She’s the girl who looks flawless every time she steps into a room and who amazes everyone with her stunning personality. She’s the president of every club. She’s an honour student and she’s dating the most popular guy in school. She’s a Supergirl, but underneath her perfect exterior there’s a whole different person who is anything but perfect.
But what is a Supergirl? Liz Funk, author of Supergirls Speak Out, explains that they are women who expect to be perfect at everything they attempt, whether it’s school, sports or their social lives. “These girls are ultimately consumed by this drive to be everything but are really trying to make up for some internal problems that they have,” she adds. Liz is no stranger to this phenomenon and claims that she is a recovering Supergirl. “I think I’m a total work in progress,” she explains. “Last summer, I told myself that I’m not a Supergirl anymore and I wasn’t looking to outside things to define who I was.”
Liz, however, does consider herself a traditional feminist who is not only a powerful woman, but also one who cares tremendously about the happiness of other women. Given her profound relationship with feminism and the Supergirl phenomenon, it’s no surprise that at the young age of eighteen, Liz decided to write a book about Supergirls. Two years and two months later, Supergirls Speak Out hit the shelves, and Liz believes that this experience was not only very rewarding, but as she explains, “it was really helpful, personally to be able to hear young womens’ stories and be inspired by them.”
For the book, Liz interviewed about a hundred girls and closely followed five specific cases to unearth the mystery of the Supergirl. What she found was an interesting mélange of insecurities hidden underneath the Supergirl’s perfect exterior. Each chapter in her book opens with a quirky title that maps out the different insecurities that these girls face, such as “Do You Like My Hair? Supergirls are Hot . . . At Any Cost.” She also explains in her book that this obsession with the idea of being perfect often creates problems such as depression, bulimia or anorexia.
So, where does the mentality of being perfect come from? The answer comes in two primary forms; media and family. “I think it’s the way children are raised; they are so overscheduled and they have so much technology that these young people [particularly young women] are never really alone with their thoughts and never develop a relationship with themselves.” Girls are brought up with the notion of being “nice” and “good,” and once they hit adulthood, this mentality is further ingrained in their brains through the media, creating Supergirls.
Liz believes that the Supergirl cycle can be broken when young women have a better sense of self: “I think that young women should say to themselves, I value myself, I matter. It doesn’t matter what I do. My appearance or what I contribute doesn’t make me special and doesn’t give me more attention or love.” Liz further explains that she feels a lot of Supergirls are behaving this way in exchange for affection – being themselves is simply not enough. Liz adds, “I think this can be remedied with just a reminder of your intrinsic worth.” In today’s society, Liz truly feels that everyone has something to contribute and that the world is essentially a young woman’s oyster. All they need to do is to take a more healthy approach to their drive, to set achievable goals and not to expect results immediately; in short, they should strive to be ambitious women and not Supergirls.
At the end of the interview, Liz reflects on her future and informs Vervegirl that after her college graduation in May, she has no idea what she wants to do. “I want to keep freelancing,” she says, “and I might take a vacation, but other than that, I have no clue. I know, it’s very un-Supergirlish of me.” It seems like she’s recovering quite fine.
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