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Isolation In Girl Talk

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Melinda stays on the sidelines, partly because she is an outcast and partly because she chooses to isolate herself from everyone else. Her isolation is in part due to her depression over her assault. She completely shuts herself out from everyone around her, her peers, her teachers, and her parents. Over the course of the novel, she realizes that she needs her friends and family to help her cope with her assault. Therefore, she starts to open up and interact more with others. In the end, she realizes that isolating herself was not helping her. During adolescence it is difficult to find the people that you fit in with, this is very difficult because not everyone will feel like they are apart of these cliques. This is a very troubling time for teens, finding the group where you belong is difficult. Some are lucky and find it right away, while others go their entire high school years as an outcast.
Melinda is also very depressed: she sleeps all day, she continuously bites her lip, she speaks to no one, and she isolates …show more content…

For example, Bath discusses the context of healing when someone goes through an extreme trauma (Bath, 2008, p. 18). Bath outlines the importance of safety, connections, and emotion/impulse management (Bath, 2008, p.18). Girl Talk will have assistance for teens who have experienced a trauma like Melinda did in Speak. The premise of the club is to create a safe space for girls to share their experiences and be able to work through their feelings and learn coping skills. I think that by having a sort of counselor session where a professional counselor can provide her support and be available during club meetings to help teens who have any sort of trauma. One of the mini lessons or topics discussed would be around this idea of safety and self health. The lesson will outline the types of traumas that are present and ways in which we can cope with what we are

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