The Most Amazing Boardgame in the History of the World.

This is my favorite boardgame in the entire world: Careers for Girls. In my life, it has been a steady source of inspiration and motivation. When I was in junior high school, my friends insisted on destroying my edition of Careers for Girls in a ritual burning because they claimed it was sexist and oppressive. I was devastated but could not stand up to the peer pressure. If you call Central Casting and ask them for "Woman Who Can Never Resist Peer Pressure," they will definitely send you my resume.


But I recently acquired a new copy of the game from eBay! I am so so so incredibly ecstatic. I mean, would you look at this game? It's the "Fame, Fortune and Happiness Game." It's been awhile, but what I remember is that when the game starts, you allocate 60 points between fame, fortune and happiness, however you want. You could, theoretically, allocate 20 points to each. I always allocated 60 points to fame. Then, you go around the board trying to gather your points and the first one to 60 wins.

During the course of the game, you can aspire to several important carees: Super Mom; School Teacher; Rock Star; Animal Doctor; College; or Fashion Designer. I love how this game recognizes that women do not want to be lawyers or accountants or politicians.


Then you go around the board and you have to do things to collect your points. Like, if you are aspiring to be a Super Mom, then you need to "Tell us the names of your 8 children" and then you get 8 happiness points. Or, under the animal doctor category, you have to "Tell us about your dream horse." One of my favorite spots is under fashion designer: "Pretend to model your new swimsuit design." But under college, you get to "date with upper-classman" OR "describe your dreamy teacher." And if you are a school teacher, you might have to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which is super hard (but you get 16 happiness points for that one).

You also draw Experience Cards throughout the game like this one: Send any opponent to Unemployment. I cannot even begin to emphasize the important lessons that young women can learn from this game. Like, if you have a job someday at an office, and there's a cute guy that your are totally crushing on, but there's this hot secretary who wears three inch heels and tight sweaters every day, you might have to scheme and Send that Bitch to Unemployment just so you can have a monopoly on your crush. (Speaking of Monopoly - that might be the worst game ever. Too many numbers. And that little man is so creepy).