DEEP DIVE: Chelsey Goodan on How Parents Underestimate Their Teenage Girls

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In honor of Women's History Month, this "Deep Dive" series highlights some of our past interview episodes about raising daughters. Why are stereotypes of teenage girls rarely flattering? And even worse, what important traits are we not acknowledging in these young women? ⁠Chelsey Goodan⁠, author of ⁠UNDERESTIMATED: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls⁠, explains what teenage girls really want and need from us. Chelsey and Amy discuss: The generational shift towards a culture of support and empowerment among young girls today The significance of offering agency to young girls in shaping their identities and futures What teenage girls want from their parents more than anything else Here's where you can find Chelsey: ⁠https://www.chelseygoodan.com⁠ @chelseygoodan on IG and X Buy UNDERSTIMATED: ⁠https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781668032688⁠ ⁠https://www.democrashe.org/⁠ ⁠https://www.acalltomen.org/about/⁠ Amy also mentions our Fresh Take with Judith Warner in this episode: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/fresh-take-judith-warner-on-what-grownups-get-wrong-about-middle-school/ We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, teenage girl, female empowerment, feminism, mentorship for teens, gender equity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell Laughing in the Face of Motherhood.
0:06.2	This is Amy. Today I'm talking to Chelsea Gooden.
0:09.5	Chelsea has been an academic tutor and mentor for 16 years with a particular emphasis on the
0:14.7	empowerment of teenage girls. She speaks regularly to audiences about gender justice
0:19.7	and serves as the mentorship director
0:21.8	of democracy she, working to support girls from underserved communities into leadership positions.
0:27.1	The book that we are about to discuss today is the USA Today Best Seller, Underestimated,
0:33.3	the wisdom and power of teenage girls, which has been recommended by Oprah Daily and Oprah's
0:38.9	Book Club, which said, and I quote, if you have a teenage girl in your life, you need to read
0:44.3	this.
0:45.0	Amazon's editorial director chose underestimated as one of her top five editor picks for best
0:50.5	nonfiction for the month of March.
0:52.8	Chelsea Gooden's passion to explore humanity's
0:55.0	potential for authenticity, liberation, and empowerment permeates all of her work, and I am so
1:01.1	excited to talk to her today. Welcome, Chelsea. Thank you. So happy to be here. So your book starts
1:07.2	with the stereotypes that teenage girls suffer under the weight of often before they
1:14.7	become teenage girls. For me, as soon as I became pregnant with a girl after two boys,
1:20.7	I copped to it. I had preconceived notions. This is going to be hard. Girls are complicated.
1:26.0	Other girls are complicated. This is going to be hard. Anybody who complicated. Other girls are complicated.
1:27.8	This is going to be hard.
1:29.1	Anybody who's had a two-year-old girl has had somebody walk up to them and be like,
1:32.1	Just you wait until she's a teenager, all that stuff.
	...

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