“ 104


I DID LOTS OF RESEARCH BEFORE WRITING THE BOOK AND WHAT I DISCOVERED SHOCKED ME. ON PAPER


GIRLS HAVE THE EQUALITY AND POWER BUT SOCIALLY THINGS SEEMED TO HAVE GONE BACKWARDS


“I did lots of research before writing the book and what I discovered shocked me. On paper girls have the equality and power but socially things seemed to have gone backwards.


“As a teenager in the 80 and 90s, it genuinely never occurred to me that I was second best to a boy. My friends and I were all quite feisty and if a boy acted or spoke inappropriately to us we’d have told them exactly what we thought.”


So why the change?


“It would be easy to blame social media, and that definitely is a problem, but I don’t want to demonise that as it really has its uses and I know I use it a lot and I’d be a hypocrite to dismiss it. Everyone just needs to be careful what they post.


“There is definitely a problem around it though and the kids feel their whole lives need to be Instagram-worthy - it’s all about the number of likes or clicks they are getting. And it’s all so instant and close to home, there’s no escaping people’s comments.


“I didn’t think I’d ever write a book like this or that there would be a need to write this kind of book,” she explained.


“I was meeting with all sorts of girls doing these talks, many of them high achieving and intelligent girls, and I was hearing things which really surprised me. There were safeguarding issues, comments about girls getting groped by boys and girls thinking they weren’t good enough to pursue certain careers. “It was really frightening.


“I was gathering all sorts of information and it set me to thinking what I could do with that. Was it a documentary or a story for TV? I felt whatever I did with it needed to benefit someone.”


With this in mind, she decided she would write a guide for girls – part motivational, part informative, part journal. The result is a fun, easy to read, go-to-guide which covers the whole gamut of teenage life, from social media and self- esteem to school life and career choices. Awesome because she believes everyone needs to believe they are awesome to help them achieve their goals.


LIVE24-SEVEN.COM


“Everything they post and the things they see is filtered though and that’s just not reality. People are constantly comparing their lives with other people and if you feel you compare unfavourably that can really get you down and young people are not always able to cope with that.


“


LOCAL PEOPL E SUZANNE VIRDE E


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