Girl Stuff

Introduction

This book is designed to be your friend through the teenage years ? it will tell you the whole truth and let you make up your own mind about things. It doesn't care if you're in the cool group, or whether you need new pants, or about something that happened three months ago that still makes you blush.

Girl Stuff is on your side.

You start your teens as a kid, and you leave them as an adult. In between, there's heaps of change, and it's not just that your favourite colour isn't Barbie pink any more.

I'm an adult now, so how do I know what girls want to read about? I set up a Girl Stuff website with a survey, and there were more than 4000 responses. Girls said they wanted to know about body changes, food, exercise, hair, their brain, their feelings, drinking, drugs, family, love, sex, confidence, what to believe in, helping other people, school, work, money, shopping, clothes, make-up, and their rights.

Then I asked a whole bunch of health and other experts what they thought girls should know. More than seventy generous and adorable ones lent this book their time and knowledge, often answering many follow-up questions. All of them wanted to help get girls the most up-to-date and useful info possible.

Being a teenager can be the most exciting, fun time in your life, when you sometimes can't stop laughing, you make great friends, and you get to work out who you are and some of the things you want to do with your life. But it also has its challenges. Girl Stuff is about how to make the most of being a teenager, and how to handle some of the problems that can turn up and make you want to scream into a pillow. The book covers a lot of 'problems'. But don't worry ? that doesn't mean you'll necessarily have any or all of the problems, or that they'll happen all at once. It just means there's lots of info on everything in case you do need help.

Some advice in books for teenage girls starts at periods and end with 'moods', on the way referring vaguely to hormones without explaining them. Others say, 'Be confident!'? but nobody seems to explain how. Or they suggest that you find out what your body shape is, then use the info to work out how to relate to people, become incredibly popular and marry a European prince.

Some books and magazines for teenage girls are full of pictures of rich models who look as if their whole life is one long beach holiday (because everyone can relate to that,right?). And some seem to say that your eyebrow shape is more important than whether or not you're happy.

Then there are the adults who suggest teenage girls are evil, selfish fiends. Some people don't respect girls. Sadly this is a problem you'll strike all through your life ? you just graduate to meeting people who don't respect women either. The best revenge is to try to make them irrelevant to your life. This book talks about how to grow up to be a strong, independent young woman, and how to find out what you're good at and make the most of your life, not just your eyebrows.

A lot of adults see teenagers as a 'problem':they think girls are a bunch of bubble-headed idiots who don't care about anything but themselves. I don't agree ? although I'm sure we've all met a couple of airheads in our time. I think girls are smart and funny, and that they care about the world and what they can do to make a difference to others and build a great future for themselves. They're creative, emotional, thoughtful, loving and, yes, sometimes self-centred. But who wouldn't be, faced with a new body, new feelings and a media culture that urges us to hero-worship some of the most self-centred women on the planet?

It's up to you to decide whether you're old enough to hear about, or ready for, certain things. If you're not interested in drinking, or drugs, or sex, for example, that's absolutely fine. You can either leave those chapters until some time in the future, or read the stuff now so that you can make good decisions later. Knowing about something doesn't mean you should do it. Sometimes knowing about stuff means you understand it's a good idea not to do it, or not to do it yet. As the saying goes, 'Knowledge is power', and you need that power to make smart and informed decisions about your life.

The quotes used throughout the book are from thousands of girls who filled in the survey on the Girl Stuff website. They're all real. But if you think you know somebody who's quoted ? you don't, unless it was you. Lots of names have been changed to protect girls from possible embarrassment, or from getting into trouble with parents or teachers. We're keeping everybody's secrets.

The four Parts of Girl Stuff each have a theme:Body; Head;Heart; and Info to Go. You don't have to read the book all in one hit, from start to finish, like a story. You can use the Contents list (at the front) or the Index (at the back) to just pick the bit you're interested in at the moment. I've included some websites, books and other information at the end of sections or chapters so that if you want to find out more about a specific subject you've got a head start. Books, even if they are published overseas, can be ordered through your neighbourhood bookshop. Local libraries and school librarians can help you chase things up or give you other useful recommendations.

Where possible I've suggested Australian and New Zealand websites or the best ones from overseas. Please be savvy when going online: beware of people being creepy, or trying to sell you stuff or get you onto a list so they can send you hundreds of advertising emails. I've attempted to choose non-commercial websites (those that aren't trying to sell stuff). If one is a commercial site, I'm not recommending whatever it's selling; I'm trying to help you find some good info on it.

Some of the stuff explored in this book is covered by magazines as well as websites. Many of their stories are really helpful and well researched, but you can't rely on magazines with advertisers to give you totally independent advice. There are no beauty or fashion 'essentials', whatever the magazines and ads say. That's just a way to get you to buy things. What you'll find in is the lowdown, without the hard sell (or the hidden sell).

And this book, unlike a magazine, doesn't give you 173 tips on nail polish. Because frankly it would bore us half to death. So dive in, anywhere you like, and start finding out about Girl Stuff.