What’s your perspective?

In Raising Girls Who Like Themselves, authors Kasey Edwards and Christopher Scanlon detail the seven qualities that enable girls to thrive and arm themselves against a world that tells them they are flawed. Using research and their own experiences as parents they offer practical, evidence-based advice for raising girls who are happy and confident.

'A big part of raising girls who like themselves is helping them to develop a power perspective. It’s the difference between feeling crushed by "the biggest mistake of your life" versus seeing mistakes as inevitable, another opportunity to learn and do better next time. It’s standing at the foot of the mountain, thinking it’s insurmountable so there is no point trying, versus thinking that you’d better get started because it might take a while,' write Edwards and Scanlon in the book's first chapter. 

With that in mind, take the quiz below, straight from the pages of Raising Girls Who Like Themselves, to discover if you and your daughter have a power perspective.

What’s your perspective?

Quiz time! One of the first steps to raising a girl with a power perspective is to discover how you see the world. Respond to the following statements as honestly as you can. If your daughter is old enough, you can ask her to do the same to find out how she views the world.

When you do well on a test you:

• A. Attribute your success to your own abilities and hard work.

• B. Put it down to luck, an easy test or that the teacher liked you.

If someone criticises your work you:

• A. Decide for yourself the quality of your work.

• B. Figure that they must know more than you and think about how to change your work.

In a new and unknown situation you:

• A. Feel excited stepping into the unknown, confident that whatever happens you’ll be okay.

• B. Worry about everything that could go wrong and stress about how you are going to cope.

When you make a mistake you:

• A. Learn from it so you can do better next time, and then move on.

• B. Take it as proof that you’re a bit hopeless and feel bad about yourself.

If you answered A to all of the above, you have a power perspective. You believe you have the power to influence what happens in your life. Answering B to some of the questions indicates that you feel helpless and powerless in some aspects of your life. It doesn’t mean that you are less capable or skilled than the people who answered A – you just think you are.