Spun Gold

Websites for Girls, Part 4

by Anise Hollingshead
February 1998

If you are looking for a place on the web that offers girls indepth insights of how women have succeeded in many different careers, some of which are traditionally for men, then look no further! Girl Tech is a technology company that focuses on how girls can learn about technology, science, math, inventing, creativity, and many other interests. Girl Tech was founded in 1995 by Janese Swanson, formerly of Broderbund and Kid One for Fun Inc. Ms Swanson holds a doctorate in Organization and Leadership and several degrees in education.

There are 8 areas to explore: Girls World, Chic Chat, Bowtique, Sports, Invention, Girl Views, Tech Trips, and Games Cafe. In Girls World you can check out famous women in history, see profiles of real women and girls today, read a famous quote and tell what you think it means to you, and read about Girl Tech's visit to NASA. Chic Chat has a diary of a 13 yr. old girl named D.D.(not a real girl) that you can read and offer advice to, an advice column that you can send questions to, and a place where boys and girls can give their views on selected topics. Bowtique is their online store, but I didn't see where you could actually order anything! It stated where some of their products were coming soon, but the it was unclear on the other products if they were available or not. They will have a girls desktop and calendar CD-ROM soon, as well as a magazine for girls coming soon. They have also designed several cool toys for girls. In Sports girls get the opportunity to learn about women in basketball and baseball, and also meet two young girls who love soccer.

In the Invention area, girls learn about weird and wacky inventions, turn in their own ideas for inventions, read about young and old inventors, and find resources for their own inventions. Tech Trips is a comprehensive group of links that may interest girls and also offers a neat search engine for girl web sites( you know, every time you search for girl stuff on the web, you draw up 100's of porno sites) that helps narrow the search considerably. Girl Views has several different articles where girls can email their views on the subjects discussed, read movie reviews, change a questionare into a different language, read or submit book and software reviews and learn new vocabulary words. Games Cafe offers pig latin translations, a story writing section for you to write and send in a story, word games, math games, science games, scavenger hunts, and a crazy story maker.

Girl Tech is a lot of fun for girls, and offers many ideas for being creative, inventive, and just being themselves! They do a great job of profiling successful women of today in all areas of life, and their invention section is well-done. The games area could use more games, but I think that about most sites out there. The movie reviews are done by a 13 year old girl, so I found it a little odd that she evidently reviewed a few rated R movies, as she would have to have been accompanied by an adult to even get in to see them. Seeing as most of the girls visiting this site are under 17, I didn't think there should have even been any rated R movies in the review section. There are several places where you can express your opinion or read another's view on a particular subject, which is helpful to see that other girls have the same feelings or experiences you do. I did find the tone to be a little too politically correct, as in if we would just quit raising our boys and girls differently, they would be more the same, but aside from that, this is an excellent site for our daughters to hang out in.

Have a favorite website for kids? Email Anise!

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