My Feet Aren’t Ugly: A Girl’s Guide to Loving Herself from the Inside Out

Debra Beck
Beaufort Books (2007)
ISBN 9780825305429
Reviewed by Nicole LeBoeuf (age 16) for Reader Views (6/07)

Debra Beck’s “My Feet Aren’t Ugly: A Girl’s Guide to Loving Herself from the Inside Out” is an endearing, inspirational handbook for girls in their early teens. Beck has devoted her life to the coaching of teenage girls. She has been a mentor for fifteen years, beginning when her two girls reached their teens. Beck even founded her own company, Spirited Youth, whose mission “is to help young girls have a better sense of who they are and make better decisions in all areas of life by learning how to love themselves and becoming empowered with self-esteem.” Through her company, Beck coaches individual girls and commits her time to workshops, girl’s circles, and even all-day outings. Her novel is Beck’s way of reaching out to the teens outside of where she lives and works in Sedona, Arizona.

“My Feet Aren’t Ugly: A Girl’s Guide to Loving Herself from the Inside Out” briefly covers many personal areas of a young teenager’s life. Beck’s goal is to get teens to make wise choices and accept who they are. She focuses on self esteem and how important making the right decisions is. There are lessons on intuition, what it is, why it’s important, and how to follow it; and advice in many areas, like sex and suicide. Every other page is flourished with an adorable illustration. After each brief lesson, there are places for you to journal and reflect on what you’ve learned. This is Beck’s way of getting the teen to actively participate and really think about what she is teaching. She wants to make you think about who you really are, and how you can be a better person. She relates to the reader by using her personal experiences from when she was at that age as well as the experiences of those she has mentored.

Writing a book that attempts to coach and direct someone is a difficult feat to accomplish. There are so many ways to slip up.  The biggest problem is not knowing how to appeal to the intended audience. “My Feet Aren’t Ugly: A Girl’s Guide to Loving Herself from the Inside Out” is geared toward young teenage girls, but it will be their mothers that are most charmed by this book. I am 16-years-old myself, and reading this I felt as though there was not enough information, and it didn’t completely apply to me. It seemed to me that Beck should be aiming for a younger audience, but some of the information included could be considered inappropriate for them.

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