Misogyny and girls’ mental health are increasingly connected concerns, as young people encounter more and more misogynistic content online.

Much of the recent conversation around youth mental health has focused on toxic masculinity and how to support boys through it. But what about the girls? How are they affected by growing up surrounded by powerful male voices asserting that men should dominate and women submit?

It is increasingly common for girls in therapy to report that boys their own age are echoing these views. For many girls, the challenge isn’t just hearing these messages; it’s knowing how to respond when they come from peers. They need more than sympathy. They need a framework for understanding what is happening, and the tools to navigate it.

First, help girls decode sexist language and behaviour

As parents, teachers and caregivers, our first step is to understand exactly what girls are hearing. Second, we must help them understand why simplistic messages about masculinity, such as strength as dominance or power as control, feel so attractive to some boys.

Open the conversation with questions like:

• What are you seeing online?
• Who in your circle seems most drawn to misogynistic content? What do they have in common?
• Why do you think boys engage with sexist content?

When girls can recognise these views for what they often are (an attempt to shore up a fragile ego, a fear of inadequacy, or a grab for easy answers to life’s complexity), they gain crucial insight. They stop seeing the ideology as truth and start seeing it as a defence mechanism. That shift in perspective is the first step toward resilience.

Why are boys drawn to the manosphere?

Adolescence means navigating difficult emotions: the weight of potential failure, anxiety about what comes next, the sting of rejection. For many boys, online ecosystems offer an escape from that emotional labour. Instead of doing the hard, messy work of regulating their own feelings, they’re handed a shortcut: blame women for not knowing their place. Insecurities get projected outward, turning internal confusion into external anger.

It’s a way to inflate the ego when reality feels deflating. Rather than grappling with academic failure or social isolation, a boy can step into a digital room where his gender alone grants him perceived higher status. In these echo chambers, aggression is rebranded as strength, masking the fear and self-doubt underneath. When algorithms feed the loop, they create bubbles where dissent is silenced and rage becomes the only language of connection.

Why hardship makes toxic masculinity more appealing

The pull grows stronger when you zoom out to the wider community. A young man watching older men in his neighbourhood struggle with unemployment, poor housing or shrinking opportunity will find the promise of a quick fix genuinely enticing. It promises escape from collective hopelessness, and a path to feeling important and strong in a world that seems determined to make him feel small.

This vulnerability is often compounded by an absence of alternatives. Many boys grow up without visible role models who reject radicalising ideologies, without seeing young men successfully navigate modern life, sit with their fears, and process disappointment in healthy ways. Without those maps, a simplified, angry worldview becomes the default destination for anyone seeking direction.

This is the key insight for girls: when a girl understands that this rhetoric is a shield against a boy’s own anxiety, she can see the behaviour for what it truly is. Whether she chooses to report it, challenge it, or walk away, she does so empowered by the truth.

Intersectionality: who is affected most

While all girls are harmed by misogyny, the fallout is not evenly distributed. It lands heaviest on those already at the margins of society.

Racially minoritised women and LGBTQ+ women face compounded risk, caught in the crossfire of misogyny amplified by racism and homophobia. Data consistently shows that women of colour experience higher rates of street harassment, often worsened by systemic barriers to safety and justice. For LGBTQ+ women, particularly trans women of colour, the picture is grimmer still: disproportionately high levels of fatal violence and targeted aggression driven by intersecting prejudices.

Manosphere rhetoric doesn’t just validate this hostility; it dehumanises these groups as specific targets for domination or erasure, framing their very existence as a threat. Hate speech online feeds real-world violence, leaving racially minoritised and queer women navigating a world where their identities make them primary targets.

What can girls do when they encounter sexism?

Empower girls to define their own boundaries, and to identify when banter becomes harassment and a joke becomes a threat. Safety comes first. If comments cross into threats, sexual harassment, or attacks on consent, this is no longer a debate; it’s a safety issue. Tell girls to trust their gut when they feel unsafe, and make sure they know which trusted adults they can turn to, even when the topic feels shaming or embarrassing.

The grey area is genuinely hard to navigate. Harmful content is often disguised as “just joking” or presented as hard fact to silence dissent, leaving girls facing lines like “Can’t you take a joke?” or “Do the research, I’m right.” To hold their ground, girls need a toolkit of critical questions:

• Where is the evidence? Are the figures reliable? Can I verify them elsewhere?
• What is the agenda? Is this trying to make me feel afraid, angry, or inferior?
• Who benefits if I believe this?
• What’s the counter-argument? Where can I find reliable sources that challenge this narrative?
• And who is this funny for? Is the joke at the expense of women, girls, or me? Am I the punchline or a participant?

Practising these questions builds resilience and confidence. A girl can then respond plainly: “I don’t find that funny; it’s based on sexist views,” or “Check your facts, because that’s simply not right.”

How misogyny erodes girls’ mental health

Girls already face a tidal wave of pressure about how to act, dress and look. Misogynistic rhetoric compounds it. Constant exposure to messages of objectification and inferiority, through social media and peers, erodes self-esteem and creates a background hum of anxiety. Over time, girls may begin to internalise these messages. They might:

• Hesitate to speak up in class
• Doubt their leadership abilities
• Lower their ambitions to fit a perceived limit, or feel they don’t deserve success
• Apologise excessively and shrink their presence to avoid conflict
• Feel unsafe
• Struggle with low mood or anxiety
• Withdraw socially

How adults can help

We cannot shield girls from every toxic voice, but we can give them the armour to withstand them. The most effective approach weaves these actions into daily life rather than treating them as a checklist.

• Encourage open conversations. Create a safe space for questions. Validate emotions and keep talking, without judgment.
• Show limitless potential. Gender stereotypes often rigidify by age five to seven. Expose children early to diverse role models: women scientists, leaders, athletes, artists.
• Affirm intrinsic worth. Reinforce that a girl’s value is inherent, not tied to appearance or a narrow definition of her role.
• Model speaking out. Children learn from what we do, not what we say. Challenge derogatory remarks when you hear them; report harmful content online and explain why.
• Challenge your own sexism. Society pressures girls to be polite, agreeable and quiet, and brands assertiveness as bossiness. Celebrate girls for strong views and challenging injustice. Ask yourself: if a boy did this, would I react the same way?
• Promote positive male role models. Men who embody kindness and respect, and who openly disapprove of sexist jokes and comments, dismantle the very foundation these ideologies rely on.
• Build empowerment through learning. Explore intersectional feminism and the history of women’s fight for equality: the progress made, and what still needs to change.
• Foster community. Encourage friendships and community groups where girls find solidarity.
• Empower choice. Support girls in deciding who they spend time with and listen to, online and offline.
• Assert independence from authority. Make sure girls know that sexist or derogatory comments are not acceptable from anyone, including adults in authority like teachers or coaches. Help them identify who they can turn to if it happens.

How to tell if a girl is struggling

Watch for behavioural changes: has she become withdrawn? Stopped enjoying activities she once loved? Become wary of certain people or situations? Girls often fear being labelled a snitch or fracturing their friend group, so many suffer in silence.

Our goal is to help girls see their own resilience, challenge negative self-talk with evidence of their own capability, and imagine a future where their gender is part of their strength, not a barrier to it.

Start today: ask a girl in your life what she’s seeing online. Listen without judgment, and let that be the first step toward building the support she needs. By understanding the psychology behind these radicalising communities, teaching critical media literacy, and offering unwavering support, we help girls navigate this landscape with confidence. They deserve to grow up knowing their voices matter, their boundaries are valid, and their future is entirely their own.