Sophie Elkan - The Girls Guide to Growing Up Great: Changing Bodies, Periods, Relationships, Life Online

GREEN TREE

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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BLOOMSBURY, GREEN TREE and the Green Tree logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

This electronic edition published in 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain 2018
This edition published 2020

Copyright Sophie Elkan, 2020
Illustrations Flo Perry, 2018 (www.floperry.com)

Additional material Laura Chaisty and Maddy Podichetty, 2018

Folio decorations, Dr Maddy boxes, wise women and girl quote speech bubbles illustrated by Anita Mangan 2018

Sophie Elkan has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work

For legal purposes the Acknowledgements constitute an extension of this copyright page

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for.

ISBN: 978-1-4729-4374-3 (PB)
ISBN: 978-1-4729-4375-0 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-4729-4372-9 (ePDF)

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Dedicated to all you girls and to all the women youll become

Any references to writing in this book refer to the print edition. Please write on a separate piece of paper in these instances.

CONTENTS

WELCOME! (AND A BIT ABOUT US)

Hello! Welcome, and how are you?

It feels a bit weird, not knowing who Im talking to you might be in Year 5 or 6, or perhaps youre all the way up in Year 8 or beyond. Either way, youre here and thats great!

You might be wondering a bit about who we are. So here goes

Im Sophie and Ive got a lovely girl of my own who is about your age.

For my job I write mainly magazines and the odd blog. I work part-time and mostly at home, sitting at my kitchen table with a big mug of tea. I really like it when my daughter brings her mates home after school, and it has been wonderful watching them grow up. What is less wonderful is when they get into muddles and shenanigans and fallings-out. Last summer there were a lot of fallings-out and it felt like every week her teacher was saying, Oh, the hormones kick in at this time, and it all goes a bit crazy. So I thought I should get my daughter a book, something she could read on her own or pick up every now and then to read any bits that seemed relevant. When I looked I couldnt find one that I thought I might have wanted to read when I was her age. They were either a bit teachery with way too much information in certain parts, or they were just a bit too girly and daft. You might have heard that knowledge is power and when I thought about what I would have wanted to read I realised, Oh! I could write that book myself. So here we are.

There are all sorts of things going on in your brain when youre growing up. Things that can feel quite far removed from the sort of thing you may hear in school about hormones and pituitary glands. As well as having some medical info, I thought it would be helpful to have an equally expert level of advice from a trained psychotherapist (someone who helps people going through emotional problems). My fabulous sister-in-law, Laura, has been a therapist for 19 years, so I didnt have to look too far to find the perfect person.

She says, I wanted to contribute to this book because I have a lot of experience dealing with the difficulties people can face when they bottle up their feelings. Mental health problems have a big impact on many aspects of life from self-confidence through to making and managing relationships and how we make our way in the world. I am interested in how you look after your emotional health and in helping you find ways to get the support you may need as you go through the changes you face during puberty.

As it happened, a new doctor had joined our Health Centre and she seemed pretty cool. I asked if shed like to write the medical bits of this book.

As she herself says, Obviously, as well as being a doctor, Im a person, too! I remember what it was like to be younger, and think that no grown-up could possibly understand what I was thinking or feeling, but please hear this: doctors see everything. So, if you have worries or need a bit of reassurance about how youre developing and you cant face asking someone in your family, or your school, please think about asking your doctor because thats what we are here for. We will try to make it as easy as possible for you, and I can tell you we do not embarrass easily! Well that makes sense, doesnt it?

By coincidence all three of us are mothers to girls and share an interest in how they get to grow up with self-confidence, self-belief and a strong sense of their identity. The idea of writing something together, with each of us talking about what we think is helpful, sounded like a good plan.