My first thoughts on growing a beautiful sense of self went out to the girls and young women in our society through my newly released book, Grow Yourself Beautiful. Girls today carry a pretty heavy load of pressures from society that many don’t even realize. Our society aggressively feeds our girls harmful messages, beginning at a very early age—pushing unrealistic standards for outer-beauty perfection and high expectations of overachievement for just about all areas of their lives. Those pressures feel very defeating to young girls and are destructive to their self-esteem, potential, and overall joy of life. Seemingly overnight, too many go from being happy and confident little girls to being highly stressed, anxious, and often depressed young women, doubting they are enough or can ever be enough.

The important transition from girl to young woman is a fragile journey and should be recognized as one. Grow Yourself Beautiful acknowledges the journey and its pressures and encourages girls to take time to build a strong sense of self and foundation needed for life. Grow Yourself Beautiful provides comforting advice on how girls can shift focus away from the stressful and unrealistic expectations and empower themselves to move focus in a more positive, joyful, and meaningful direction. With an empowered, strong sense of self, they will care less about what the world tells them they need to be and grow more confident to become who they want to be.

Young or old, male or female, we all yearn to have an empowered and strong sense of self. In coming blogs, I’ll try to share inspiration for all of us to “Grow Ourselves Beautiful” in ways that make us feel good, strong, joyful and Beautiful!