Overview

Katherine Tarbox was thirteen when she met twenty-three-year-old ""Mark"" in an online chat room. A top student and nationally ranked swimmer attending an elite school in an affluent Connecticut town, Katie was also a lonely and self-conscious eighth-grader who craved the attention her workaholic parents couldn't give her. ""Mark"" seemed to understand her; he told her she was smart and wonderful. When they set a date to finally meet while Katie was in Texas for a swim competition, she walked into a hotel room and discovered who-and what-her cyber soul mate really was. In A Girl's Life Online, Tarbox, now eighteen, tells her story-an eye-opening tale of one teenager's descent into the seductive world of the Internet. Tarbox's harrowing experience with her online boyfriend would affect her life for years to come and result in her becoming the first ""unnamed minor"" to test a federal law enacted to protect kids from online sexual predators. In an age when a new generation is growing up online, Tarbox's memoir is a cautionary tale for the Internet Age.

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Reviews

Moving and insightful ... a page-turner... Read it, tell your mom to read it, tell your best friend to read it, and then read it again. --Seventeen.com An impressive work that reveals the tormented psyche of a young teen who seemed to have it all. --TIME In 1995, first-time author Tarbox was leading an upper-middle-class life of quiet desperation. At age 13, she rarely saw her workaholic mother, who seemed only to care about her daughter's swim-team performance, and got on poorly with her stepfather. Overscheduled, ignored and less than perfectly attractive, she felt invisible in her wealthy Connecticut town. Now, at age 17, she evocatively describes how her first romance permanently altered her life. She first encountered Mark in an early AOL chatroom. While his stated age (23) gave her pause, he seemed the perfect boyfriend: he called her every night, listened to her opinions and encouraged her to relax. When he wanted to meet her at a swim meet in Texas, she agreed--but Mark turned out to be a middle-age pedophile named Frank, who molested her in a hotel room... Strong, articulate and conservative, Tarbox evokes pity and admiration with her heartfelt account of a precocious girl who was deceived and then betrayed. --Publisher's Weekly This compelling and honestly written read paints a vivid picture of the angst-ridden world of young teens. --Susan H. Woodcock, School Library Journal The subtitle says it all; what is extraordinary about this poignant, if not strictly frightening, story is that it was written by the child in question...The moral of the story, as Katie is wise enough to see, is not for parents to deny children access to the Internet, but to spend more times with them. --Times Literary Supplement

Moving and insightful ... a page-turner... Read it, tell your mom to read it, tell your best friend to read it, and then read it again. -Seventeen.com An impressive work that reveals the tormented psyche of a young teen who seemed to have it all. -TIME In 1995, first-time author Tarbox was leading an upper-middle-class life of quiet desperation. At age 13, she rarely saw her workaholic mother, who seemed only to care about her daughter's swim-team performance, and got on poorly with her stepfather. Overscheduled, ignored and less than perfectly attractive, she felt invisible in her wealthy Connecticut town. Now, at age 17, she evocatively describes how her first romance permanently altered her life. She first encountered Mark in an early AOL chatroom. While his stated age (23) gave her pause, he seemed the perfect boyfriend: he called her every night, listened to her opinions and encouraged her to relax. When he wanted to meet her at a swim meet in Texas, she agreed-but Mark turned out to be a middle-age pedophile named Frank, who molested her in a hotel room... Strong, articulate and conservative, Tarbox evokes pity and admiration with her heartfelt account of a precocious girl who was deceived and then betrayed. -Publisher's Weekly This compelling and honestly written read paints a vivid picture of the angst-ridden world of young teens. -Susan H. Woodcock, School Library Journal The subtitle says it all; what is extraordinary about this poignant, if not strictly frightening, story is that it was written by the child in question...The moral of the story, as Katie is wise enough to see, is not for parents to deny children access to the Internet, but to spend more times with them. -Times Literary Supplement

Moving and insightful ... a page-turner... Read it, tell your mom to read it, tell your best friend to read it, and then read it again. --<b>Seventeen.com</b> An impressive work that reveals the tormented psyche of a young teen who seemed to have it all. --<b><i>TIME </i></b> In 1995, first-time author Tarbox was leading an upper-middle-class life of quiet desperation. At age 13, she rarely saw her workaholic mother, who seemed only to care about her daughter's swim-team performance, and got on poorly with her stepfather. Overscheduled, ignored and less than perfectly attractive, she felt invisible in her wealthy Connecticut town. Now, at age 17, she evocatively describes how her first romance permanently altered her life. She first encountered Mark in an early AOL chatroom. While his stated age (23) gave her pause, he seemed the perfect boyfriend: he called her every night, listened to her opinions and encouraged her to relax. When he wanted to meet her at a swim meet in Texas, she agreed--but Mark turned out to be a middle-age pedophile named Frank, who molested her in a hotel room... Strong, articulate and conservative, Tarbox evokes pity and admiration with her heartfelt account of a precocious girl who was deceived and then betrayed. --<b><i>Publisher's Weekly</b> This compelling and honestly written read paints a vivid picture of the angst-ridden world of young teens. --<b>Susan H. Woodcock, <i> School Library Journal</b> The subtitle says it all; what is extraordinary about this poignant, if not strictly frightening, story is that it was written by the child in question...The moral of the story, as Katie is wise enough to see, is not for parents to deny children access to the Internet, but to spend more times with them. --<b><i>Times Literary Supplement</i></b>

Author Information

Katherine Tarbox is a senior editor with REALTOR Magazine. Formerly, she was editorial director forWashington Life. She is the author of the international bestselling bookA Girl's Life and has made hundreds of media appearances including The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and CNN. As a seventeen-year-old high school student, she was selected to attend Bread Loaf's teen weekend for young writers. She served as a Senatorial Page in Washington, D.C., and was a frequent guest lecturer for the FBI.

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