GirlMogul (http://girlmogul.com/)

GirlMogul is all about girls. It has girl hosts (scholar Rose, techie Daisy, scientist Poppy and go-getter Lily) and a lot of pink and polka dots. While the site’s tagline encourages girls to join “and change the world,” it doesn’t really provide the means to take on that charge. Tweens won’t uncover a lot of substantial material here and won’t walk away armed with the tools to effect much change – or become a mogul of any kind. But they will find some mildly entertaining crafts, articles, contests, and quizzes. The bulk of the site is comprised of well-written blog content that sounds like it’s coming from that cool older aunt who likes to pass down brief bits of advice. Girls will likely be drawn to the “How to Deal” section, which offers up some sound advice for dealing with jealousy or being ditched by your BFF. A science section touches on science-related tidbits such as the scientific method and the neuron’s role in sleep. Overall, tweens may not find much in the way of life-changing substance, but they won’t find anything offensive either. And there’s certainly no harm in girls making a brief detour here on their journey to change the world.

Online interaction: Postings feature spaces for comments, and though there aren’t currently a lot of postings, what’s there is primarily appropriate and clean. By linking to an outside site, girls can get a “gravator” (globally recognized avatar) to use with their posting; this could be a photo of themselves or any other image they want to associate with their name and comment. All posts are read, but only non-members posts are manually approved.