Christina Cimorelli - Believe in You: Big Sister Stories and Advice on Living Your Best Life

This book is not intended to provide therapy, counseling, or clinical advice or treatment, or to take the place of clinical advice and treatment from your own personal physician. Readers are advised to consult their own qualified health-care physicians regarding medical issues. Neither the publisher nor the author takes any responsibility for the possible consequence from any treatment, action, or application of information in this book to the reader.

2019 Christina, Katherine, Lisa, Amy, Lauren, and Danielle Cimorelli

Some of the material in this book was previously published as Lessons Learned.

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ISBN 978-1-4002-1928-5 (Signed edition)

Epub Edition August 2019 9781400213030

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cimorelli, Christina, 1990- author.

Title: Believe in you : big sister stories and advice on living your best life / Christina, Katherine, Lisa, Amy, Lauren, and Danielle Cimorelli.

Description: Nashville : Tommy Nelson, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019027067 (print) | LCCN 2019027068 (ebook) | ISBN 9781400213023 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781400213030 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Preteen girls--Conduct of life--Juvenile literature. | Teenage girls--Conduct of life--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC BJ1651 .B398 2019 (print) | LCC BJ1651 (ebook) | DDC 248.8/33--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027067

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027068

Printed in the United States of America

19 20 21 22 23 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Mfr: LSC / Crawfordsville, Indiana / September 2019 / PO # 9549948

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Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

CONTENTS

W HEN WE STARTED TOURING AND recording as Cimorelli, we had no idea wed get to have the incredible privilege of meeting so many girls and hear their stories. For every song and video weve poured our hearts into and shared with the world, weve gotten just as much back from people whove poured their hearts out to us. All six of us sistersChristina, Katherine, Lisa, Amy, Lauren, and Danihave been touched by the thousands of messages on social media, hundreds of letters pouring into our PO box, and beautiful encounters at meet and greets where we started to hear personal stories from the girls we met everywhere we went.

And these werent just inspiring, uplifting stories. They were the real stories of what girls were going through. Intense, heavy things. Stories of body image and self-esteem issues, eating disorders, depression and anxiety, toxic friendships, relationship problems, and broken families. So many personal details from the hardest parts of life as a girland things some of us have been through ourselves. All we wanted to do at that point was be there for these girls, to support them and be a group of big sisters to every single person who shared her story with us.

For the longest time we wore ourselves out, replying to as many requests for advice and help as we possibly could. But we got more and more frustrated as the messages and letters continued to pour in and we realized we could not reply to all of them. How could we possibly convey to you how much we believe in you? And how much you deserve to believe in you?

The answer? This book.

One afternoon we sat down and asked each other, What do people ask us for advice on the most? The answers gave us the idea for these chapters. We think they cover some of the most important things girls wonder about during teenage years: your relationship with yourself, spirituality, friendship, dating, family, money, and the uncertainty of the future. Youre going to hear our real, raw, unedited take on each and every one of these topics.

As you read these chapters, picture us speaking right to you. Weve truly poured out our hearts to give our most honest advice and share our stories and struggles without sugarcoating it, but to focus on the positive too. Because as hard as it can be, growing up is also one of the most important experiences we have as humans. Its not all just struggle and pain (even when it feels like that sometimes)its also fun and exciting as you get older and experience more freedom and self-discovery. Theres so much to get excited for in the years ahead. We can tell you because weve gone through those years and come out the other side.

All six of us have unique, very different personalities and experiences. Some of us are shy and introverted, others bubbly and outgoing, some fiery and driven, others peaceful and sensitive. Were guessing that every girl who reads this will relate to each of us in different ways. We just hope that you will consider us your big sisters throughout this book.

Growing up can be difficult, confusing, awkward, and scary, but its a lot better when you have someone to go to for advice and some words of encouragement. You need to hear that someone believes in youand that youre worth believing in. We firmly believe that about you. So, take this book as a hug and some big-sister assurance that you are not alone in learning some of lifes greatest lessons.