I'm very excited to be featuring a few YA authors on the blog, writing their own Open Letters, through out this month. Not aware of this fab feature? Be sure to check out my introduction post HERE. You can also read my Open Letter To My YA Self post HERE.
Today's Open Letter comes from author Melissa Walker, one of my favorite YA contemporary writers. Her books LOVESTRUCK SUMMER and UNBREAK MY HEART are two YA contemps that I am always recommending to others. She has a gift when it comes to writing inside the mind of a young adult, so it's no wonder I wanted her to be apart of my Open Letter To My YA Self feature. Please welcome Melissa to the blog!
Dear YA Melissa,
I know that it’s exciting to be at the center of a circle, sharing what you’ve heard about this person or that—who likes whom, who got rejected, who just asked who to Prom. Knowing these things, being able to dole out this information, makes you feel powerful. I get it. You think your value is in the information you’ve gathered. You think that if you didn’t have gossip to share, you might not have friends around you at all.
But every time you share someone else’s business—positive or negative—you diminish your own ability to be a good friend. I know you often walk away from a gossip session feeling a little woozy, like maybe you shouldn’t have said all that. (P.S. This still happens—much more rarely—in your 30s, and I’m working on it.) Trust that feeling—it’s your gut telling you that all this gossip is eating away at who you really are, and it’s hurting other people.
The truth is that you have friends who will love you at your best and your worst. They will stand by you (through some pretty ill-advised behavior, gossiping included) because they love you for you. You’re smart, you’re funny and sharp, you’re a good friend, and you have good cheekbones that just haven’t quite emerged yet. There’s no need to prove yourself with gossip.
You are enough.
Love,
Older Melissa
Melissa wrote something similar awhile back for Cosmogirl magazine...
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Be sure to check out my GIVEAWAY below! (just click the image)
Melissa is awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I loved that you focused on friendship, Melissa! I think back to some of the things I did as a teen (and gossiping was definitely a big part of that), and I cringe now; that was no way to honor or respect a relationship. Still, I suppose we all have a learning curve and that was a part of mine.
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