Big Summer

by Jennifer Weiner

I’m not brave all the time. No one is. We’ve all been disappointed; we’ve all had our hearts broken, and we’re all just doing our best. Make sure you have people who love you, the real you, not the Instagram you. If you can’t be brave, pretend to be brave, and if you can’t do that yet, know that you aren’t alone. Everyone you see is struggling. Nobody has it all figured out.

There are parts of my novels that are completely invented, and then there are parts that are ripped directly from my life, and this is one. As the mother of daughters, I think a lot about what to tell my girls about how to handle themselves online. As a mother, I think about what I want to show my daughters; as a public (ish) figure, I think about my responsibilities to the young woman and girls who are going to see what I have to say. These are the words I try to live by: if you can’t be brave, pretend to be brave, and if you can’t do that yet, know that you aren’t alone.