Here’s a book every pre-teen and teenage girl should own: Nancy Redd‘s Body Drama, just out this month from Gotham Books. I was lucky enough to see the author (and some of the young women in the book) read and talk candidly about the project at Bluestockings this week, and as soon as I heard Nancy explain why she decided to create this book, I knew I had to write about it as soon as I could. It’s not just another hair/skin/makeup or sex-ed manual for girls. She covers all of that, but Body Drama does even more, showing young teens what it means to be a normal girl — not airbrushed or photoshopped, not unrealistically beautiful or thin.

Every girl in fifth grade sex ed class is taught about the facts of life and then some: how to put a condom on, why the pullout method doesn’t work, and what all the STDs look like — in full color, too. But a big part of that lesson gets left out: the importance of understanding your body and loving it no matter what. Body Drama steps in to fill that gap, teaching readers about every day issues like dandruff, “poo problems,” and stinky feet and addressing body image as a whole, showing unedited images of young women, fully nude and happy with themselves — stretch marks, zits and all — and including straight-up pictures of vaginas and breasts in every color, shape, and size.

     That’s a brave step for a book aimed at pre-teens, and a much needed one. When images of young women’s bodies (and men’s, too, for that matter) are most often seen in porn or advertising — two viciously unrealistic worlds — it’s important for someone to come along with a reality check: we are not all air-brushed, pubic-hair-less, perfect dolls, and nor should we try to be. Its core teaching is essentially Buddhist: lovingkindness and equanimity for the teenage heart.

A lot of the pages here read like they came from Seventeen magazine (clearing up acne, shaving your legs), and much of it is very basic medical advice (spotting skin cancer, calculating BMI), but that’s part of its strength: every aspect of body drama is covered, with the intention of teaching readers to “know your body, own your body, love your body.”

     I wish someone had been around to teach me these things when I was sitting in my first sex ed class! I’m going to give my copy of this book to the next teenager (or maybe school library) I meet.

My one gripe: in the chapter on depression, a little introduction to meditation or relaxation techniques would have been nice . . . but no one (or book) is perfect, after all!