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Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice: A Teen Girl's Guide to Unlearning the Rules
Being a teen girl can be confusing and frustrating—luckily Meredith Walker created this guide to show how to dig deep, find what's important to you, and use that authenticity to make the world a better place. Featuring a foreword from Amy Poehler!
Teen girls learn rules all the time, even if many of them go unsaid. Be yourself! But don’t be weird! Hustle hard—your future depends on it! You’re only young once—enjoy it! But no one talks about the life skill they need to navigate all those how to think for themselves. As the co-founder of Smart Girls, Meredith Walker has spent years making ideas feel real, relevant, and approachable to young people. Now she’s written a whole guide devoted to helping teen girls discover who they are, feel their feelings, develop their confidence—and figure out what to do next. Compact, insightful, and full of warm wisdom, Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice is the perfect book for any reader letting go of the old rules to create a life that’s truly their own.
Teen girls learn rules all the time, even if many of them go unsaid. Be yourself! But don’t be weird! Hustle hard—your future depends on it! You’re only young once—enjoy it! But no one talks about the life skill they need to navigate all those how to think for themselves. As the co-founder of Smart Girls, Meredith Walker has spent years making ideas feel real, relevant, and approachable to young people. Now she’s written a whole guide devoted to helping teen girls discover who they are, feel their feelings, develop their confidence—and figure out what to do next. Compact, insightful, and full of warm wisdom, Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice is the perfect book for any reader letting go of the old rules to create a life that’s truly their own.
- GenresNonfictionSelf Help
176 pages, Paperback
Published May 12, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 2, 2026
As a 26-year-old working to heal my inner child, this book is exactly what I needed. I deeply wish I’d had this in high school—if I had read something this insightful back then, I would’ve been much nicer to myself over the years! The prompts Walker provides throughout the book challenge you to ask, “Who am I?” In a society that constantly tells us who to be, this book is a powerful reminder that being yourself is the ultimate key to happiness. I’ll definitely be revisiting these prompts in my regular journal practice. It might be aimed at teen girls, but it truly has something for everyone.
July 1, 2026
In my work with Girls' Life magazine, it's one of our core missions to help provide guidance for young girls and women, and I see Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice as an important and much needed book.
Through Girls' Life, I've watched generations of girls wrestle with many of the same questions about identity, belonging, and figuring out exactly who they are. Being told to "just be yourself" isn't always that simple.
Getting a bit personal here, one reasons I chose to write for children was the idea that if I could help just one child know that there is life beyond high school, then everything I went through would have been worth it.
I have four adult children, ages 30, 27, 26, and 22. As of last year, all four of my children have been close friends with someone who committed suicide. This statistic should be staggering, in just my inner circle.
Myself and my daughters suffer with depression, anxiety, and we have all been in life-saving therapy as a result. My youngest actually voluntarily committed herself to impatient, at age 14. My oldest son recently went through an inpatient stay. We are now in family therapy, and we are still in a process of healing.
Because of our therapy, I recognize the use of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) effectively used throughout this book. DBT help with emotional regulation, and at its core helps name the emotions being experience, giving children the words to help express strong feelings they may not have been able to do.
DBT balances two opposite ideas: acceptance (accepting yourself as you are) and change (working to improve your life).
These concepts are not in any way hammered in, but rather skills are shared to help name the feelings, and includes so much honesty, practical advice, ways to practice self care. Suggestions on ways to figure out who you are in a social media driven world that tells young girls how they "should" be. All are important life schools not taught in school.
Meredith Walker takes that familiar advice and digs deeper, offering honest, funny, and encouraging guidance for teens discovering who they're becoming. Journal prompts throughout invite girls to think on what brings them joy? What hobbies sound interesting? Discovering special talents, and so much more.
Through Girls' Life, I've watched generations of girls wrestle with many of the same questions about identity, belonging, and figuring out exactly who they are. Being told to "just be yourself" isn't always that simple.
Getting a bit personal here, one reasons I chose to write for children was the idea that if I could help just one child know that there is life beyond high school, then everything I went through would have been worth it.
I have four adult children, ages 30, 27, 26, and 22. As of last year, all four of my children have been close friends with someone who committed suicide. This statistic should be staggering, in just my inner circle.
Myself and my daughters suffer with depression, anxiety, and we have all been in life-saving therapy as a result. My youngest actually voluntarily committed herself to impatient, at age 14. My oldest son recently went through an inpatient stay. We are now in family therapy, and we are still in a process of healing.
Because of our therapy, I recognize the use of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) effectively used throughout this book. DBT help with emotional regulation, and at its core helps name the emotions being experience, giving children the words to help express strong feelings they may not have been able to do.
DBT balances two opposite ideas: acceptance (accepting yourself as you are) and change (working to improve your life).
These concepts are not in any way hammered in, but rather skills are shared to help name the feelings, and includes so much honesty, practical advice, ways to practice self care. Suggestions on ways to figure out who you are in a social media driven world that tells young girls how they "should" be. All are important life schools not taught in school.
Meredith Walker takes that familiar advice and digs deeper, offering honest, funny, and encouraging guidance for teens discovering who they're becoming. Journal prompts throughout invite girls to think on what brings them joy? What hobbies sound interesting? Discovering special talents, and so much more.
August 20, 2026
The title says for teen girls, but I would argue that this book is a yearly must-read for kids AND adults. As in everyone. The yearly part? People change. Maybe not drastically, but we should always be changing and growing, and this book is about getting to know yourself again and again. She doesn't just tell you to be self-aware. She tells you HOW to be self-aware. The questions you should ask yourself. The way you figure out what is important to you. And she does it with personal stories and funny asides and interesting facts. Extremely well done.
June 27, 2026
I would recommend this book to teenage girls and young lady to read.
July 22, 2026
Unfortunately I feel deeply in my heart that this was written by AI.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews