Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts.

She became the object of others’ lives and lost her subjective true self. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of California Berkeley in 1969 and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1977. The book combines case studies with exposition of theory regarding the trial-ridden formative adolescent years.

She returned the one Mary Pipher received in 2006 as a protest against the APA's acknowledgment that some of its members participate in controversial interrogation techniques at Guantánamo Bay and at US "black sites". Mary Elizabeth Pipher also known as Mary Bray Pipher (born October 21 1947) PhD is an American clinical psychologist and author. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of California Berkeley in 1969 and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1977.