What Advice Would You Give Your Teenage Self?

By Jason Boog 

If you could send a message to your teenage self, what would you write? The Dear Teen Me anthology collects letters from more than 70 young adult authors to their teenage selves.

You can read a whole collection of letters on the Dear Teen Me site. Here’s a letter from Laura Roecker, co-author of TheLiars Society, to her teenage self:

You’re pretty quiet. You prefer to observe and take it all in and sometimes feel like you don’t have much to add to a conversation. People will often ask you, “What’s wrong?” and you can say, “Nothing!” and actually mean it, but they’ll never believe you. You’ll slip away at parties just to breathe and sometimes feel like you don’t quite fit in, even after you’re married. But you’ll put your observations to good use one day. You’ll write about the people you watch and find friends who make you feel comfortable, who’ll never believe you’re the shy one. And then you’ll have kids who are really loud and a husband who can’t survive without socializing and you’ll learn.