LAUREN MUSCAT takes a look at a guide to love for teenage girls…
Dannielle Miller and Nina Funnell
Loveability: An Empowered Girl’s Guide to Dating and Relationships
HarperCollins, Sydney South, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1743098356
“Featuring helpful, practical and warm advice (paired with a fantastic sense of humour), Loveability is the new must own book for any teenage girl.”
With Valentine’s Day looming in a haze of pink hearts and Hallmark moments, I began to read Dannielle Miller and Nina Funnell’s Loveability with a certain amount of trepidation. Would this book be for me, your average singleton? Too often, we teenagers without a better half are dismissed when it comes to discussing the dating game, so as I read on, it was refreshing to have a book about relationships that recognises the viewpoints and opinions of all. It was a good start that only got much better.
Loveability is like the best friend that we all wish we had; funny, relatable, warm, and with killer advice when you need it as well. Helping you to navigate the minefield that is dating paired with adolescence, I can truly report that I feel better for having read this book. Real life testimonials, Q&A’s and various quizzes keep things interesting and interactive and encourage important discussion about all things relationship. Featuring helpful, practical and warm advice (paired with a fantastic sense of humour), Loveability is the new must own book for any teenage girl.
Reading self-help books can often be a treacherous path, with inexperienced writers passing off unfounded advice left right and centre, so having informed women who know what they’re talking about is a huge plus. Dannielle is the founder and CEO of Sydney-based company Enlighten Education, a company dedicated to working with young girls to combat the issues of adolescence, while Nina is a cultural commentator who has written widely about issues pertaining to gender and social issues. Both authors use their expertise to fantastic effect, while maintaining a sense of conversation and discussion, rather than bombardment!
Regardless of relationship status, Loveability is well worth a read, finally debunking the proliferating stereotypes of teenage relationships that we are presented with on a daily basis. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Social commentator Jane Caro recognises that Loveability is “Possibly the first book in the world to treat teenage girls as the responsible, intelligent human beings they (mostly) are.”
Relationships are a shaping factor of anyone’s life, so having a guide such as Loveability comes as a blessing. My only regret about this book is that I didn’t have it sooner. If you are a teenage girl, if you know one, if you’re related to one, or even if you just want a little insight into the realm of girl world and teen relationships, look no further. This book is gold.
Lauren Muscat administers the Instagram account for Enlighten Education.
