Raising Young Women Newsletter Aimed At Parents Tackles Issues Specific To Girls

See if the following scenario sounds familiar: You: “Good morning, Amy.”

Her: (No response)

You: (Clearing throat) “Did you sleep well?”

Her: (Opens refrigerator) “What? Yeah, I guess.”

You: (Long pause as you contemplate coffee) “You know, I’ve been meaning to talk with you about Karen. You don’t seem to hang out with anybody else any more.”

Her: “So. What about it?”

You: (Sigh) “Well, since you started spending so much time with her, your grades have gone down.”

Her: (Slams down whatever is handy) “You don’t like Karen! You never like any of my friends!” (She storms from room)

You: (You contemplate coffee)

If you’ve ever endured a scene like this, then you’ll probably be interested in the product that Jack Hoos is selling. Namely, a newsletter titled Daughters.

And almost certainly, you’ll already know why Hoos dreamed up the idea of a newsletter devoted solely to the raising of young women.

But Hoos will be glad to tell you why he did it anyway.

“From a large number of perspectives, you can say that girls are different genetically, ultimately physically, and the research is showing that, for whatever reason, they are different psychologically,” he says. “They have a whole set of issues to address that are different from any other group in society - boys, adult men and adult women.”

It is those issues that Hoos created Daughters to address.

The father of two girls, ages 3 and 9, the 41-year-old Hoos brings a diverse background to his new role of newsletter publisher. The Nashville, Tenn., resident has an MBA, which he has put to use professionally in the banking industry. But as an undergraduate, he studied psychology.

It was when he began looking for information to help him understand how to parent his own daughters that Hoos got the idea for Daughters.

“In reading about adolescence, I realized that there are a lot of issues there,” he says. He also discovered that “While there was some wonderful available information, it was kind of sporadic.”

Daughters the newsletter is anything but that.

In the first issue, which came out in January, the newsletter begins with the tortured dialogue reprinted above. Titled “Mindreading 101,” the article is a standing section that sets up such scenes and then gives parents advice on how they can be best handled.

The issue also introduces readers to James and Ruth Chao, a couple who - though hardly typical - are held up as good examples of “Parents You Should Know.” (Ruth Chao, for example, earned an MBA from Harvard and serves as CEO of United Way.)

Daughters dispenses communication tips (“Listen, listen, listen” and “Avoid dictating solutions”), health facts (since women take 30 percent more alcohol into their systems, they tend to get drunk more easily than men), and it lists resource references that involve young women and girls (such as the recent best-seller “Reviving Ophelia”).

In this world of expanding information sources, it might sound strange that an experienced businessman such as Hoos would resort to a newsletter instead of, say, writing a book or sponsoring a television talk show. But when he considered all the ways to go, he decided that publishing Daughters was exactly what he wanted to do.

“What parents need is a little bit of information about a lot of different things,” he says. “The newsletter is a perfect medium for that.”

And so far, he says, the reaction has been positive. Utilizing a board of advisers both to suggest story ideas and act as an in-house information resource, Hoos attempts to avoid issues that may polarize readers both politically and in terms of specific gender-oriented issues.

For example, in one letter to the editor, a man writes that “Girls have it pretty good and the fuss about their problems is overblown.” He adds, “I think I’m a good father, and I’m proud of the fact that my daughters are interested in traditional girl things like makeup and looking pretty.”

The Daughters answer: “The bottom-line question for you and for each of your daughters is this: Do you really support her in being herself?”

“If they love their daughters,” says Hoos, “we’re trying to provide them information so they can make their own decisions.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by A. Heitner

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Read all about it Daughters is published eight times a year by Hoos Communications of Nashville, Tenn. A one-year subscription is $25. To order, write to: Daughters, 1808 Ashwood Ave., Nashville, TN 37212. Or call: (800) 829-1088.