image credit: Ask-Elizabeth.com
I’ll bet you didn’t know that for the past FOUR years, Elizabeth Berkley (from Saved by the Bell fame) has been volunteering her time in workshops for girls all over the country. She has created “Ask Elizabeth” workshops that are big-sister style discussions to help girls ask questions and confide in each other all those things that young girls need guidance with. She created an “Ask Elizabeth” website and now a book!
I had the opportunity to read Ask Elizabeth and found it to be incredibly well-written in a voice that young girls can relate to. The pages are just beautiful, each one having the look of the scrapbooks and idea boards we all keep, with handwritten notes all throughout.
Ask Elizabeth is a book full of all the questions and topics most talked about at her workshops. There are chapters on everything from loving yourself, to best friends and bullying, to figuring out who you are inside. Ms. Berkley offers up personal life stories that show young girls they are not alone in whatever it is they are feeling. She is so real and relatable and has a great way of tackling those difficult questions. In a world where social media has brought a whirlwind of bullying and perpetuating low self-esteem, young girls need positive role models more than ever. They need guidance and they need to learn respectable ways to “get that guy to notice you”. This book provides all of these things and more.
As a woman, I can still relate to the chapter on the signs of a healthy relationship. All of the guidelines still apply! My point is, these are life lessons that are great to learn at a young age. Young girls need them now more than ever. Ask Elizabeth is full of real stories from real girls that she has met through the workshops. These stories continue the bonding and showing girls they are not alone. The chapter on how to get through a heartbreak is a favorite of mine. Who doesn’t remember how that felt at 14? Undeniably difficult and I’ll bet you felt like noone understood and you thought you’d never get over it. I feel this book could be such a gift to young girls. So many life issues are addressed, it will become a handbook for advice and comfort.
I was also lucky enough to get some questions answered by Ms. Berkley (via her PR!) and I couldn’t be happier to share them with you!
Q: What is the one question that young girls are asking the most?
My book actually includes 15 of the most asked questions from the over 30,000 girls I’ve worked with in schools across the US. I noticed that no matter where I’ve gone in the country there was a group of questions that got asked everywhere. The theme most girls want to ask about (but are afraid to) though is body image issues and that is why my book starts with that right upfront. I would love to hear from your girls to know any of your inspiring stories too!
Q: What topic creates the most debate in your forums with the girls?
The beauty of the workshops is that the forum I am providing for girls allows them to feel heard and share their own wisdom and advice in the name of helping another girl. We come to a place of knowledge and understanding together. Because the group dialogue is authentic, there are moments of debate but mostly it is about sharing and taking in what works for you and if there’s something that doesn’t resonate, that’s ok—something else will!
Q: What would be one of the BEST moments from your forums?
That is hard to answer—each one is its own magical group. I never impose a certain dynamic upon the girls—they know what they need and I help them get it. Recently I was moved by a group of girls that hugged a girl who was at the mic in front of 1,000 girls in her school, sharing how she had recently lost her grandmother and was having a hard time dealing with her loss. I saw them hugging her and assumed they were her closest friends—nope! They said they had never even seen her in the hallways of that school before in their lives. They just wanted to comfort her and let her know she wasn’t alone. How amazing is that?!
Q: What was one of the most difficult or challenging moments with the girls?
One workshop we had was especially delicate because a girl shared about a group of girls that decided to hate her for no reason—they had started a Facebook page about how much they hated her. One brave girl who had followed the Queen Bee who created the page confessed she followed because she was afraid they would do it to her. From there, all the girls opened up and apologized. It was a group healing and extremely powerful—it was a privilege to witness their courage and newfound empathy. There really are two choices for how to live…You can choose fear or love—these girls chose love :).
Q: What do you hope the future holds for Ask Elizabeth?
From a grass roots mission to this nationwide movement, I am blown away how the magic of the girls keep powering Ask Elizabeth into new levels of expansion. Many college girls I have worked with since they were 13 or 14 now want to be trained as facilitators to pay it forward to younger girls, so that is certainly one possibility. I am also open to lots of the new amazing opportunities this book has opened up. One thing I know is that the new things I am meant to create to continue helping girls will keep revealing themselves and I will just keep listening and taking action. If you had told me 3 years ago that the book would be on the NY Times Bestseller list and that every girl that needs it is getting their hands on it, I would have said that sounded like a dream! I love the collaborative spirit with girls from all over the world—this mission connects us.
You can purchase Ask Elizabeth on Amazon.com.
Book received for review, all opinions are my own.
