list a variety of different home pages by creators both male andfemale; well-maintained directories offer a description of not only the sitetheme, but a small biography of the site owner. When entering the gURLcommunity, it is easily recognized that home pages are grouped by interestand similarities: Fan web sites and fan listings, for example, reflect the siteowner's interest, usually in an issue related to popular culture. Such websites often share graphics pulled from several sources and seldom are offi-cially approved by the interest they promote. Electronic bulletin boardsand forums for discussion are also grouped together by interest, with speci-fications on the level of moderator activiq/. Graphics and blends are websites created strictly for showcasing knowledge of rligital graphic andpainter programs. Such web sites offer not only seryer space for.members,but also competitions, tutorials, and design feedback. Portals are web sitesin which gURLs use web cams to communicate. Collectives, cliques,webrings, and listings are all grouped by interest or cornmon theme.

gURLs' home pages-and pages, plural, is appropriate because some websites contain links to many screens depending on the amount of informa-tion in the site-vary visually, some elaborately constructed with digital artcreated by the gURLs, some with clip art pulled from around the web. f)e-pending on the age of the gURL and her level of technological expertise,gURLs may design their pages using a template provided by a software pro-gram or use computer coding to work outside a restrictive design frame-work. Content, however, is usually consistent among the pages: There is al-ways a biography that reveals either aee, location, sometimes either a screenname or a real name, or a mixture of all these elements. Many biographiesalso include photographs of the site owner/creator. Ail web sites also in-clude some way of reaching the gURL by way of email. Some gURL websites include the owners' writing, from poetry to essays they may have wrir-ten for a class assignment or digital artwork created either by hand andscanned or with the aid of graphics programs. There may be links to quiz-zes, polls, and games, and there is often a listing of pop culture interestssuch as favorite films or TV shows. What seems to be currently popular in

10. IT'S A gURL THING r85

many web sites is the central location of blogs, or weblogs, the daily journalof the site's creator. In addition to blogs, a user may find tagboards, whichallow for responses from readers. Many web sites include a site map, andhere is where users can navigate pages of links to things that may not be

prominent on the home page.Tori's Stories (http: / / v'rv'rw.taskoski.com / tori / index. html ), the home

page of 11-year-old American Tori, is an entryJevel example of gURLs'home pages. Basic in its design, Tori's picture is the largest image on the

page, with wrapped text stating who she is and link information runningdown the left side of the page. The home page background is a clip artgraphic of a chalkboard with ruled lines that represent school homeworkpaper. Her links include "Read A Story," which are posted essays about class

trips and short stories, and "Soccer," which includes pictures of Tori in hersoccer uniform beginning at age 6. Compare Tori's home page to that ofl5-year-old Canadian Sarika whose Without Loue (http://sarika.avania.co.uk/) home page changes design on a rotating basis' Sarika's page seldom

exhibits a basic design format as images sometimes frame the page, some-

times balancing text on either side. She often plays with colors for her page

and routinely changes the images to match her popular culture interests'Central to Sarika's page is her blog, which often discusses not only personalissues in her life, but the process and ideas on how her home page is de-

signed. Links on Sarika's page include "Where To?", a navigation sidebar

for the many pages in her site, and "Right Now?", a listing of Sarika's cur-

rent interests and emotional state of being. There is certainly an indicationthat for many gURLs, a home page "crafts a self out of [their] textual and

graphical choices" (Hawisher & Sullivan, 1999, p. 281). In every gURL site,

without fail, are links to other gURL web sites as either a collective, an affili-ation, a webring, or a signature in a guest book (which is often signed by

adding a URL).It is here that gURLs' personal wqb sites differ from commercial or insti-

tutional web sites. The rhetorical purpose here is community. I have yet tohnd a gURL site that does not list links to other gURL and gURl-relatedweb sites. Many of these web sites structurally support each other by sharingartwork or frames for design. It is common to see the same gURLs postingin various web sites within a webring. Despite many of these gURLs knowingeach other only virtually (geographical distance most likely prohibitingreal-life meetings), they know each other well, and many of the discussions

and arguments that arise in the text reveal this. As Davies (chap. 12, this vol-ume) argues in her research on teens online, "they develop a sense of self as

part of such groups," and in gURL web sites, it is clear that communiq' is

central to the exploration of self. Although gUI{L web sites can be just as

moderated and censored as both commercial and institutional web sites-they are at the whim of their owner after all-community is the purpose, an

186 POI-AK

exploratory space for sharing, and so keeping users inreracting with the siteis purpose alone for allowing voice. Stern (2002b) noted that gURLs "usetheir home pages as a forum of self-disclosure, especially as a place to en-gage in self-expression" (p. 224). As girls venture outside that space of si-lence and make attempts at using their voice, creating identity, they searchfor like-minded individuals to garner support. Finding an enrire commu-nity only enforces that support system.

What I find most exciting about surfing personal web sites is the vast vari-ety of experience that gURLs bring to this space and how cleverly rhey useit. Some web sites are basic in content and the design clearly follows a tem-plate provided by a freeserver host space. JessicaOnline (http:/ /v,nvw.geocities.com/jessicataurins/), owned by 1l-year-old Australian.|essica, ishosted at Geocities and is created using the host site's sofhryare program.The design is gridded, divided into six sections, each conraining links to dif-ferent pages. Likewise, Laura's World (http:/ /www.angelfire.com/la2/lbearrz/), hosted at Angelfire, a freeserver site created for building websites, exhibits 13-year-old Canadian Laura's page. Like the simple elementsfound in Tori's page, Laura uses the centraf design space to introduce her-self, with the left side of the paue resen'ed for links. In adclition, she playswith animations of bouncing flowers and deflating smiley faces. When agUItL moves from freeserver space to owning her own site domain (usuallypaying a monthly or yearly fee), her design experience becomes parr of thevisual space that is viewe d. Sweet Catastrophe (http: / / nikki. twenty-five .org/ ) ,owned by 17-year-old Nikki from Australia, includes not only the lyrics of asong superimposed over a blend of images, but also a blog central to the de-sign space with links to her othel graphic work. Blueberry Wings (http:/ /www.biueberry-wings.org,/home.html), a blend/fan listing site owned by16-year-old Tina from Germany, uses her central design space to encase ascroll bar template, which exhibits her blog and links to other pages withinher site. For Tina's site, the scroll bar portion becornes part of the designlayout and part of the artwork, the same color as the images that frame thesite.

As Hawisher and Sullivan (1999) have pointed out, girls online "manageto use visual discourse to construct multiply rich selves" (p. 288). Their useof color and imagery often differs from what commercial and institutionalweb sites exhibit, and this in itself is avisual rhetoric. gURLs are often awareof the feminine stereotypes to which they have been confined, and manymake the effort to break out of that structure when designing their websites. One gURL wrires on her home page, "The color scheme for this pageis map;enta, not pink. THIS is pink, thank you" (Bad Girls, 2003), and sheprovides a color bar of pastel pink against a bright magenta background.On a home page entirled FizzY poP (http://wrvw.angelfte.com/bc/frzzzypop/), the site creator chose to code the title anrl the heading above a

10. IT'S A gURL THING 187

list of links, 'YO CHEK these OUT," the same color as the page back-

ground. Readers of this site on opening see no text unless they use theircursor to highlight the page, thus making any invisible text the color of thehighlight preference set in their computer software. gURLs often play withboth imagery and text in this manner, and knowing how to read the designelements in many of these rveb sites is part of recognizing the emerginpJ

voice gURLs are finding in such a netspace. Photos in the biography area

may bejumbled in screen static until a cursor pass reveals a clear image, al-

lowing the site owner to both hide and reveal herself at the same time.Fonts may be distorted or pasted into the page in reverse, mirror direction,a play on how the text should read both by conlent and image. Colors such

as deep purples, browns, blacks, and monochromatic hues of one color pal-

ette replace the conventionally feminine of pastels. gURLs are clear on whothey want to be online, and very few home pages parallel the description ofwho the commercial web sites think girls might be.

The styles in which gURLs write also create part of this visual rhetoric.Younger gURLs have adapted netspeahusing letters and numbers in linguis-tically different combinations. On one freeseryer site created by a l2-yeat-old American girl, a poem to her friends reads: THoSe MaNY DaYs We

sPeNT ToGeTHa../THeYWiLL aLwAyZ STaY iN mY <3 4eVa (HeY GuYz -

n- GiRLiEsM <3 YoU aLL,2004)-a plaful use of both capital and lower-case letters, with the "<3" representing a sideways heart. Older gURLs also

frequently play with linguistic styles, creating elements of a new languagewithin the community. There is an appropriation of the word gtrl, fot exam-

ple, and many gURLs wear that title with pride, using it to create links totheir biographies, such as with "the girl most likely" or simply, "The Girl."Home page titles for owned domains reveal a side of a gUI{L that commer-cial web sites may not realize: anti-realitl (http://anti-reality.net/), Punh

Pixie (http: /,/www.punk-pixie. net,/blends/main.h tm), not so graceful mo-

ments (http:/ /gracefiil.yellow-bubbles.netlindex2.html), Frisky ButterJll(trttp:/ /frisky.cuddle-bug.netlindexx.html), and Life On Displq (http: / /lod.lost-memories.net,/) are examples of titles that may be an indication ofan identity the site owner is attempting to create. However, much as com-mercial web sites may try to be current and contemporary, language styles

here are very fluid, and this is also what separates the commercial sites fromgURLs' personal home pages.

But it is the growing need for community in personal web sites that sets

them apart. Eleven-year-old fuhli from the United Kingdom titles herhome page "If Your [slc] a GirlYou've Come to the Right Place Because

This Place isJust For Girls!" Her site links to "cool web sites that arejust forgirls" (Ashli, 2002). American 14-year-old, Kelly, owns A World Full of Dram,a,

a personal web site that features a blog, pictures of Kelly and her friends,and a links page that is introduced with, "Here are some links of friends. . . .

188 POT CX

If you want to be put on here thenjust email me or tag me one hehe . . ."(Kelly,2003). Like Ashli,links to girl-specific web sites are provicled;link ti-tles include "Rachel'sJournal" and "Brittany's Poetry." Although links toboth commercial and institutional web sites created for girls are posted inmany personal pages, Stern (2002a) found that "the most common rype ofIinks girls presented was ro other girls'homepages" (p. 281). Toxic-Bliss(http://toxic-bliss.orgl,/), a personal sire creared by l8-yearold Akashafrom Canada, Iists not only links to a collective-a listing of all the web siresby an individual owner categorized with similar web sites (such as fan list-ings)-but also affiliates, which may be web sites of personal interest to thesite owner or web sites of similar style. For Akasha's page, she adds links tofamily listings, which are orher web sites that are hosted by the same ser-veras the one that hosts her site. In addition, Akasha links to a random hostee,other web servers that host yet more personal pages. From this one sitealone, links to personal pages are endless, and this is very common in thecommunity building amon6i gURLs. Essentially, a g'URL can find the link toone personal page through a web directory and from there navigate herway inside a completely girl-focused netspace.

Much of this communiry building creates a bonding over shared inter-ests, ideas, and platforms for interaction. Many pages list personal interestsas either a central feature in the design or as a linked page. In addition topersonal writing and artwork, many gURLs will share music selections, witheither a song overplaying as the page opens or a playlist with links to MP3files and lyrics to favorite songs. Graphic web sites that are created for fea-turing artwork, such as blend web sites, are hosted at domains with largersera/er space so that users can save their artwork to the site. Challenges areoften posted at such blend web sites, and collective.work is created with oneperson starting an image and saving it on the server, with other communitymembers adding to it until the completed image is then posted and ar-chived. Blog postings on personal pages reveal intimate issues, and allowingfor responses to the tagboard opens up discussion among users. This shar-ing of interests and intimacies is part of the process of building a strongsense of self. By adding a link to their site in a Webring or byjoining an on-Iine coilective, these gURLs are finding like-minded individuals who noronly allow for a voice, but also help create a space that contributes to theformation of identity.

In writing about voice and identity development in girls and women,Iglesias and Cormier (2002) wrote, "girls from diverse groups need to begiven ways to tell their stories" (p. 269), and personal web sites have allowedfor such stories, told not only by the gURLs who have creared these websites, but also by the gURLs who read and post to them. I find postings onpersonal web sites, both in text and graphics, very revealing. The personaland private space often meshes together for gURLs as they make attempts

10. IT'S A gURL THING 189

at being heard-in many cases, to find support or others like them. As

Hawisher and Sullivan (1999) discovered, women online "begin to forgenew social arrangements by creating a visual discourse that startles and dis-

turbs" (p. 287). The same is true of gURLs, and this is perhaps even morepowerftrl given their still-fbrming identity. Tragic-Beauty, a site owned by 17-

year-old Amber from the United States, uses a blog as its central design. Aposting onJuly 17,2004, revealed Amber's struggle with body modificationas she spent the day with her grandmother: "She was screeching at me, towear a shorter shirt so i pulled my sleeve up and was like I Can't. She auto-matically went into 'sad grandma' mode and started lecturing me abouthow I should've called her insteacl of cutting." This same entry also revealsAmber's struggle with her emerging sexuality: "My cousin ronda alreadysuspects I'm a dyke cause I have nothing but g'irls on my fcomputer] desk-

top" (Amber, 2004). It is in this hybrid of personal and private space thatgURLs are able to play with their identities, using sr-rch space to maintaintheir anonymity while garnering suppbrt from a community that interacts.

It is important not to avoid the issue of social inequalities here, as in-ternet access can only happen in specifically marked socioeconomic set-

tings. Aside from the hardware required, a gURL must also have a workingknowledge of the software needed to design web sites; the vast variery ofhome pages available reveals a range of existing experience. The benefit ofinstitutional web sites is the opportunity for all girls to have that virtualspace to play in; while personal web sites are communal, h,ow much interac-tion is still at the discretion of the site owner. Over the last few years, therehas been a change in the diversiq, of gURLs online. Although once Ameri-can, Canadian, and British gURLs dominated girl-focused netspace, thisspace has since opened to include Western and Eastern European, SouthAmerican, ancl Middle Eastern gURLs. There seems to be a large subcul-ture in itself based on theJ-Pop phenomena (fapanese popular culture),which has opened up girl-focused netspace to rnany Asian gURLs.

With the internet having few limits, I also need to address where boys liein relation to cyberspace. Whereas directories for gURLs' personal web

sites are numerous in search engines, both Stern (2002b) and Takayoshi(1999) agreed that "there is no corresponding collection of boys' sites onthe Web." I have found that of the personal web sites created by boys, themajority were created by boys in their late teens and older, with youngerboys' web sites focusing on the gaming community. This is not to say thatboys do not interact on gURL web sites; on older gURLs' web sites, they of-

ten do. gURLs, however, manage a loud and commanding voice online. If aboy (or an adult) has entered a space that has been marked as personal orprivate fbr a specific community, or he has not been invited into discussion,members will react by hollin.ghim ollt, calling him on his presence, and re-jecting his poss by either ignoring him or having his IP (Internet Protocol

190 POI-AK

address) banned by the site owner. Posts by someone other than a gURLcan be identified in a variety of ways: through language use, style, and thecontext of posts, given the community and the environment in which it ap-pears. gURLs recognize when someone other than a gURL is presentamong the community, and they are very protective of their space. I dowant to emphasize, however, that although the owner's gender and age areoften reflected both explicitly and implicitly in the sire framework (stern2002b), there is no real guaranree that members are who they say theyare-and this, of course, is why this space for shifting identities can be bothsafe and dangerous for gURLs.

CONCLUSION

Many commentators have attested to the silencing of adolescent girls with-out a venue to explore their voice and create an identity. Gilligan (1982)noted, "as girls become the carriers of unvoiced desires and unrealized pos-sibilities, they are placed at considerable risk and even in danger" (p. xxil;.fu guRls find their space online, "traditional narratives are re-created withnew technologies" (Hawisher & Sullivan, 1999, p. 288), and this opens up awhole new space of empowerment for the adolescent girl. Disappearing isthe idea that girls cannor manage technology. According to Takayoshi(1999), "these girls' experiences assert that the relationship of women totechnology is neither fixed, predetermined, nor stable across the categoriesof women's lives" (p. 91). Online space offers girls an opportuniry to playwith voice and try on new identities-a space that is worked and rervorkedaccording to girls' wants and needs; In the few months since my researchfor this chapter moved from conference presentation to book chapter,many of the original personal home pages I initially referenced have beenredesigned with new text and images. Some have even become defunct.This is testimony to the ever-changing needs of guRls and their continualsearch for voice and identity. Although a girl-focused netspace is not with-out its instabilities-commercial web sites do not seem to be diminishingand internet safety is still an issue-the fact that there is a space for the ado-lescent girl to go to audition her voice and create her identity is at least astep toward a healthier, more emotionally stable, and more independentgirlhood.

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