[A] poignant, foundational book that looks at gender, girlhood, video games, and the gaming industry.

Communication Research Trends

A welcome contribution to both girls’ studies and game studies. Cunningham offers us a holistic perspective on girls who play and design games and the larger cultural contexts they must navigate while engaging important questions about the broader significance of girls’ current and future involvement in digital play. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary girlhood, gaming, and the STEM fields.

Mary Celeste Kearney, University of Notre Dame

Wide-ranging and thoroughly researched, Games Girls Play helps us understand how girls make sense of video games that have been designed for and marketed to them. More critically, Cunningham elevates girls’ voices by presenting their thoughts in their own words. Games Girls Play is a detailed examination of how commercial game design, discourses about youth and gender, and efforts at promoting gaming literacy create a complex and contradictory cultural terrain that must be negotiated on- and off-screen.

Matthew Thomas Payne, University of Notre Dame