Doreen Greenberg, Ph.D

The Anything You Can Do... series is the first book series to offer real stories of new heroes to young girls. The premise of the series is to profile a variety of young female athletes, from a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, geographical and family backgrounds who have grown up to achieve excellence in Olympic and professional sports.

Parents have the right to evaluate a coach's behavior to make sure coach isn't toxic to their child's health.

There are many factors for a parent and an aspiring young female athlete to consider when deciding whether she should play on a boys' team. Is she pretty adept at the fundamentals? Are her skills on equal footing with the boys? Does she thrive on the competition? Is the coach gender-blind - giving equal opportunities to every one? Is it an environment where masculinity and femininity are not questioned? If you can answer yes -- then let her play!

By age 12, girls are six times more likely to drop out of sports than boys. Why? One of the reasons, say experts, is that girls simply do not receive as much positive reinforcement about their sports participation as boys. Boys get to see male athletes on televised sports; they can see their photos in newspapers and magazines; and there are plenty of books for boys about male sports heroes. Boys learn at a very young age that it is not only okay to enjoy sports but that their success will be supported by their families and society. Girls see far fewer female athletes on television; coverage of women's sports in newspapers and magazines, while increasing, is far less than that given to men's college and professional sports. There are very few books for girls about female sports heroes that girls can read as they grow up; athletes whose success our daughters will want emulate and see as role models.

The Anything You Can Do... series is the first book series to offer real stories of new heroes to young girls. The premise of the series is to profile a variety of young female athletes, from a variety of ethnic, socio-economic, geographical and family backgrounds who have grown up to achieve excellence in Olympic and professional sports.