"New?" Math for Girls

Just caught the NEWSWEEK article on Danica McKellar, the actress who played Winnie on "The Wonder Years". I always loved that character. She was an especially thoughtful and real girl and I knew that she had gone on for an advanced degree in math rather than partying, drinking, flashing pantiless, burning out, going to rehab, etc. --you know, the way of most teen stars? I guess she has a new book out and I haven't seen it but I'm applauding it already, even if, as the Newsweek article writes,

"Still, is it necessary to teach a girl about ratios, for instance, by asking her to figure out how much lip gloss she owns compared with her sister?"

UGH. But perhaps this is simply one of those marketing strategies we seem to be endlessly writing about -- even the really good stuff for girls has to be packaged to appeal to a stereotype of girls in order to even get out the door and onto the market.

"McKellar acknowledges that her "Pretty in Pink" approach might not work for everyone." But I'm willing to give it a chance... I mean even if it's pink and full of slumber party mentality and "girl talk", it's still math, and we know that being good at math leads to a host of other good things for girls.