What Is Expected of Teen Girls?

Scholastic Expectations

• Between parents and teachers, adults place enough school-related expectations on teen girls to cause increasingly high levels of stress. Not only do teen females face expectations to succeed in the high school environment -- by getting high grades, scoring well on standardized tests or taking advanced placement classes -- they also may feel the pressures of getting into a quality college. According to the Population Reference Bureau, girls have a higher likelihood of getting into and going to college than their contemporary counterparts do. While in the past college was dominated by the all-boys club mentality, young women are now dominating the postsecondary education scene. That said, your teen daughter may feel that "everyone" expects her to perform at a college-prep academic level, or higher.

Caring Activities

• The stereotypical view of the female as the doting, motherly type may mean that your daughter feels the pressure to care for others. Teen girls are often expected to take care of younger siblings or work in more caring jobs such as as a babysitter, nanny or health care aide. While there are certainly boys that parents expect to care for younger siblings or babysit for the neighbor's tot, teen girls may feel the pressure to live up to the idealized version of the "caring" female, or act as a mini-mom.

Social Pressures

• It's likely that your teen daughter feels at least some pressure to find a boyfriend, stay tight with a group of "cool" or "popular" girls and have her inbox filled with e-vites to the best parties at school. When it comes to dating, teen girls don't only feel the social pressure to have a romantic partner, but may also recognize the expectations that other kids have on them for engaging in early or risky sexual behaviors. This is especially true, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' Healthy Children website, for teen girls who mature early, or who are friends with peers who approve of sexual activity. Nonromantic social relationships, such as friend groups, may challenge your teen to fit in with specific standards. Cliques, or groups of kids that come together with a focus on excluding others who don't meet their standards, dominate the teen social scene. Your teen may feel pressure to act, dress or look a certain way just to fit in with a socially acceptable, or popular, group of her peers.

Appearance

• While school, family and social pressures certainly play their role in the teen girl's life, appearance is often a primary focus of an adolescent's burgeoning sense of self. Teen girls commonly feel that they must look a certain way or that society in general has the expectation that an adolescent female will have a set type of appearance. For example, the media -- in teen magazines, advertisements, TV shows, movies and on the Internet -- often propagate the notion that teen girls should have a super-slender frame and a flawless face, and dress in the latest fashions. This may give teen girls an unnecessarily negative self-image, making them believe that they need to look like models or movie stars for anyone to see them as beautiful.