My story titled "When I Grow Up, I Want to Be Myself" was inspired by myself and many other little girls who struggle to stay unique in a world where most people look and think alike. Naya, the main character is an eight year old girl who feels ashamed that she is not prepared for her class' career day. She has a realization that although she does not know what she wants to be when she grows up, she knows the type of person she wants to be. This book celebrates diversity, uniqueness, fearlessness, and individualism.
When do you become an adult? What does it mean to grow up? And what are the experiences that propel us forward — or keep us stuck? These are the questions that journalist Moya Sarner sets out to answer as she begins training as a psychotherapist. But as she delves further into her own mind and others’, she soon realises that growing up is far from the linear process we imagine it to be. So begins a journey of discovery into what growing up really involves, and how we do it again and again throughout our lives. From early adulthood through to old age, When I Grow Up examines each life stage, interrogating the traditional markers of adulthood and finding new ones. Through conversations with grown-ups from all walks of life, and through her own experiences and training, Sarner probes deep into our psyches to discover how we grow and develop, and what we need to thrive throughout our lives.
In a gripping novel with a plot pulled from the headlines, Todd Strasser turns his attention to gang life in the inner-city projects. DeShawn is a teenager growing up in the projects. Most of his friends only see one choice: join up to a gang. DeShawn is smart enough to want to stay in school and make something more of himself, but when his family is starving while his friends have fancy bling and new sneakers, DeShawn is forced to decide--is his integrity more important than feeding his family?
PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.
This award-winning debut interrogates the fragile, inherited ways of approaching love and family from Asian American, immigrant, and queer perspectives.
To be human is to be in relationships. We can’t survive without them but it’s in relationships that we can so easily get unravelled. Some relationships just seem to do us in. Either we feel like we lose ourselves or feel burnt out from futile efforts to make things right for another. In our relationships we can experience the very best of ourselves and the very worst. The message of Growing Yourself Up is that you can’t separate understanding the individual from understanding relationships. All of life’s relationships are integral to increasing self-awareness and maturity. And it’s not necessarily the comfortable relationships that promote personal growth. In this 2nd edition of the bestselling book, Jenny examines how to help others without fostering dependency, and how to determine what kind of help you or others want from therapists. This is in response to the many lay and professional people who have found this book valuable personally and want to know how to help others grow. Drawing from Bowen family systems theory, the book takes you on a journey through each stage of life to see predictable patterns of relationships and to show how to use this knowledge to make purposeful adjustments in yourself; as well as lending a mature helping hand to others. The result is a sturdier self, sturdier relationships and a refreshing new way to view life’s challenges and opportunities.
Picking up where Quiet ended, How to Be Yourself is the best book you’ll ever read about how to conquer social anxiety. “This book is also a groundbreaking road map to finally being your true, authentic self.” —Susan Cain, New York Times, USA Today and nationally bestselling author of Quiet Up to 40% of people consider themselves shy. You might say you’re introverted or awkward, or that you're fine around friends but just can't speak up in a meeting or at a party. Maybe you're usually confident but have recently moved or started a new job, only to feel isolated and unsure. If you get nervous in social situations—meeting your partner's friends, public speaking, standing awkwardly in the elevator with your boss—you've probably been told, “Just be yourself!” But that's easier said than done—especially if you're prone to social anxiety. Weaving together cutting-edge science, concrete tips, and the compelling stories of real people who have risen above their social anxiety, Dr. Ellen Hendriksen proposes a groundbreaking idea: you already have everything you need to succeed in any unfamiliar social situation. As someone who lives with social anxiety, Dr. Hendriksen has devoted her career to helping her clients overcome the same obstacles she has. With familiarity, humor, and authority, Dr. Hendriksen takes the reader through the roots of social anxiety and why it endures, how we can rewire our brains through our behavior, and—at long last—exactly how to quiet your Inner Critic, the pesky voice that whispers, "Everyone will judge you." Using her techniques to develop confidence, think through the buzz of anxiety, and feel comfortable in any situation, you can finally be your true, authentic self.
Based on her work with over a thousand women across the country, psychologist Helene G. Brenner has learned that women feel the impulse to accommodate, adapt and mold themselves to serve others at their own expense. Her solution is an invigorating new approach to women's psychology. The key to transformation, she explains, is not self-improvement, but self-acceptance—affirming and validating what we truly feel and experience and who we already are. Dr. Brenner shows women how to discover and express what they truly want and value, guiding you toward your own Inner Voice. I Know I’m In There Somewhere will show you: - How to embrace, rather than fix, the Inner Voice that has been there all along - How to distinguish the Outer Voices (the expectations of the people around you) from Your Inner Voice (the voice of your true self that goes beyond intuition and guides you wisely towards what is right for you) - What to do when you feel that the essence of who you are is being stifled by external demands and expectations
Write Now. Read Later. Treasure Forever. Letters to Me, When I Grow Up will inspire children to write or draw stories, dreams for the future, and advice for their grown-up selves. Each letter begins with a unique prompt like: When I imagine myself all grown up... A pep talk for my future self... If I become a world leader... Included are 12 letters that will inspire children to send a letter to their grown-up self! Each letter has a space to write when it was sealed and when it should be opened (will it be tomorrow or in 20 years?). Seal letters with the included stickers before saving this time capsule for your future self!
This practical and inspiring guide to negotiating lifes passagesespecially career change and retirementtakes readers on a richly rewarding voyage of self-discovery. The ultimate destination: personal as well as professional fulfillment. A much-needed manual in this era of widespread layoffs, corporate downsizing, and a workforce in seemingly perpetual transition.