Hannah Yelin Unpacks Modern Girlhood on BBC Radio 4

In the newly launched BBC Radio 4 documentary series About the Girls, Dr. Hannah Yelin joins a nationwide conversation exploring the complexities of being a teenage girl in 2026.

Building on the foundations of its predecessor, About the Boys—a seven-part series exploring the unique challenges facing young men in Britain—this new documentary shifts the focus to the female experience. 

The series features candid, first-hand accounts from teenage girls about modern life, covering topics from becoming a woman, social media and online life, to school, sex, consent, relationships and friendships.

Following a 12-year career in the media, Dr Yelin, an Associate Professor in Gender, Media and Culture, features in multiple episodes of the series providing her expert knowledge of misogynistic media cultures and girls’ navigation of them. 

Women are still under-represented in decision-making and leadership roles despite growing interest in programmes aimed at fostering girls’ leadership skills and ambitions. A core focus of Dr Yelin’s work is investigating gender inequalities in positions of power.

In the documentary, Dr Yelin discusses research conducted with Dr Michele Paule, Associate Professor in Gender, Audiences, and Culture. Their work investigates how girls think about leadership, comparing the influence of prominent women to the girls' own aspirations. Through surveys, focus groups, and social media, the research explored gender, leadership, and celebrity with 50 girls (ages 13–15) across several English schools. The research was particularly interested in the ways in which girls engage with media representations of women in the public eye, and their ideas about what makes effective role models.

The research suggests that, far from desiring power and celebrity, girls are deterred from public life and from decision-making roles by the scrutiny, the hostility, and the risks that they see women leaders endure. The findings from the research are echoed in the About the Girls series, particularly around the discussion related to social media use.

The About the Girls series is available online at BBC Sounds. You can read more about Dr Yelin and Dr Paule’s research in this summary. A more in-depth exploration of the underpinning context behind their research is also provided in their book titled, Who Runs the World? : Girls, Leadership, and Women in the Public Eye (2024).