Kate Engelbrecht

"When asked, many will say that there are thousands of girls in the world. But they're wrong. There's one, and another, and another, and another..." So states one of the girls that responded to questionnaires and sent in photographs as part of Kate Engelbrecht's The Girl Project. The Girl Project aimed to produce a portrait of what it is to be a teenage girl in the US today, and Please Read (if at all possible) is the result. This collection of photographs and responses to Engelbrecht's survey--with those responses still in their authors' handwriting--portrays the commonalities in the experience of young women while highlighting their uniqueness. The depth with which the contributors describe their hopes, fears, and ideas of what is good and bad about themselves and teenagedom is juxtaposed with humor (such as the number of times "spiders" comes up as a fear) that many teenage girls will identify with. All in all, Please Read will show middle and high school girls that they are not only not alone, but that the things that make them unique are important as well.… (meer)