Teenage girls love to talk. That's just the way it is, but now some psychologists are saying that talking too much can be to the girls' detriment.

An American professor of psychological sciences has even coined a term for it - 'co-rumination'.

She and some other psychologists believe that co-rumination can lead to a downward spiral of negative emotions for both the girl and her 'co-worriers'.

I don't think that's altogether true.

Unlike men, females like to dissect their woes and lean on each other as they tackle their problems.

There's nothing more satisfying than ruminating with female friends about the aches and gripes that affect your lives and having them agree with you.

Girls show emotion more easily too and never more so as when they are in that uncertain territory of raging hormones and teenage angst and acne. They aren't embarrassed to offer a shoulder for a friend to cry on or to accept one.

When I was in my late teens, my peers and I spent many recess periods brooding over issues that affected us, like how little space we felt our parents were giving us although we were 'grown up' or the crushes we had on boys.

Yes, we might have inadvertently goaded each other into feeling blue over some trivial thing, but none of us felt the worse for talking over our problems. In fact, sharing helped us bond and taught us how to be supportive of each other.

As an adult, I still gain from the long conversations, now laced with much humour, that I have with my gal pals.

More than anything, they help foster feelings of empathy and strengthen our friendships.

Now what harm can there be in that?

This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times on Oct 2, 2008.