Girls should not be typecast as Britney wannabes playing with dollies and doing nothing more adventurous than skipping. Girls can be challenged and made to experience the thrill of risk. They rise to it and succeed way beyond their own expectations. Girls can enjoy just about any outdoor activity that does not involve pretend weapons, not being particularly interested in combat. However, they can climb trees and rock faces, ride bikes and ponies, sail anything on water, sand or air, enjoy archery, exploration, discovery and discomfort. All it takes, at most, is a little supervision, and your little girl becomes caught up in activities way more exciting than dolls and colouring in Noddy books. Sarah Hague, Montpelier, France

Dangerous pursuits for girls - get comfortable with risk. Think with your own brain, walk your own road, trust your own instincts and don't assume you can't keep up. And don't confuse being kind and sweet with being a doormat. Resisting peer pressure and other people's pigeonholing can feel dangerous but it's well worth it. A blend of Lyra in Philip Pullman's wonderful His Dark Materials and JK Rowling's Hermoine Grainger are pretty good role models for learning to take calculated risks and thinking for yourself instead of following the herd. Caitlin McKiernan, London

As a child, I was the perfect three- point landing (one nose and two knees), I didn't climb trees (a dislike of heights), however, I climbed into the saddle aged two (with some help), liked it and stayed. In fact I was 24 before I left it. Owing to parents not having that much money, and this was the sport of kings, I always had bargain basement nags. Imagine you are in a supermarket, rows of pristine tins in front of you, well the kind of horses I had were represented by the bashed in tins in the bargain sell-off corner. This fact definitely added to the risk, as unpredictability came as standard. I was always clumsy as a child, so my despairing mother tried to make me more graceful and ladylike by sending me to ballet classes, completely ignoring my total lack of talent, but result is that today I can fall over with a bit more style. For those who think that ballet must be without risk has never experienced the full horror of pointe shoes. After an early childhood spent being catapulted out of the saddle to land in the particularly dense patch of nettles, and crushing my poor unfortunate tootsies into the most evil torture devices known to man, I have now exchanged my four legged steed for a four wheeled one and my husband and I hope to start safari trialing this season. I love the outdoors and I enjoy the element of danger, all due to horses and ballet. Sarah Marquis, London

Dangerous pursuits for girls? Hmmm, I would recommend baking a cake. When I attempted it last year, aged 18, I nearly lost my eyesight after getting flour and sugar in my eyes while trying to mix them into the dough using an electric whisk (if thats even the name for it). Then, being the greedy cake monster that I am, I decided to increase the temperature in the oven to speed things up a bit and as a result, I nearly suffocated from all the smoke caused by the outside of the cake burning. Then there was the threat of food poisoning to everyone who was brave enough to try to eat it, because after all that effort, the inside of the cake was still seriously undercooked. I have since stuck to making fridge cake, which, as the name suggests, requires a fridge instead of an oven. Ola Marki, Paris

In the current climate of WC (not a tasteless reference to lavatories and a gastric incident worthy of Delhi Belly, but an abbreviation for the World Cup) fever here in the office, the most dangerous tasks would be: 1. to ask, pre or post match "What Gam...?" 2. To draw silly glasses and moustaches anywhere on The Times WC Poster. 3. to arrange meetings anywhere close to Kick-Off times. I could continue but am rapidly loosing the will to live in a male dominated working environment... Patricia Freeth, Cardiff

Sarah Vine's article cannot be serious, this the worst example of white middle class drivel I have read for a long time! Did she actually attend Enid Blyton's St. Clares or was it Mallory Towers? I am pleased that where I live most weekends my daughter and son play with children of all ages, they make dens, play in kayaks, sail, make fires on beaches, play many imaginative games of which I know nothing (as it should be), games of "forty forty" involving 20 or so children, and much more. Of course they are not living in a time warp from the 70s and do watch TV and play computer games, but thank goodness these other games are just happening without us grown-ups having to contrive them after reading books about them. Name and address withheld

Hmmm, well, the tree-climbing, den-making and mud pies were fun, but 'dangerous'? The worst you could do falling out of a tree was severe concussion and memory loss - not that I remember much of that particular incident. The most dangerous thing I did as a little girl was cliff-jumping with my cousins into narrow, shallow Welsh streams (you whacked your tail bone on the bottom - and that was if you aimed properly) from about 6m. And, of course, playing with matches (See Anne Fine's The Tulip Touch) Marianne Park, Sherborne

I really envied rich friends who had gardens or access to public parks. My friends and I just played in the road, which I suppose was inherently dangerous! I do remember a beech tree on a garage forecourt that had a sturdy branch overhanging the pavement. We used to take it in turns to climb the tree then dangle from that branch by our toes. The rest of us tossed beech nuts, while the "dangler" wriggled and swung, trying to catch them between her teeth without losing her tenuous grip on the branch. I was never any good at the game and remember crashing down onto the pavement an awful lot. I don't remember ever getting hurt though. Name and address withheld

The Times Dangerous Book for Girls? Was this article serious? It has to be the wettest, most vacuous list of “dangerous” activities ever devised! How about the following which I enjoyed with my friends back in the 70s? It was a lot more fun than dithering about with pencil cases, crying, crushes and fairy cakes. It’s probably why I now run a company, husband and three children and don’t stand around in the school playground wondering if I am wearing the right clothes or if I’ve made friends with the right people. 1. Cooking - Fairy cakes? What happened to fudge (boiling sugar), toffee (more boiling sugar) and honeycomb (boiling sugar which had a habit of foaming over the top of the saucepan and turning the cooker into a sticky mess)? 2. Card games – we whiled away hours playing racing demons, pairs and trumps; preferably with penny bets. 3. Outdoor adventure games. Probably just like the ones the boys played, and often we all played together, but without the wars or guns. We would spend hours roaming the countryside (in groups of course, even in those days), exploring new lands, making maps and laying trails for others to follow. 4. Making camps – not just for the boys. Our camps weren’t just piles of twigs, we had “rooms”, furniture and ours stood for months. 5. Sailing (would now add windsurfing), swimming and any other water sports; endless opportunities for adventure games. 6. Producing or taking part in a play. Is any childhood complete without subjecting the grownups to one of your own productions, complete with wobbly props, dodgy scripts and rookie cast? A must for Christmas. 7. Building cross country courses. For the poor ponies to jump round if you were lucky enough to have one, or your friends, complete with whips to smack your own bottoms, if not. Annabel Tall, Bristol

Climbing a narrow alley way using just the two parallel walls for support. The entangling of legs as they bend in shapes unimaginable and raw bruises on soft hands, a result of pressing hard against the wall, was a rite of passage. Quite what the point was I don't know, only to jump 6ft or so to start all over again once we got to the top! A childhood thrill myself and my friends thoroughly enjoyed! Only girls have such flexible bodies! And to come home and say the cuts and bruises on hands and knees were from playing hopscotch! (they don't make alleys in Yorkshire so narrow anymore). Shaakirah Kasuji, Batley

Join the Guides. Five reasons to become a Girl Guide: 1. You get to smile sweetly as you accept your sixth interest badge (while your fellow Guides are still on their first.) 2. You get to go on cool trips, for instance the Big Gig. Six hours on a train (perfect for a long, long chat) is really worth it. 3. No annoying boys. This will be the best two hours of your week. 4. You set the agenda. Either make a dance routine, bake fairy cakes or have a kick about. It's all up to you, most of the time. 5. It's a great chance to socialise and make new friends... But really, you can find some great mates. Don't be put off by the camping. I've been going for ages and not once have I set foot on a campsite. And I don't plan on doing so either. Enjoy! Rosemary Koper, North Wales

It is too true that the world has gone crazy with regards to "health and safety" of the young ones these days. When I was small I was up and down trees in the mud and constantly coming home with bumps and grazes. But to say that girls should do to different things to boys is poppycock, I was celebrated at school for the ability to make the best tree houses, and the boys were more than jealous! If were to be found on the playground it would be with the group of boys climbing the trees behind a fence, and this I here is a skill that is in fact better suited to girls! so my suggestion to you is not to put a book out about the dangerous things girls can do but, to put a book out on what boys and girls should be doing instead of sitting at home playing on computer games, bring on the revolution of the out-doors. Kelly Fitzpatrick, Maidstone

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