Erin Brereton - Real Girls Guide to Everything. ...That Makes It Awesome to Be a Girl!

Copyright 2011 by Erin Brereton

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Triumph Books

542 South Dearborn Street

Suite 750

Chicago, Illinois 60605

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www.triumphbooks.com

Printed in U.S.A.

ISBN: 978-1-60078-561-0

Design by Andrew Burwell

Illustrations by Anastacia Zalevskaya

Cover design by Paul Petrowsky

Have Realistic Expectations, but Dream Big

Being the best friend ever. Picking out the perfect eye shadow. Getting all your homework done and still having time for dance team practice, four phone calls, and a Skittles break. Nobody said it was easy being a girl.

It is, however, awesome.

Being a boy is fantastic, tooeven though they dont have quite the same exciting array of shoe or shirt options. They also might not ever get to cry about a horrible day with their best friend and then make it all better by stuffing themselves with Oreos and Diet Dr. Pepper until they think their stomachs are going to explode. Think about it: Boys live their entire lives without using lip gloss even once. You almost have to feel sorry for them.

We girls, on the other hand, can do it all. We can blow $20 at the makeup counter at the mall, spend an hour picking out our outfit, sign up to take a class on advanced math skills, and use our phones until they nearly start smoking from exhaustionanytime we want to.

Years from now, you might be busy taking care of kids or running from meeting to meeting for your fabulous careeror doing both things at the exact same time. But for now, your job as a girl is just to have fun, learn stuff, and grow upbasically, to find out how to be the best you possible.

You may not know it (and if not, surprise!), but youre on an exciting journey. In the next few years, youll find out what it means to have really great friendsand how to sort out the people who arent so great for you.

Youll learn how to drive and become more independent. Youll learn more about history, literature, science, and all kinds of other subjects.

Youll learn about loveand you may even get your heart broken for the first time. (Lets hope not. But if you do, may we recommend cookie dough ice cream to help ease the heartache.)

Most importantly, youll start figuring out what makes you tick. What kind of things do you like? What dont you like? What makes you feel incredible (cookie dough ice cream)? What makes you feel lousy (running out of cookie dough ice cream)? (I really cant overstress the importance of cookie dough ice cream.)

If you have a ton of questions, dont worrythats totally normal. Thats why were here: to offer this guide to growing up as painlessly as possible.

This book will walk you through everything you need to know to safely make it to the other side of your teen years. Well cover everything from study habits to makeup tips to relationship advice. All you need to do is sit back, read, and relax.

Sincerely,

T.R.G.G.T.E. (The Real Girls Guide to Everything) and Erin (the real girl who wrote it)

• Youre good at math, history, English, social studies, geography, and sports; you have great communication skills; and you basically rock at everything else.

  

• In fact, more girls are attending college than boys these days. Seventy-five percent of girls plan to attend college immediately after high school, whereas just 61 percent of guys do, according to a recent joint survey from the What Kids Can Do organization and the Lumina Foundation. (Hopefully that means well get the nicer dorm rooms.)
• You always have something to sayand it feels great to say it.
• Although were not really sure what goes on at boys sleepovers (maybe you guys should skip watching TV and fill out some college applications to catch up with our enrollment numbers? Oooh, burn!), ours are beyond fun and are frequently filled with candy.
• Youre allowed to wear totally impractical but incredibly adorable shoes with any outfit (even jeans), any time you want to. In fact, its practically encouraged.

  

• Skirts. (Okay, the Scottish may have kilts, but most men never know the joy of wearing a piece of clothing that actually enables you to twirl).

  

• Boys are cute, and we get to look at them anytime we want. (Thanks, guys!)

  

• You understand that when it comes to fashion, your locker, and life itself, there can never be enough sparkly stuff.
• You can totally geek out about awesome dresses when you see them in a magazine, or a store, or on your friend (which is really the best scenario because you can borrow it next time you need an awesome dress).
• Chick flicks might be an annoying term, but theres no better way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon than watching romantic comedies about girls who are klutzy, yet charming.
• You can play soccer, learn to box, join the track team, and not be criticized for it. (Boys arent as luckythey sometimes are ridiculously concerned with being masculine. For example, if a guy wants to take ballet, chances are he may get teased about it. And how unfair is that? We girls understand that what you like to do is what you like to do, end of story.)