5 June 2015

Being a Girl by Hayley Long, illustrated by Gemma Correll

Publication date: June 4, 2015
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genres: Nonfiction
Format: Review copy
Source: The publisher in exchange for an honest review
Pages: 224


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A funny, frank and fearless guide to being a girl


Being a girl is not all sugar and spice. How can you possibly survive school and even think about talking to your crush when you have spots in places you didn't even know you had, your boobs are too big (or too small) and the friend drama is off the charts? Luckily, bestselling YA author and sixth-form teacher Hayley Long provides a straight-talking guide to puberty - from cattiness to kisses, and everything in between. With witty black-and-white illustrations by Gemma Correll throughout, BEING A GIRL tells you everything you need to know about surviving puberty, in an honest and humorous way.

This book is definitely one every girl should have before, or when, they reach puberty. Even though I'm 18 there was still some things I didn't know before I Being a Girl and I wish I'd had this when I was younger.

Being a Girl is wonderfully illustrated - I really got to hand it to you Gemma Correll, you did an amazing job! It's a pleasure to go through and definitely not boring - even though it is nonfiction. I can see girls reading this in their teens and I can definitely see them understanding this part of their life better because of this book.

I've read many guides to 'being a girl'; they all explain what you're going to go through, what's going to happen, how things are going to happen etc. Even though this explains all those things as well it's better somehow. The other books can be judgemental and I don't think any of them have explained puberty as well. It's so positive and I think every teen could use a positive view of puberty!

When I say it's positive and not judgemental I mean that Hayley writes that we shouldn't be someone we don't want to be, we don't have to put on makeup, do our hair or wear heels just because we're girls. The femininity issue is definitely a problem today and with all the models and such it's hard not to feel ugly or 'not good enough'. This book is the perfect guide to puberty because it keeps telling you, or rather Hayley keeps telling you, that being who you are is perfectly okay - as long as you're not a douchebag.

One of the best things about this guide is probably that it is immensely funny! It deals with quite serious subjects but I laughed so many times. It was a pleasure to read, and not many books about puberty are!

It took me years to figure out exactly who I was or am and I needed help, it's mainly because of my boyfriend that I embraced my love for reading and it's due to him, or a lot of it is, that I am who I am today. This guide would probably have helped me figure out who I am sooner, or maybe I wouldn't have been so ashamed of who I was.

Please, PLEASE buy this for your younger sister, daughter, niece, friend etc before or just when they reach puberty. It's the ideal book and it explains everything in detail without it being hard to understand. It will help these kids in this hard time and I think it's worth every penny.
Even though kids these days know a lot more than what we did then it still explains things that you don't really come across. This has more information than any other guide to being a teen than any other I've ever come across.
So again, if you want to help a girl, or boy (there's a guide to Being a Boy as well) out, then buy this and I promise you'll help them.


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