Amanda Ford - Be True to Yourself: Daily Affirmations and Awesome Advice for Teen Girls (Gifts for Teen Girls, Teen and Young Adult Maturing and Bullying Issues)

Daily Affirmations
and Awesome Advice
for Teen Girls

Amanda Ford

Coral Gables

Copyright 2020 by Amanda Ford
Published by Conari Press, an imprint of Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover, Layout & Design: Morgane Leoni

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Be True to Yourself: Daily Affirmations and Awesome Advice for Teen Girls

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: pending
ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-451-4, (ebook) 978-1-64250-452-1
BISAC category code: YAN051200, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Social Topics / Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

Twenty years ago, I was twenty years old and I got the idea to write a book for teenage girls filled with all the perspective and advice I might offer to a younger sister, the words and guidance I wished Id had myself. The following year, the first edition of Be True to Yourself was published.

The book was well-received. I still have a stack of handwritten letters that arrived to me in the mail (yep, snailmail!) from girls telling me how the book had touched and insp ired them.

A lot has changed in twenty years, and although adolescence is long behind me, my concern and affection for girls of this age remains. From family ties to friendship connections, I am fortunate to have many tween and teen girls in my life. It is with these enthusiastic, spirited, stubborn, talented, smart, and utterly delightful girls in mind that I revised Be True to Yourself for this second edition you now hold in y our hands.

Our future depends on the well-being and abilities of our young people. It is essential that our kidsgirls and boysemerge from their teenage years with their hearts strong, their intellects sharp, and their imaginations wild and intact. My hope is that this book serves as a small resource to help with that goal.

Introduction

I remember vividly the day my high school art teacher told us that she didnt care too much about how well we did in her class. What I do care about, she said, is that maybe someday when you are an adult, you will think of this class and you will say to yourself, I remember I enjoyed making art, and you will pick up a brush or a pencil and you will create something again. Her statement impacted me with its clear message that I didnt need to be moving on a direct and certain path. Her statement told me that I could pick up where I left off, that I couldand wouldbe discovering and rediscovering myself for years and decade s to come.

My art teacher understood her job as planting seeds of possibility in our minds a nd hearts.

Thats exactly how I see this book: As little seeds of possibility that will bloom when they are needed. It is full of practical advice, pep talks, and poetic inspiration to help you in the journey of discovering and being true to yourself.

Being true to yourself is not easy. It might mean going against the beliefs and actions of your peers. It might mean disappointing somebody you love. You might wonder, Who am I anyway? Sometimes you wont know what to do. Sometimes you will do something that will turn out to be the wrong thing and you will feel very bad about it, but thats okay, because getting off course is an unavoidable part of getting to know yourself.

I hope this book will serve as a guidepost along the way, encouraging your imagination, nourishing your heart, and fortifying your sense of self-worth. I hope this book will be an antidote to all that is superficial, harsh, and fleeting, an antidote to all the things that might rob you of knowing your innate mag nificence.

This book is organized in short essays, one to read for every day of the year. You can read it in order day by day, from cover to cover in one sitting, or flip through and read randomly as you feel called. Some ideas will resonate for you, some will not. Take what works for you and leave the rest. Words that dont make sense at first might someday become the very thing you nee d to hear.

The fact that you are reading this book tells me that you are a special soul, a deeper thinker, and a curious seeker. I am grateful and honored to be connected to you through the shared experience of th ese pages.

Let s dive in

Day 1: F ingerprint

Hello!

You are here, alive, eyes open. Your eyes are the window to your soul, and did you know that the swirls and whirls inside your iris pools are uniq ue to you?

Look in the mirror. Look at the colorful part of your eyes. These are your irises. The subtle lines, dots, and variations of color you see inside those irises are extraordinary, because those patterns only exist insi de of you.

Never before did a person have those patterns in their eyes. Never again will those patterns be recreated.

Jeepers creepers, your peepers prove it! And so do your tongue and your fingerprint and your toe-print and your lip-print and your tongue and even your teeth: There is nobody like you.

Day 2: Un iquely You

There is nobody like you. This is an essential truth that you must accept deep in y our heart.

No one on earth can do what you do in quite the way that you do it. You have your own spin, your own flair, your very own spec ial sauce.

It is of utmost importance that you forever honor the unique and rare person that you are. If you do not, the world will miss out on all the special surprises you have to offer.

Over the course of this book, I hope you will come to see and appreciate yourself even more clearly, but for today, just let it sink in: There is nobody like you.

Day 3: Do + Be

What do you want to do, dear girl? Who do you w ant to be?