Natasha Devon and The Self Esteem Team come to Herts and Essex
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Review: The Self-Esteem Team’s Guide To Sex, Drugs & WTFs
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In light of their newly released book, The Self Esteem Team’s guide to Sex, Drugs, and WTFs?!!!, Natasha, Grace and Nadia visited Herts and Essex to provide yet another opinionated, and inspirational talk for students. As they co-authored the book, The Self Esteem Team were able to share their diverse, and intriguing back stories that the book is based upon. Nadia spoke of how during her time working for The Sun, her manager stated that she must change her hair colour to secure a higher ranking position. She didn’t, and by keeping her hair it became a key part of her identity.
Indeed, the book sheds light on topics that ‘parents are too embarrassed to talk about’, so now teens all over the country can find the information in an accessible format. Natasha described it as the ‘book of wisdom’. Altogether, the talk was entertaining, while also managing to cover some more serious topics like: self-harming, racism, and eating disorders. Natasha stated: ‘I was determined we would never loose our us-ness,” which I’m sure has been the particular reason for their success. After the talk, Natasha Devon gave us her 5 Tips for Positivity:
We're definitely looking forward to more great things from Natasha, Grace, and Nadia. |
The Self Esteem Team (AKA Natasha Devon, Nadia Mendoza and Grace Barrett) have created possibly the ultimate guide to surviving teenager-dom: The Self-Esteem Team’s Guide To Sex, Drugs and WTFs. In this book they answer question teenagers have about a wide variety of topics, from sex and drugs (as the title might suggest), but also explore body image, bullies & bad skin to name but a few. Astonishingly - and perhaps uniquely – they achieve this without being patronising, triggering or instructional. Think of it like having three big sisters to offer advice and guidance, only in book form.
For those of you who don’t know, SET travel around the UK giving workshops on Self-Esteem; what motivated them to write this book is the fact they can’t be in every school in the country (although they probably ought to be!) This guide is the resolution to that issue. In each chapter they address a question they are regularly asked by teenagers within their classes. Not only is this ingenious, it also means they avoid being patronising; from the outset their book was motivated by what teenagers were asking and, because they’re not in the business of assuming what teenager’s problems are, they avoid being condescending. The book’s format is fab as it allows each of the authors to address topic with their own advice; between the trio they have experienced eating disorders, self-harm and depression and, whilst they know what they are talking about, they don’t all have the answers to every single question. Having multiple authors not only offers three unique perspectives and sets of advice, but allows each author to play to their strengths and area of expertise. Often the guidance offered by the Tash, Grace and Nadz originates from their own experiences and, as well as offering you the benefit of their experiences, it makes the tone of the book very conversational. Tash writes in a sort of Caitlin Moran-esque, ‘will probably try and deconstruct your world view for the better’ kind of voice; Nadz gives the kind of genuinely useful advice that not even I can argue with, and reading Grace’s writing is like chatting to your kindest, bubbliest friend. The one thing I’m astounded by is how well the authors handle even the most sensitive of topics. Not only do they avoid talking down to their audience, but they avoid being triggering or instructional, probably because they focus upon the ‘whys’ of issues, rather than the ‘hows’; the salient information gleaned isn’t how to practice damaging behaviours, but instead how to deal with the underlying issues. I adore this book; it’s a perfectly-sized self-esteem pick-me-up, one which I will be sliding in the direction of everyone I can think of. I’d definitely recommend it to younger teenagers – trust me, it will save you a lot of time and effort in googling answers to the questions you have. |
Natasha Devon Video Special
On the 27th of March 2015, ex student Natasha Devon came back to Herts and Essex to give an inspiring and thought provoking presentation to students. Emily Day caught up with her afterwards for an exclusive interview