A book for teens, written by teens, has hit the number one spot on the bestseller book charts. The 10 SoulSister Wellness teens have become global best-selling authors after bravely sharing their stories to support other young people.
This week, Ruth Hine and Laura Evans, Founders of the SoulSister Wellness CIC are celebrating bringing together ten teenagers sharing their stories in ‘LOOK AT ME NOW!: Thoughts and advice for navigating through teen years’ – a collaborative book for teenagers, which went straight in at Number 1 on the Amazon bestseller charts in 15 categories, including Young adult Non-fiction on Maturing, on Suicidal Social & Family issues, on Depression and Mental and Bullying, sitting alongside A Girl’s Guide to being Famous: How to find your Brave by Suzie Lavington and Dr. Andy Cope.
This best-selling book is a collaboration of the life experiences of 10 teenage girls who want to share their stories to help others, as so many of the experiences shared are relevant to teenagers worldwide. Some of the topics discussed in this book include bullying, friendships, grief and body image. The 10 girls worked through their own emotions, and have now built new coping techniques, which are shared within the book. Created after a very special 12-month project, the girls were invited to work with a Wales-based organisation, SoulSister Wellness and each month they worked through topics and challenges to help improve, confidence, resilience and emotional health outcomes. Acknowledging their growth, the girls wanted to write this book to remind others that they are not alone in the life challenges that they may face. Each chapter shares positive outcomes and helpful advice straight from the teenagers themselves.
This collaboration book was spearheaded by Ruth Dive, 39 and Laura Evans, 41 both from Flintshire, North Wales, who founded SoulSister Wellness CIC in 2020, an organisation working with young people to educate and empower them with ways to support their own health and wellbeing outcomes in life. As well as offering workshops, programmes and 1-2-1 sessions in the community and online, they also deliver talks and workshops in both primary and high schools.
The Look At Me Now! project was first launched in December 2021 and Ruth and Laura facilitated the opportunity for companies to sponsor a student through this project. Over the 12 months, Ruth and Laura helped the teenagers to achieve: positive daily and monthly routines. Knowledge around health, wellness and nutrition. Building healthy and lasting habits. Skills to re-frame life events. Confidence. Self-awareness and communication skills. Understanding feelings, life skills and coping techniques. Throughout this year long journey, co-founders Ruth and Laura, realised something very special was happening when they brought these girls together each month. Whilst their issues or challenges in life were all very different, the connection that these girls had together, inspired and supported each other in such a powerful way.
Ruth is qualified in coaching, hypnotherapy and Heart Healing; having been on her own personal development journey for many years and having felt the emotions that my clients are feeling, gives her such a huge advantage. Ruth believes that we are emotional beings and that understanding our feelings, and our behaviour is essential for any change or transformation to take place. Her business partner Laura, is a Nutrition and Wellness Coach, trained with one of the UK’s leading nutritionists and committed to ongoing development. Following a high-stress career in senior commercial accountancy, she went on her own personal journey of improving her health wellness with various coaches and nutritionists based in both the UK and Europe. Through this process, she learnt how our physical and mental health is massively influenced by our external environment and the way we live in today’s society.
Ruth says about the book; “We are delighted that this book has become a best-seller. We realised in the planning of SoulSister Wellness back in early 2021 that teenage girls really needed more support in their understanding of how they can take control of their own emotional and physical health outcomes. Fast-forward to the end of 2021, and we decided to launch a very special project – Look at Me Now! – inviting ten local teenage girls to work with us for a year. There was a commitment from us to inspire confidence and resilience, sharing knowledge about the power of making healthy choices and offering mentoring with local businesswomen to provide the girls with aspirations for their futures.”
Within the book chapters, the ten inspiring young girls share their stories speaking about; resilience, overcoming trauma, grief, body image, rewiring your thinking, healthy friendships, bullying, suicide and dealing with feelings – all of these stories are real and heartfelt with the aim to help others who may be experiencing something similar.
Ruth said; “Our mission is to help build teenagers to be strong, so that life does not trip them up. Life is not always safe and planned, so we aim to inspire courage and confidence in our teenagers. We want to give them the tools to know how to cope when curve balls are thrown. We look at health and wellness as a whole and help build knowledge and self-awareness in order to have strong healthy habits in place. The aim is to always feel at your best and know how to get there.”
Laura says; “Our overriding aim has always been to try to improve the emotional and physical health outcomes of young people, but what we quickly realised was that the issues that these girls faced and so openly shared with us, were so powerful. This collection of words and advice has come from our ten very special girls who have shown so much courage in sharing their own stories to help others. Our message is that every single person has a story and that those stories can bind us together to help us through our own journeys. We love that we have given these girls and others a platform, space and the chance to open up.”
Founder of Authors & Co, Abigail Horne who has brought the book to life, said the book is for people at every stage of life. She said: “Authors & Co are absolutely honoured to have supported this stunning collaboration brought to you by the SoulSister Wellness – a collective of young women sharing their stories of inspiration! When we share our experiences with others, it can shine a light for others to walk through and then take away their fears. What an incredible group of inspiring young women! ”
Copies of ‘LOOK AT ME NOW! – Thoughts and advice for navigating through teen years’ can be bought via https://www.amazon.co.uk/LOOK-AT-ME-NOW-navigating/dp/1915771080/
