Girl Power

The writing by female teenagers collected here is tremendously insightful, but unfortunately the examination meant to bind it together does not equal it. Carlip, a screenwriter and artist who volunteers at a Los Angeles center for troubled girls, has done a good job of collecting writing by girls from all walks of life, but her approach takes them at face value, without analysis, and her commentary is bland in comparison to the girls' own writing. Nonetheless, these honest essays and letters remain undeniably powerful. ``For my mother Maureen/ Cause of death is suicide/ My mother poured gasoline on her body/ And set herself alite!'' writes one gang member. A teenage mother's blunt narration of how she had sex for the first time at 12 is equally jolting. Most of the excerpts are short, and Carlip's interruptions are often distracting. And though some of her categories are certainly exclusive of each other, she presents them as if they all are. Is it truly impossible for a ``Riot Grrrl'' also to be a skateboarder? Carlip wins points for inclusiveness--she devotes chapters to gang members, Native Americans, athletes, pageant entrants and more--but she reveals her own naivete rather than any hidden sociological nugget when she notes that she was ``shocked'' to discover so many girls writing about abuse. (July)