Title: How to Get Your Grown Woman On
Author: Dr. Crystal Morris-Newsom
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1456881078
Genre: Self-help
Pages: 102
Reviewed by: Susan Milam
Hollywood Book Review
Adolescence has never been easy. Modern teens face perhaps even greater pressures than the young women and men of previous generations due to the stresses placed on them twenty-four/seven by social media. Dr. Crystal Morris-Newsom, author of How to Get Your Grown Woman On, wants to help young women negotiate the minefield of adolescence and come out on the other side with their health and self-esteem intact.
Teenage girls come up against enormous pressure to look a certain way and to act a certain way. Many times, their identities become wrapped up in behaviors that are forced on them by their female friends and by the boys whose attentions they hope to attract. For decades, young women received many of their ideas about growing up from magazines, TV and movies. These days, teenage girls get many of their notions about adulthood from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media. The images posted on these sites show young women and young men living carefree lives, dressed in expensive clothes and sometimes engaging in questionable behavior. Many teenage girls accept these pictures as reality when a lot of times they couldn’t be further from the truth. In addition, young women find themselves under more and more pressure to become sexually active at younger and younger ages.
Dr. Morris-Newsom speaks to her young female readers without condescension and without judgment. The goal of her book is to give young women the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. Early on in the book, Dr. Morris-Newsom offers some practical advice about hygiene. While this information is useful, the doctor hits her stride when talking about issues that deal with self-esteem and the topics that have beleaguered teenage women throughout the decades: boys, gossip and sexual activity. The discussion of these matters leads Dr. Morris-Newsom into heavier subjects: drugs, alcohol and suicide.
Although the tone is in many ways God-centered, Dr. Morris-Newsom never proselytizes to her readers, or condemns them for the decisions they may make, or perhaps, have already made. Still, she counsels young women to consider their bodies as temples that should be treated with respect. Young women wouldn’t allow their material possessions to be handed around amongst a lot of folks, and their bodies are much more valuable than any material possession. Dr. Morris-Newsom speaks from the heart and from personal experience when discussing depression and feelings of worthlessness. She wants teenage girls to know that the young women they see on social media are not perfect, nor are their lives perfect, and the same is true of adult women. Girls facing problems should talk with women they respect; hopefully, that woman will be the girl’s mother. If that isn’t possible, then young women should seek out the advice of a teacher or a woman in her church. In addition, Dr. Morris-Newsom suggests reaching out to the Lord in prayer for strength and guidance.
How to Get Your Grown Woman On contains straightforward advice for teenagers confronted by decisions that have been around forever but are made more difficult by the omnipresence of social media. Dr. Morris-Newsom understands how easy it is for girls to lose themselves to the effects of peer pressure. The information she offers gives readers a common-sense grounding that will help them maintain their footing as they travel the road from teenager to being a grown woman.