Your Daughter Needs a Hero: Helping Her Handle Insecurity and Poor Body Image

About Your Daughter Needs a Hero

What drives teenage girls?  What tempts them?  What causes their insecurities?  More importantly, what can parents do to make a difference in their lives?  Author Maria Furlough battled self-image and self-esteem issues as a teenager, and in Your Daughter Needs a Hero she uses a mix of personal stories and years of experience counseling teenage girls in youth ministry to show parents what their teenage daughters are going through and how best to help them.

Furlough explains how things such as fad diets, the media, and pornography influence a teen girl’s body image, and she guides parents on how to counteract the constant pressures and influences that effect teen girls every day.  This book will show parents how to effectively build their daughter’s self-esteem, self-image, and, most importantly, their faith in God and in their parents.  If you have a daughter, Your Daughter Needs a Hero is a must read! 

Amazon Link

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Daughter-Needs-Maria-Furlough/dp/161346794X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337713333&sr=8-1

7 Reasons Why YOU Should Read Your Daughter Needs a Hero

1.      The Young Women in your life will thank you.

Whether you are a Father, Mother, Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother or Grandfather the young women that God has placed in your life look to YOU for indicators on how they should look at themselves.  It might be hard to believe, but they are intently watching you and listening to you.  I remember my Mom saying, “I didn’t think you cared about anything I said or did…never mind learn from me!”  Little did she know that her little girl was modeling her self image after what she saw in the adults around her.Your Daughter Needs a Hero is your chance to be conscience of the standard you are setting.

2.       We all need reminders of the true definition of beauty.

We have all probably said this at one point, “True beauty lies within.”  This saying rolls off of our tongues, but do we really take its sentiment to heart?  I know I didn’t.  Not until I actually took a step back did I realize that when I thought of the word “beauty” I pictured physical “perfection.”  We are all wildly off base and there is an entire generation of beautiful young women that do not see themselves as such because they cannot see past the tangible false definitions that surround them.

3.      Parents have no idea the toll insecurity takes.

Unfortunately for my parents, I had to write a book to finally explain to them all that I was going through in my teenage years.  Fortunately, for the families who read Your Daughter Needs a Hero, I set out to be that voice of explanation so your daughter doesn’t need to.  The mind of a women is complicated.  The mind of a teenage women even more so.  So many of their decisions, thoughts, motives, and behaviors are rooted in the fact that they are very insecure about themselves and how they look.  When I was young I did anything to get a “quick fix” of feeling decent about myself…if even for a moment.  My parents could have helped, but they didn’t know.  I wouldn’t have dreamt of telling them and I was an excellent hider.  My prayer is that parent’s eyes will be opened just enough to make all the difference.

4.      My parents got a voice too.

As I was writing, I imagined that people would wonder what my parents thought about everything I was saying.  So I gave each of them their own chapters to say whatever they would like!  Parents are not only able to hear their daughter’s perspective, but they are able to learn through the eyes of parents who, if given the chance, would have done a few things a little different.  As my Dad wrote, “Don’t wait to make changes until your daughter grows up to write a book about you.”  Truth is, my parents were excellent parents, with every great intention.  They just didn’t know what they didn’t know.

5.      There is HOPE for a different future.

I truly believe, that if we all got on board together, then there is real hope for our daughters.  My deepest prayer is that my daughter would not even know what the word insecurity means.  That she would grow up never even feeling that she should look any other way than the way her body was made to look.  That together we redefine how the world defines beauty.

6.      The book is WAY not boring.

I don’t like to circumnavigate the real issues at hand.  We will talk about everything from pornography, to Paris Hilton, to Daisy Dukes, to dancing.  It ALL intermingles into the minds of young women and we ALL need to start talking more about it.

7.      It is a short, easy read.

None of us have much time on our hands, right?  I know I don’t.  When I am reading books to help wade through life’s many tumultuous waters I like it to be short, sweet, and straight to the point.  Your Daughter Needs a Hero, wastes no time.  Through every key stroke I prayed that it would cut right to the heart of the matter with no fluff or fancy!

Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you!  May you be blessed each step of the way!

About Maria Furlough:

Eighteen years ago, an eleven year old girl looked in mirror and for the first time in her innocent life…she realized she hated what she saw.  That girl was Maria Furlough.  It continued to be her until in her early twenties she realized two things: God had a bigger plan for her than constantly feeling less than beautiful and part of that plan was for her to help other girls not struggle with insecurity and poor body image the way she did.

As God slowly picked her up out of the pit she was in, she began to look around and see many factors that contributed to her poor body image.  As a youth leader she watched, studied, and prayed for the young girls God put into her life.  Maria struggled with them as they constantly asked about the caloric content of cookies or begged her not to take pictures of them.  It made Maria so sad to see the deep pain they experienced.  Then one day, after an interaction with parents, it hit her like a ton of bricks “they don’t know!”  Their parents, her parents…they didn’t and don’t realize the depths that insecurity reaches in their daughters.  It was time for action.

After the birth of Maria’s first child, Faith, she sat down at her computer to write.  She wrote and wrote and wrote.  She actually wrote all the way through the birth of her second child David.  What she wrote is simple: “Parents! You need to know…”

Today Maria and her family live in North Carolina and excitedly begin this journey as an author and speaker.  Maria’s journey is something she knows God has called her to and looks forward to all that the future has in store!  May this book, her website, her life bless you as Maria partners with your family to help our girls into a life of true worth!

Maria’s website www.trueworthministries.org is a great resource for parents and young girls and she is also available for speaking engagements.  Feel free to contact her at any time at maria@trueworthministries.org for more information on booking events, signings, prayer needs, or simply to share your story.