It‘s A Girl‘s World

Nov. 2, 2005

Females are sometimes stereotyped as using the Internet primarily for shopping and instant-messaging gossip – but as any girl worth her bandwidth will tell you, it simply ain’t so any more.
Online geekery is beginning to run nearly as high in the fairer sex as in those of the Y chromosome.
This, of course, is evidenced by the likes of computer-and-technology-savvy women from the worlds of music (Bjork, Aimee Mann, Garbage’s Shirley Manson, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons); films (Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity character from The Matrix, Sandra Bullock in “The Net,” Serenity’s engineer Kaylee, X-Men’s Jean Gray); television (Star Trek Enterprise’s T’Pal and Hoshi, G4TechTV’s Morgan Webb, Stargate SG1’s Sam Carter); and of course videogames (Lara Croft, Perfect Dark’s Joanna Dark, Metroid’s Samus Aran).
These females are proving that smart women worldwide are becoming something of a hybrid -- they still love their “girl-ness,” yes, right down to new clothes and conversations at times, but who also keep themselves plugged into world issues, the latest entertainment (including videogames), and the cutting edge of gadgetry and the online community. In short, they’re girls who know their way around a computer, and who are just as likely to help you properly Google something as to ask you for assistance.

LESS PINK
Women-focused websites are quickly becoming less Pink-with-a-capital-“P” and more colorful all the way around, and, as marthastewart.com would say, that’s a good thing. And we think that these are among the best women-friendly websites for girls to surf.

10. Healthy Women Unite
(www.healthywomen.org)
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “the first wealth is health” – so this is a great place to start in order to make sure you’re doing everything you can to be the healthiest girl you can be. In addition to interesting chat transcripts and seasonally-relevant articles, this comprehensive and friendly site also points you to writeups on diet, lifestyle improvements, current concerns (such as flu prevention), and various resources to get even more info. If you’re looking for something specific, don’t miss their Health Center, which references everything from Acupuncture to Weight Management. A well-informed Cyber Girl will find it easier to be a healthier Cyber Girl, right?

9. We Said Distinguished, Not Boring, Thank You
(www.distinguishedwomen.com/sites.html)
It’s not much to look at, but we’ll excuse the Plain-Jane design, because it’s definitely chock-full of amazing info. On this site, you can read all about Female Pioneers, Female Writers, The Women of World War II, Female Artists, Female Nobel Prize Laureates, and important women in World History, Science, Physics, and much more.
The only “problem”? These are impressive girls, indeed -- you’ll either feel completely humbled by the time you get done reading, or your newly-inspired To-Do list will be so long you won’t know where to start.

8. Hey, It’s The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Girls (www.hermail.net)
Women travelers think the world of this site -- it also has a no-frills interface, but offers up a free e-mail service that allows any woman who registers with the site to connect with other girls around the globe. Just another pen-pal place? Not at all, actually -- the purpose of hermail is to assist other traveling females and get assistance from same to make the world a friendlier and safer place, especially for girls traveling alone, but also for girls traveling with friends or a significant other.
Want to know where the best nightclubs are in Chicago? Wondering what to wear in Dubai? Seeking a great vegetarian restaurant in Milan? A quick email, or even a welcoming new face popping up when you reach your destination, can make the difference between a so-so trip and a trip full of friendly girl-talk and insider info.

7. Didn’t Like The Ending? Make Your Own! (www.fanfiction.net)
Where does a girl’s favorite TV show go when it dies? To TV Heaven, where there are endless channels, zero commercials, and all the TVs are HD? Nope - they go straight to this site, where they live on in the carefully-typed missives of fans - and sometimes the shows don’t even have to die, but find themselves here anyway. You can read loyally-written (and often quite detailed) continuations of such female series faves as Friends, AbFab, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joan of Arcadia, Sex and the City, and Roswell, among others.
But are the fan episodes as good as the actual shows themselves? Sometimes, surprisingly yes – sometimes, eh, not so much – and sometimes, you’ll be left wondering whether or not the writer is even sane. Now that’s entertainment, folks.

6. Go, Go, Gaming Girl!
(www.popcap.com)
Speaking of entertainment, what geek girl doesn’t need a good round of internet gaming now and then? That doesn’t always mean running people over with souped-up cars or running around in battle with a high-powered machine gun (although, you know, if that’s your preferance, go for it) - sometimes it means colorful, girl-friendly (dare we say “cute?”) games that’ll test your reflexes and make you think.
PopCap’s groovy games include the typing game TyperShark (trust us, it’s more fun than the words “typing game” would suggest), the word puzzle game Bookworm, the wacky aliens-meet-fish game Insaniquarium, and the popular and addictive Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2. And the best part is that they’re all free – that’s right, free! – to play online.

5. A Website For The Wise
(http://university.barnesandnoble.com)
Smart girls know that it’s cool to keep getting smarter – whether you’re in high school or college, finished either years ago, or have taken a different path, it’s always great to keep learning. The problem is, not everyone can afford to attend university, or even to take a seminar.
That’s where the clever people at Barnes & Noble come in. Best known, of course, for their giant bookstores, Barnes & Noble also has an online presence that includes their “Barnes & Noble University,” at which anyone can sign up to take a variety of free courses. You can choose from such offerings as Buddhism and Everyday Life, Money Management for Women, Speaking With Confidence, or Overture to Opera - and there are also various writing courses, language classes, and reading groups.
So what’s the catch? Some courses require that you buy a book (they are a bookstore, after all) - but with the books averaging around $10-$20, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what a “regular” college class would cost you. Pretty cool, B.

4. Read Mine And I’ll Read Yours
(www.livejournal.com)
This site is good in two ways. First of all, busy girls often find it hard to keep up with friends of either sex when things get really hectic, so LiveJournal is a terrific way to catch up (you can get all your friends to join this online journal service, and then put them all on one page so you can conveniently scan through), and it’s also a great way to “write” down your own thoughts, memories, rants, and even those to-do lists.
We know that men and women are different in that the female of the species, by nature, needs to communicate more, so here’s a way to get all of that pondering out in a handy, fun, and easily customizable online format. It’s good for you, it’s fun to read what your friends have been doing, and you’ll be so quiet your boyfriend/husband will probably start wondering what you’re up to.
3. Quotable Women Are Cool
(www.womensmedia.com/quote-a.shtml)
Whether you need a quote for a term paper, toast, or just to drop into conversation, this nicely organised site showcases the advice, wisdom, and wit of women from all over, arranged by topic, and they’re just as much fun to read as they are to wittily share with others.

2. A Dizzying Array Of Girlstuff
(www.sephora.com)
We didn’t say that girls never shop, we just said that’s not all they do. Personal style is, of course, very subjective, so we’re sure you can sort through the thousands of shopping-for-clothes sites by yourselves. But whether you’re an unadorned natural beauty or you collect makeup like it was going out of style, you’ll love this site, which brings together the best, most reliable, trendiest, most useful, prettiest, and most edgy beauty products out there today, from top names and those you’ve never heard of but will be delighted to discover. Of course there’s plenty of makeup, but there’s also a bevy of bath products, a gaggle of gifts, a harem of hair products, a ton of tools, a stack of skincare products, and even some great stuff to snag for your favorite guy.

1. So What? That’s What!
(www.soyouwanna.com)
So – you enjoy being self-sufficient? Only want to ask for help when you feel like it, as opposed to feeling like you have to? Then check out our top female-friendly site, So You Wanna. As they so succinctly put it, So You Wanna teaches you “how to do all the things nobody taught you in school” and probably a few things that you never even thought of learning how to do.
Wanna dress better, build a webpage, learn chess or poker or yoga, build a compost pile, use Feng Shui, improve your table manners, work for the CIA, join the circus, become a wine expert, or lower your cholesterol? It’s all at So You Wanna, and it’s explained in a painless, witty style that’ll make you even more of a savvy Cyber Girl than you already are.