Books by Mimi Nichter

At a time when just about everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, why do so many college students smoke? Is it a short lived phase or do they continue throughout the college years? And what happens after college, when they enter the "real world"? This book deals with these questions.

The result of a study that followed hundreds of teen-aged girls for three years, this book reveals the subtleties, the complexities, and the realities of girls' ideas about their shapes, eating habits, and physical ideals. Nichter uses an engaging narrative style to explore the influence of peers, family, and media on girls' sense of self.