A collection of poems, stories, and essays written by girls twelve to eighteen years of age and revealing the secrets which enabled them to overcome t A collection of poems, stories, and essays written by girls twelve to eighteen years of age and revealing the secrets which enabled them to overcome the challenges they faced.

I picked this book up from the library one day, back when I was in high school, on a whim. I wound up being really surprised by how much I loved it. I can see where some adults might pass writing by high school women off as fluffy and unintelligent, yet this is absolutely not the case.

This book is wonderfully put together. One of my favorite aspects of it is actually the photography, because it’s of real girls. This is fitting because these are poems about topics which many teenager struggles with at some point, such as body image, drugs and sexuality. Two of my personal favorite poems are “Hallway Between Lunch and English (French Can Kiss My Sexually Ambiguous Arse,” “Damn, I Look Good” and “The Consequence of Loving Me.”

I find it hard to review this book, but it’s definitely worth a read. I feel like I’ve met many of the girls who wrote these pieces, because I’ve contemplated many of the challenging issues here. This is a somewhat hard book to track down in stores, but if you can find it, I highly recommend that get yourself a copy.

Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book.