I’m so excited about the upcoming Fall release of my new book The 4-1-1 on Surviving Teenhood. It is a book to help both parents and teens to navigate the obstacles presented during the teen years. Here is an excerpt:

Turn on the news or pick up the newspaper and most likely the stories you read will include bullying, sexting, car accidents, burglaries, and/or other types of acts being committed by teenagers. The pressure on our teenagers is too much for many of them to handle. When you consider the teen years are a period of intense physical and intellectual growth, it is understandable that it is a time of confusion and upheaval for both teens and parents.

It saddens me to read about a teenager struggling to fit in who decides it isn’t worth sticking around to try anything else and then commits suicide. I want to be able to send this message to our youth: “Everybody’s different, and it’s OK.” Some teens develop early, some late, and other teens are slow-but-steady. In other words, there is a wide range of what is considered normal.

The primary goal of the teen years is to achieve independence. For this to occur, teens will start pulling away from their parents. They will pull away from the parent they are closest to first. Teens are between the sweet innocence of childhood and the responsible maturity of adulthood. Although capable of making decisions, a number of teens are not ready for the adjustment.

More to come! Stay tuned!