Kimberly Inskeep
I write because I believe girlhood is sacred ... and because the years between childhood and adolescence are shaping more than we often realize.
For over two decades, I led a women’s fashion company built on the significance of female relationships. And long before that, I was a mother watching the cultural ground shift beneath my daughter’s feet. Today, the research confirms what many of us feel intuitively: girls are growing up faster, filtering louder messages, and losing confidence earlier than ever before.
I believe confidence isn’t something we give girls through praise, but something we help them build through experience, belonging, and meaning. I also believe there is a profound need for real connection, friendship, and joy ... and that our screen-filled world is quietly eroding her ability to find them.
Through this journal, I will share my discoveries as well as great resources about parenting. I write to slow things down, name what matters, and partner with parents who want to help their girls grow into capable, expressive, and confident young women.
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June 18, 2026
Girl At War
Her body may be changing earlier, but her heart and mind are not. Understanding the growing gap between development, culture, and confidence, and what she needs from us now.
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June 09, 2026
Stopping the Falling Dominoes
The good news? We now have the insight and opportunity to reach in and interrupt the fall - like a hand stopping a chain of dominos - but only if we’re willing to face the forces that got us here.
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April 02, 2026
The Lost Art of Becoming
This is not a question about books versus screens. It’s not old versus new. It’s not preference. It’s about her formation. What is shaping her inner life? Is she learning to think, or just react? Is she developing depth or just consumption? The question is not whether she quickly scrolls. The question is whether she ever learns to go deep.
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March 19, 2026
Stories Build Girls’ Confidence:
An Interview with Finding Foxtale Forest Author Madeleine Hewitt
By Kimberly Inskeep
There are certain moments in the life of a brand that feel especially meaningful. This week is one of them.
S...
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February 26, 2026
Friendship in the Middle Years:
How Tween Girls Can Spot True Friendship (and Navigate the Hard Parts)
By Kimberly Inskeep
Start with an Affirmation:
“Good friends care about your heart — not just your popularity or your useful...
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February 12, 2026
Caring About Who She’s Becoming:
As a young mom, I remember first hearing the idea that discipline should begin with speaking to a child’s heart. I don’t remember the original source, but I remember the impact.
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January 21, 2026
BESTIE: A Note on Friendship, Belonging, and Becoming
Lately, I’ve been thinking about friendship, not in the abstract, but in the quiet yet formative ways it shapes a girl’s sense of self.
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December 16, 2025
Does Comfort Come at The Expense of Honor?
By Kimberly Inskeep What we wear shapes identity, sends signals, and teaches girls who they’re becoming.
Kim Johnson is the Founder of The Darling Day, a brand that’s all about confidence and conne...
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November 13, 2025
The Confidence Crises: It’s Not Just What They Feel
How what we DO can make a difference for our girls
By Kimberly Inskeep
I have this gut feeling. Maybe it’s not entirely gut since I’ve read a fair bit on the subject. But based on both experience ...
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October 29, 2025
The Story She’s Learning to Wear
And here’s the nuance we often miss: She’s learning who she is in the same moments the world is telling her who to be.
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September 25, 2025
A Fun Way to Make an Important Difference
Research now shows that girls as young as 7 or 8 are already asking, “Who am I? Where do I fit? What does ‘beautiful, successful, valued’ look like?’”
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September 04, 2025
How a Special Shopping Tradition Shaped my Values – and this Brand
By Kimberly Inskeep
The day after Christmas was almost as exciting as Christmas itself. My mom and aunt would take my cousin and me downtown Chicago to Marshall Field’s and Saks Fifth Avenue for th...
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What I've Learned — Resources Worth Your Time
When our own daughter was ten, I started sensing something I couldn't name.
These are the books, podcasts, researchers, and writers who have since then helped me name it. I share them not as a curated list, but as a genuine map of the ideas that built Finding Foxtale.
If you find yourself in these pages, I think you'll understand why we built what
we built.
Books That Shaped How We Think
These aren't books I recommend casually. These are the ones I dog-eared, underlined, and handed to other mothers. Start anywhere — but start.
The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt
This is the book that confirmed what every parent has been quietly feeling for years. Haidt names the mechanism — the phone-based childhood that replaced play-based childhood — and backs it with research that is impossible to dismiss. I read it and felt the urgency of what we're doing triple overnight.
iGen —Jean Twenge
Before Haidt, there was Twenge. She was tracking the data on how smartphones were reshaping adolescence years before anyone else was paying attention. The confidence dip that starts around age 8? Her research is where we first found it named. If you want to understand the numbers behind the feeling, this is the book.
Untangled — Lisa Damour
Lisa Damour is the clinical psychologist I wish I had in my corner when my daughter was entering the tween years. Untangled maps the seven transitions of girlhood with warmth and precision. If you have a daughter between 8 and 14, this book belongs in your home.
BadTherapy — Abigail Shrier
Shrier asks a hard question: what if some of what we're doing in the name of protecting kids is actually making things worse? I don't agree with every conclusion, but the questions she raises about over-pathologizing normal childhood are worth sitting with. She made me think harder about what 'helping' actually means.
The Opt-Out Family — Erin Loechner
Erin built something rare: a beautiful argument for slowing down that doesn't feel preachy or impossible. This book is about choosing a different relationship with technology for your family — not by rejecting the modern world, but by being more intentional about what you let in. Her voice is the one I hear in my head when I'm designing Foxtale's world.
The Tech-Wise Family — Andy Crouch
Practical, grounded, and full of grace. Crouch doesn't lecture — he builds a vision of family life that is genuinely more beautiful than the screen-saturated alternative. His ten commitments framework is the most actionable thing I've read on this topic.
Hands Free Mama — Rachel Macy Stafford
Rachel writes the way I wish I could talk to the mothers in our community. This book is about letting go of distraction and seeing your child — really seeing her — while you still can. There's a sentence in here about eye contact that I have thought about almost every day since I read it.
Raising Tech-Healthy Humans — Daniel Sih
Daniel Sih is an occupational therapist who approaches the screen time question from the angle of habits and brain development rather than fear. What I appreciate about this book is that it is genuinely practical — not just a diagnosis of the problem but a real plan for resetting your family's relationship with technology. If you've read Haidt and felt the urgency but weren't sure what to actually do on a Tuesday afternoon, this is the next book to pick up.
Parental Control — Tatiana Jordan
Tatiana Jordan is a tech entrepreneur who found herself on the wrong side of the conversation — someone who helped build the attention economy and then had to reckon with what it was doing to her own children. This book is honest in a way that books by outside critics often aren't. She knows how these products work from the inside, and that makes her argument harder to dismiss and easier to trust.
Unwired — Gaia Bernstein
Gaia Bernstein is a law professor, and Unwired is the legal and policy argument that most of us have been waiting for someone to make. She doesn't just describe the harm — she traces the deliberate design choices that put these products in front of children, and she argues for what accountability could actually look like. This is the book I hand to anyone who says 'well, parents should just manage it themselves.'
It's Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn — Greta Eskridge
Greta Eskridge is one of my favorite voices in the intentional parenting space — I've recommended her book on outdoor adventure for years. This one is harder to talk about, which is exactly why she wrote it. The average age of first exposure to online pornography is now in the single digits. Greta approaches this conversation with the same warmth and practicality she brings to everything she does. No parent wants to have this talk. Every parent needs to.
Spark — John Ratey
This one comes at the girlhood conversation from a different angle — but a crucial one. John Ratey is a Harvard psychiatrist who spent years studying what exercise actually does to the developing brain. The confidence dip we talk about at Finding Foxtale? Movement is one of the most powerful countermeasures we have. Spark is the science behind why we believe so strongly in getting girls outside, active, and in their bodies rather than performing themselves for a screen.
Glow Kids — Nicholas Kardaras
You may already know Ginny from 1000 Hours Outside — I've recommended her podcast below. This is her book, and it is exactly what you'd expect from her: a warm, generous, deeply practical argument for giving children back the outdoor freedom that most of us had and most of our kids don't. The title says everything. We used to know it was time to come home when the lights came on. Ginny is making the case for finding our way back to that world.
Until the Streetlights Come On — Ginny Yurich
You may already know Ginny from 1000 Hours Outside — I've recommended her podcast below. This is her book, and it is exactly what you'd expect from her: a warm, generous, deeply practical argument for giving children back the outdoor freedom that most of us had and most of our kids don't. The title says everything. We used to know it was time to come home when the lights came on. Ginny is making the case for finding our way back to that world.
Newsletters Worth Opening
I'm protective of my inbox. These are the ones I actually read — the writers who consistently give me something to think about, share with other mothers, or bring back to our team.
Parent Data — Emily Oster
Emily is an economist who applies data rigor to parenting decisions. She doesn't tell you what to think — she shows you how to evaluate the evidence and think for yourself. In a space full of hot takes and moral panic, she is a cool glass of water. Subscribe if you want to understand the research behind the headlines.
After Babel — Jonathan Haidt & Jean Twenge
The research hub for everything related to teens, technology, and mental health. If you want to stay current on what the data actually shows — not what the headlines say it shows — this is the place. Sobering and necessary.
Screen Strong — Melanie Hempe
Melanie runs a community specifically for parents navigating screen time with kids. Practical, not preachy. If you're in the weeds of what to actually do with a tween and a device, this is where I'd start.
Free-Range Kids / Let Grow — Lenore Skenazy
Lenore made headlines years ago for letting her nine-year-old ride the subway alone in New York. What followed was a movement about giving kids back their independence — and their childhood. She is one of the sharpest voices on the over-protection paradox: the ways our fear for our children can actually harm them.
The Opt-Out Family — Erin Loechner
Already recommended the book above — her Substack is where the conversation continues between publications. Thoughtful, beautifully written, never alarmist. One of the few newsletters I read the moment it arrives.
Podcasts for the Drive
I do most of my best thinking in the car. These are the conversations I return to — the ones that gave me language for things I already believed but couldn't quite articulate.
1000 Hours Outside — Ginny Yurich
Ginny built a movement around a simple idea: what if kids spent as many hours outside as they spend on screens? Her podcast is warm, energetic, and full of practical ways to reclaim childhood for your family. The community she's built around this idea is one of the most genuinely hopeful things I've seen in this space.
Raising Boys and Girls — Sissy Goff
Sissy is a counselor who has worked with kids and families for decades. Her podcast on raising girls specifically — the anxiety, the identity questions, the confidence — is the most clinically grounded and emotionally honest conversation I've found on this topic. She knows these girls. She has sat with them in her office. It shows.
We Can Do Hard Things — Glennon Doyle
Not specifically about girlhood, but Glennon's conversations about women, courage, and authenticity have shaped how I think about what we're building. When she talks about the difference between who the world tells women to be and who they actually are — I hear the story of every girl we're trying to reach before the world gets to her first.
People Worth Following
These are the voices I trust in the girlhood, parenting, and intentional living space. Each of them is doing something that matters.
Brooke Shannon — Wait Until 8th
Brooke founded the Wait Until 8th pledge — a commitment to delay smartphones until at least 8th grade. The pledge has over 50,000 signatures. She is doing organized, practical, community-level work that changes outcomes for real girls in real schools.
Tina Payne Bryson
Co-author of The Whole-Brain Child with Daniel Siegel, Tina writes and speaks about child development with a combination of scientific rigor and genuine warmth. Her Instagram is one of the best free resources available for parents trying to understand what's happening in their child's developing mind.
Sissy Goff
Counselor, author of Raising Worry-Free Girls, and one of the most trusted voices on girls' anxiety and confidence. If your daughter is struggling and you're not sure where to turn, start here.
Erin Loechner
Author, designer, and one of the most thoughtful voices on intentional family life. Her aesthetic and her values are in complete alignment — proof that choosing a different path doesn't mean choosing an uglier one.
The Teen Tech Experiment
A family documenting in real time what happens when you reset a teenager's relationship with technology. No lectures, no ideology — just honest, unfiltered reporting from inside the experiment. This account is one of the most compelling arguments for change I've seen, precisely because it doesn't try to be an argument. It just shows you what happens.
Reconnected Raising
This account is doing the daily work of helping parents find their way back to their kids — away from the noise, the screens, the constant performance of family life, and toward something more real. The content here is practical, encouraging, and never shaming. A good follow for the days when you're not sure you're doing any of this right.
Dr. Becky Kennedy — Good Inside
Dr. Becky Kennedy has built one of the most trusted parenting communities on the internet, and for good reason. Her framework — that kids are good inside, and that behavior is always communication — is one of the most useful lenses I've found for understanding what's happening with a tween who seems to be pulling away. If you follow one parenting account, make it this one.
Girl Reimagined
This account is doing something close to what Finding Foxtale is trying to do — reimagining what girlhood can look like when we stop letting the culture define it for us. The content is thoughtful, visually beautiful, and unapologetically focused on protecting the space girls need to become who they actually are. Worth following and worth sharing with the mothers in your life.
Protect Young Eyes — Chris McKenna
Chris McKenna runs one of the most practical and trusted resources for parents navigating internet safety. He is not alarmist — he is specific. His team regularly publishes guides on what's actually happening on the platforms your kids are using, what the risks are, and what you can do about them. This is the account I recommend to every parent who asks me where to start on keeping their daughter safe online.
A Final Note From Kimberly
None of the people listed here asked to be here. I've included them because their work has genuinely shaped mine. If you find your way to any of these resources through Finding Foxtale, I'm glad. And if their work moves you the way it moved me — share it. If you have recommendations – send. I will continue to update. The conversation we're having about girlhood needs more voices, not fewer.
— Kimberly Inskeep, Founder, Finding Foxtale