How To Talk To Your Tween Girl - And Be Heard

(If you hear music with this post, scroll down and pause the video until you're ready to watch!)

When I think back to being 13, which my mother calls my “door slamming year,” I shake a bit in my pink patent leather go-go boots because I know one day my 5-year-old will be a tween, and paybacks can be sweet, eh?

This past year, I spent five months traveling the country, answering the anonymous questions of teen girls at universities on my book tour for What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend. Afterwards, dozens of them came up to say they wished they could have talked to their mothers about body stuff the way they felt they could talk to me. (Aw, shucks.)

As a mother myself, it reminds me of the importance of making our daughters feel safe to talk to us about anything. If she can’t come to us, who will she go to? Her best friend? An internet chat room? Sheesh!

read more