Having just recently finished both Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s memoirs, I came away with the same thought. These women are hilarious and they have awesome advice for young girls. But there is no way my daughter will be allowed to listen to either of these books! (What with the f-bombs, the drug and sex references and, well, just about everything else).
And that is a real shame.
For I have to assume that the audience for these books (adults) is too set in their ways to actually take the excellent if unsolicited advice. And their advice is so good, so sensible and so wise that I want my daughter (and my son) to have it instilled in them from an early age. Obviously I could instill it in them myself, but we all know (and they too will soon learn) that kids don’t listen to their parents–they need celebrity advice.
And rather than getting it from magazines (the place where all self-respect goes to die) or TV, they should be getting it from successful women who actually like other women and want them to succeed.
True, my kids may not know who Tina and Amy are (they haven’t seen their shows), but they may have sen them on the cover of a magazine somewhere (Photoshopped to look almost plastic) and if the advice comes in a book form (maybe with some pictures?), I know they’ll enjoy it.
Amy said that writing her book was very hard, and I get the impression she’d never want to do it again. Not sure if Tina feels the same way. But at this point, they wouldn’t even have to do all that much work. They could easily edit up and clean up their books and make them super teen friendly. Keep the embarrassing pictures, keep the unsolicited advice, and most of all keep the “don’t fuck with me” attitude, without saying, you know, fuck.
I’m not going to list all of the things that I think young girls could take from your books–you’ve read my posts about your books (you HAVE read my posts right?) and if you haven’t, I’m sure you’ve read your own books, so you know what would work.
Obviously, you ‘d have to make it funny and light-hearted–no one wants a lecture, but that’s just what your books do already. And I know that you don’t normally write for a younger audience, but I’m sure you know someone (an intern perhaps) who can tell you which hip and cool phrases to throw into it to make it current.
All kidding aside. Your books were inspirational (“Good for you, not for me” might make a great title). They even inspired me to tried to give less of a shit about what people think of me. With your thoughts on appearance, on being strong and independent and most of all, on being compassionate, I’d love for the next generation for girls (and boys) to have that at their foundation (instead of obsessing over looks and knocking others down to get ahead and, of course, getting paid less).
So why not? Even if your kids won’t thank you for it, everyone else’s kids will.
Thank you,
Paul Debraski.
P.S. It’s my birthday today, so you have to do it.
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