I'm not trying to be annoying, but I genuinely don't understand what you mean by huge expectations of "having it all" for women (at least insofar as it relates to any trend starting ~2012, when the large growth in depression and self-harm among teen girls seems to have started).

The only "revocation of rights" I can think of would be Dobbs - which also does not fit the trend (see my response to the other comment).

If (white liberal) teen girls are supposed to actually see their real lives getting worse, I still don't see any reason for this to have become a problem in the early 2010s.

It does fit the trend. These issues are stacking. You can fool yourself into dismissing it if you split it into pieces. In 2012 you can write it off as fear mongering the media. In 2018 you can write it off as “how does this affect your day to day life?”. In 2022 you can say that Dobbs “doesn’t fit the trend” since it started in 2012.

I’m not saying this is the whole story, but it’s possibly part.

“Having it all” is a blessing and curse. The choice to do more, the burden to do more. Now you need a career, family, insta following. And it’s quite likely you’re going to have a hard time finding that perfect husband since men 18-30 as a demographic are doing horribly. What would normally be the backbone of a society is just not functioning well right now.

As far as "having it all" -- female employment has basically not changed since 1990[0], and given the decline in the US birth rate, expectations of motherhood have probably decreased as well. I could see "having it all" increasing stress as, for example, more women were being introduced into the work force, but that seems entirely uncorrelated to the 2010s.

Insta following could be a new pressure and I agree it would fit the timeline, but that'd be a social media effect and not a decrease in real-life quality of living for white liberal girls.

[0] https://genderdata.worldbank.org/indicators/sl-tlf-acti-zs/?...

When it comes to emotional well being, “real life” is what’s in your head. If people are experiencing unattainable pressures and that’s causing them stress, it’s real. I guess you could make a distinction for dreams, hallucinations, etc. But social media isn’t that.

It’s actually dangerous to think it’s “too pretend”. My bank account is just squiggles on the screen, but I can somehow buy stuff. Same thing that online relationships can have physical outcomes, even if just by turning it into cash first.

> I genuinely don't understand what you mean by huge expectations of "having it all" for women

I think the OP meant the whole "lean in" movement. I'm not sure why that would affect teen girls though. Social media and decreased socialization seem like much more plausible factors.

> The only "revocation of rights" I can think of would be Dobbs - which also does not fit the trend (see my response to the other comment).

Dobbs didn't just happen. It took decades to take those rights away from women, and there was incremental (anti)progress along the way. In those decades, a massive political project was created specifically to message that women who get abortions (a lifesaving medical procedure) are murders, and they should be jailed and punished for it. The result of this political campaign is that women in America have the worst medical outcomes in the developed world, and in some cases it's worse than the developing world. Infant mortality is on the rise, giving birth can put you into debt tens of thousands of dollars, and if there are complications you now have to be literally on your last thread of life before doctors will feel comfortable trying to save you.

So I guess you can see why women in America might feel under threat. There is one political party in America who has been telling them for decades that their goal is to use their power and influence to turn the clock back on women in America.

Even beyond Women in the USA, amongst my friends in Canada, where to me at least the status quo on abortion seems quite safe, they very clearly feel extremely on edge about it.

Existing in the state of being where you're constantly feeling under pressure and attack that your rights may be taken away at any moment, I dunno, maybe that's stressful! If I can sense this tension from my Canadian women friends who are stressed just being adjacent to USA news, I'm not at all surprised that American women would be feeling even more stressed and depressed about the situation.