After fifth grade, girls often split up with their old best friends. The question of popularity arises. If a girl is seen as a drag or a nerd, her girlfriends may abandon her for the friendship of more popular girls. Even worse, she may abandon herself. It's very difficult for a girl, particularly in our culture, to keep the two parts of herself in balance. The pressure will be to suppress the wild part, the "ugly part," and become utterly engrossed in attractiveness, femininity, passivity, and popularity.

Robert Bly, The Sibling Society