Do you have teenage children? If the answer is yes, you definitely need to read on!
I’ve been exploring Be Happy Be You, a new happiness boosting book aimed specifically at teens. It’s such a great resource for supporting and encouraging happy teenagers.
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Be Happy Be You is a positive and insightful guide for teenagers which aims to give them the tools they need to build confidence, eliminate negative feelings and boost happiness in all areas of life. It’s written by Becky Goddard-Hill, a former social worker and child development trainer, and Penny Alexander, a former teacher and education consultant. These two are also mums of teens, so they really know their stuff!
Becky and Penny have also written a happiness boosting book aimed at 7-11 year olds called Create Your Own Happy. You can find out more about it here.
Supporting teenage wellbeing
Be Happy Be You is very much a practical, hands-on resource for teenagers. It contains 40 activities, all designed to help teens strengthen and support their emotional wellbeing, looking at themselves, their relationships and the world.
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You don’t have to do the activities in order, and you don’t have to do all of them. Teens can dip in and out, focusing on what appeals to them, or on particular issues they’re struggling with. They’ll definitely need a notebook and pen, as the book encourages them to write, draw and mind-map their ideas throughout.
The book is written in a lovely relaxed style, with plenty of fun graphics and colour to keep things interesting.
I really love the way that each activity is underpinned by science, and takes the time to explain that science so that teens can understand exactly why the activity works.
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Our experience of Be Happy Be You
My eldest is just about to become a teenager, and we’ve been exploring the book together. He really likes the fact that he can pick and choose the activities, and as he’s not a huge fan of endless writing, drawing and mapping his thoughts and ideas really works for him.
From a parent’s point of view, the book covers so many important aspects of growing up and shaping mental wellbeing and happiness. Creativity, motivation, health, body image, emotions, relationships, loss, peer pressure and global issues are all explored with a practical, accessible tone and a positive outlook. I think the activities are also great little prompts to help parents be more positive and focus on their own emotional wellbeing – I know they’ve certainly got me thinking about ways I can improve!
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I also think this book has helped me to connect with my eldest. The ability to focus on a written prompt seems to have made it easier for him to share his thoughts and opinions, and we’ve spent some really lovely time together just chatting about interests, worries and ambitions. It’s the book equivalent of being able to chat more easily when you’re side-by-side doing something like the washing up – if you know what I mean by that!
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The big Be Happy Be You book tour!
I’m delighted to be taking part in the Be Happy Be You virtual book tour. Myself and lots of other lovely bloggers have been writing about how they’ve been using the book to encourage and support happy teenagers. The tour dates are in the little graphic above and you can check out their sites via the links below.
Be Happy Be You is available to buy now from bookshops, or you can order it from Amazon here. It’s a great little resource to help support teens through those tricky years and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Do you know a teenager who would be the perfect recipient?
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