Self Image

Nigerian hall parties. Black girl gangs. Being at one with nature. Creating a home. Finding love. Belonging to a fandom. Joy can be found in many places. Bringing together the most exciting Black British voices today, Black Joy is an extraordinary anthology that celebrates everything that is brilliant and beautiful about being Black British.

Una delle insidie più pericolose e sottovalutate della nostra epoca, in cui le nuove tecnologie digitali funzionano come un rallentatore cognitivo ed emotivo che rende tutto apparentemente fattibile e fruibile senza sforzo, è il progressivo deperimento - se non addirittura l'estinguersi - della passione, quella sfida lanciata al mondo e a se stessi per continuare a migliorarsi, a sperare, a sognare.

In Diva, the companion to Alex Flinn's YA novel Breathing Under Water, Caitlin is dealing with a lot. She's living through the aftermath of an abusive relationship, she has a youth-obsessed mother who just doesn't understand her, and she's on a constant yo-yo diet to live up the standards of her nitpicking friends. All Caitlin wants is to escape her not-so-glamorous life and pursue her dream of becoming a singer, but when she's accepted into the Miami High School of the Arts, her life doesn't magically become perfect.

Discover how you can navigate the challenges of growing up with grace and confidence, and thrive as a responsible and well-rounded teenager! A recent survey conducted on over 2,000 American college graduates found that 81% of respondents said they wished they were taught more life skills before graduating college. Unfortunately, not everyone gets the guidance they need before they venture out into the real world on their own. Luckily, you have this all-in-one guide filled with practical information and big sister advice from someone who’s been in your shoes not too long ago!

Faith Herbert is a pretty regular teen. When she’s not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, she’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove. So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. Of course, there’s also that small matter of recently discovering she can fly....

Planning is Zoe Rosenthal’s superpower. She has faith in a properly organized to-do list and avoids unnecessary risks. Her mental checklist goes something like this: 1) Meet soulmate: DONE! 2) Make commitment: DONE! 3) Marriage: TO COME! (after college). She isn’t sure which college yet, but it will have a strong political science department, since her perfect boyfriend, Simon, plans to “save the country,” as his sister puts it, “and the planet and everything.” Zoe will follow along, the perfect serious, supportive girlfriend - once her flirtation with fandom is over.

At first, when a massive ice storm traps 14-year-old Hannah and her family in a remote cabin, it feels like a game to practice the survival skills she's been learning. That all changes when an accident leaves her mother desperately low on insulin. With no power and no way to contact the outside world, Hannah steals away with the four family dogs tied to an old dogsled. All she has to do is make it to the nearest cabin and find a working phone to save the day. But a wrong turn and worsening weather leave her in grave danger and saddled with an unexpected passenger.

Faith Herbert can finally admit that she’s not a regular teen — and take advantage of her new flying superpowers. After the chaos of her first semester, Faith just wants to end her senior year in a normal way — enjoying all the hallmarks of graduating high school, like prom, with her best friends Matt and Ches.

96 takes you on a breathtaking journey through Larry M. Brooks' early adolescence years hustling in the back woods of Liberty, Texas, to his adventures of adapting to middle class life as a military brat in Hinesville, Georgia. In this audiobook, Brooks puts on display his unique ability to turn real life experiences into parables that drive home his no-nonsense philosophical view points.

Sixteen-year-old Rei Murata appears to have everything: good looks, brains, artistic skill, and admiring friends. But Rei is a survivor—of loss, neglect, and of self-isolation. Locked away from a world where she felt unwanted, Rei was one of the millions known as the hikikomori. A chance meeting leads Rei to discover the online world of the Dwellers. Astonished to find her former classmate Sho among their number, Rei is determined to rescue him. Rei learns she must come to terms with her past before she can face her future.

Harley Milano has dreamed of becoming a trapeze artist for as long as she can remember. With parents who run a famous circus in Las Vegas, she spends almost every night in the big top watching their lead aerialist perform, wishing with all her heart and soul that she would be up there herself one day. After a huge fight with her parents, who continue to insist she go to school instead, Harley leaves home, betrays her family, and joins the rival traveling circus Maison du Mystère.

Gravity "Doomsday" Delgado is good at breaking things. Maybe she learned it from her broken home. But since she started boxing with a legendary coach at a gym in Brooklyn, Gravity is finding her talent for breaking things has an upside. Lately, she's been breaking records, breaking her competitors, and breaking down the walls inside her. Boxing is taking her places, and if she just stays focused, she knows she'll have a shot at the Olympics. Life outside the ring is heating up, too. Suddenly, she's flirting (and more) with a cute boxer at her gym - much to her coach's disapproval.

Sixteen-year-old Bluebelle, also known as BB or Big Bones, lives her life unapologetically. She loves life! She loves food! When BB has a worse-than-usual asthma attack, her mom insists she go to the doctor. There, she is told that she is overweight (no surprise) and prediabetic (big surprise) and must lose weight, move more, and keep a food diary. To get out of this immediate health crisis, she agrees to make an effort. Then a tragedy occurs in the family, and things get seriously complicated. Suddenly, losing weight and moving more are the least of her worries.

Golden “Go” Jennings wasn’t supposed to be on Bus 21 the day it blew up in New York City. Neither was her boyfriend, Chandler. But they were. And so was Rudy, a cute stranger Go shared a connection with the night before. And Caroline, a girl whose silence ended up costing 19 people their lives. Though it’s been a year since the bombing, Go isn’t any closer to getting over what happened. With Chan completely closed off to even talking about it, Go makes an impulsive decision: round up the rest of the survivors and head to New York City.

Morgan was born with a hole in her middle: a perfectly smooth, sealed, fist-sized chunk of nothing near her belly button. At 16, she's tired of keeping her physical abnormality a secret. One night, after a lifetime of hiding behind lumpy sweaters and a smart mouth, she decides to bare all. At first, she feels liberated. But the fallout is more than she bargained for. A few photos snowball into a media frenzy, and suddenly she is desperate to get back to her own strange version of normal.

Artist Piper Perish has moved from her hometown of Houston, Texas, to New York City. Her days are spent exploring; her nights are filled with painting. It's her lifelong dream come true.... Except life in the city isn't as glamorous as it looks from afar. Piper's high-pressure work as an assistant to a famous modern artist takes away time from her own art. And Piper's new friend Grace, a budding activist, has Piper beginning to wonder if making great art is really enough.

Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy - aka Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.

Eighteen-year-old Cassandra Gupta's entire life has been leading up to this - the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat.

Open: A Toolkit for How Magic and Messed Up Life Can Be is full of honest advice about the big, bad and beautiful things that growing up is all about: from mental health to families to first love, and everything in between. Gemma Cairney is an important advocate for young people due to both her life experiences and her personal insight from her time as Radio 1's resident agony aunt on The Surgery.

When Thisbe Locke is last seen standing on the edge of the Coronado Bridge, it looks like there is only one thing to call it. But her sister Ted is not convinced. Despite the witnesses and the police reports and the divers, and the fact that she was heartbroken about the way things ended with Clay and how she humiliated herself at that party, Thisbe isn't the type of person to end up just an "incident". While everyone in town prepares to mourn the loss (some more than others), Ted and Fen, the new kid in town, set out to put the pieces together and find her sister.