Girl Talk is a candid, witty and heart-charging observation of 21st century womanhood (and girlhood). Black market ovaries, mood disorders, marital apathy and the mystery that is the female brain - all of it, up for discussion and fueled by research, humor, personal wisdom and nearly two decades of professional observations. Women are starting to tell the truth about their lives in beautifully unedited and unapologetic ways. I’m here for it and, while I’m anxious about the fallout, I'm also too medicated and too wise to let it stop me.
Ten Sorta Important, Totally Scientific, Definitely Interesting Facts About Girl Brains all Girls Need to Know:
We need friends. To the female brain, friendship is synonymous with life or death. Hence the horror of arguing with your best friend or being evicted from a friend group (also the reason why you have friends and your husband doesn’t…but probably not the only reason).
We are never not hormonal. Women don’t have a “time of the month,” our hormone levels change every day. EVERY SINGLE DAY we navigate shifting chemistry that affects everything from our appetite to our outlook on life. Women of the World - Adopt this mantra: If it’s a good idea today, it will still be a good idea 24 hours from now.
Motherhood is like a traumatic brain injury. Survival of the children becomes paramount to all else. Helicoptering, marital apathy and denial of your own basic needs - not character flaws but, rather, the brain’s response to ancient biological mommy wiring.
We’re better communicators than men (we didn’t really need science to tell us this). Female brains have double the capacity for communication compared to men.
We do puberty twice. Perimenopause is the equivalent to a second adolescence (a second adolescence!) and it can last up to 10 years.
We know when you’re lying. The female brain is highly attune to shifts in facial expression, posture and tone of voice. This evolutionary specialization, believed to be necessary for keeping nonverbal babies alive, means we are psychic - lie detecting - goddesses. It also means when you suspect someone is lying to you, they probably are.
We are inherently peaceful. Female brains prioritize harmony over conflict.
It’s not that women are afraid of or bad at conflict but the chemicals that show up in the female brain during conflict are similar to those that are present during a seizure.
The two hemispheres of a woman’s brain talk to each other more than a man’s do, resulting in more complex thinking, analyzing, drawing of conclusions and multitasking. Men, She actually can listen to you while she’s scrolling through her phone (it doesn’t mean she will, only that she can).
Women use about 20,000 words per day, compared to 7,000 for men.