People have long speculated about why girls love horses.Host Tina Fey, star of 30 Rock, author of Bossypants and Saturday Night Live alumna, takes listeners around the world into the secret life of girls -- from the dunes of the Sahara to a slumber party in Manhattan, from the dancehalls of Jamaica to a racetrack in Ramallah -- and reveals some of her own hidden worlds.
These two new specials are produced by the Peabody Award-winning Kitchen Sisters, in collaboration with NPR and independent producers from around the world. Inspired by "The Hidden World of Girls" series heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, these specials feature the best stories from that series as well as new, never before heard features, interviews and music.
As part of this international collaboration, The Kitchen Sisters opened up The Hidden World of Girls NPR phone line and invited listeners to share their stories of groundbreaking girls and pioneering women. Calls poured in from around the world and these stories and messages thread throughout the hours. Some of the stories that will be heard include:
-The story of The Braveheart Women's Society: Coming of Age in South Dakota, a journey to a four-day rite of passage ceremony for Sioux girls from the banks of the Missouri River.
-From the foothills of Dublin, The Hidden World of Traveller Girls. Travellers, the gypsies of Ireland, nomads traveling in caravans, camping by the side of the road. The men live for horses, the girls for their weddings -- big, elaborate weddings.
-From Afghanistan we enter The Hidden World of Kandahar Girls -- girls and young women going to school, working towards careers, standing up to the threats of the Taliban.
-We travel to Wayne County, Mississippi, into the world of Girls Who Hunt.
-We explore the mysterious universe of women's bodies in Chicken Pills: The Hidden World of Jamaican Girls, where homegrown cosmetic treatments and changing ideals of beauty are part of a national debate going on in the music, in the dancehalls, and on the streets.
Nigerian writer Chris Abani tells the story of his English-born mother, Daphne Mae Hunt, who enlists him at age 8 to be her translator in rural Nigeria as she goes door-to-door into the villages teaching women the Billings Ovulation Method of birth control.
-Russia's Singing Babushkas, a group of elderly women from Buranovo, Russia who began singing together and who have become a musical sensation at concerts performing Beatles songs.
-Horses, Unicorns and Dolphins, a story of girlhood fantasy and aspiration.
-And science fiction stories of friendship, superpowers and the Beatles.
The Hidden World of Girls , Sunday at 3 p.m. on NPR (89.1 FM / 1550 AM).
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