My Feet Aren't Ugly

My Feet Aren't Ugly
Debra Beck
Beaufort Books
ISBN: 082530542x
Non-Fiction, Young Adult, Teen
Reviewed by John R. Clark

The common sense aspects of growing up haven't changed much since I was a teenager, despite all the new challenges facing young people today. In that case, how do you get the important messages about self-esteem and self-caring across in ways that work?
In My Feet Aren't Ugly, author Debra Beck does two things to accomplish this goal and does each of them well. First, she breaks each aspect of self-image into a short and succinct chapter and then uses a mix of personal experiences and observations about her own daughters and their friends as they dealt with specific challenges to personalize the process. These two are supplemented by nice illustrations as well as lists and charts for readers to use when taking control of specific life challenges.
Challenges like depression, pregnancy and substance abuse aren't any different than they were twenty years ago. However, giving teens specific tasks like writing out a situation in their life where they tried to be honest with a friend and providing tools to look at how the process worked or didn't is a nice way to empower them. There are similar work pages for taking a look at one's own fears and how healthy risk-taking can be practiced to diminish fear and embarrassment.
This will be a good book for young women who might need a bit of reassurance that they are ok or on the road to ok. It will also be a good workbook for small groups in classroom or organizational settings.