Child Esteem

It Gets Better is a collection of expanded essays and new material from celebrities, everyday people, and teens who have posted videos of encouragement, as well as new contributors who have yet to post videos to the site. While many of these teens couldn’t see a positive future for themselves, others can. We can show LGBT youth the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach if they can just get through their teen years.

Despite Jessica's shocking appearance and the fear she evokes in him and most of the seventh-grade class, Tom slowly develops a tentative friendship with Jessica that changes his life. Firegirl is a powerful story that will show listeners that even the smallest of gestures can have a profound impact on someone's life.

Grandmagreat’s Storytime, a delightful heart-warming collection of true stories, captivates listeners with hope and inspiration. It’s Mr. Rodgers meets Brené Brown. Funny and thought-provoking real-life tales enthrall children of all ages. Grandmagreat (aka Sharon Barber) shares poignant personal memories with her delightful honesty and vulnerability. Troubles become triumphs, folly becomes wisdom, and hysterical situations reveal the importance of human connection in this collection of gems.

A little too smart, a little too fat, Bobby Goodspeed has always been a go-along-to-get-along kind of guy. But when his friend Addie decides to tackle the student council elections, Bobby finds himself changing in ways he never could have imagined in this tender, touching, utterly hilarious novel of life as a middle school misfit.

Everyone in Vallen knows that ice wolves and scorch dragons are sworn enemies who live deeply separate lives. So when 12-year-old orphan Anders takes one elemental form and his twin sister, Rayna, takes another, he wonders whether they are even related. Family or not, Rayna is Anders’s only true friend. She’s nothing like the brutal, cruel dragons who claimed her as one of their own and stole her away. To rescue her, Anders must enlist at the foreboding Ulfar Academy, a school for young wolves that values loyalty to the pack above all else.

After a traumatic run-in with the fortune teller from a visiting funfair - thanks to an unfortunately timed sneeze - Riley finds himself cursed. Life as he knows it quickly becomes a catalogue of disasters - from wetting himself onstage during the school show, accidentally supergluing himself to his classmates and ruining the school football team’s sponsorship deal, to flooding his house and losing class four’s pet rabbit - Riley knows the bad luck is out to get him. Enter new kid: Brad Chicago. He’s super-cool, well-groomed and stylish, with an excellent stationery collection.

These relaxing affirmations were specifically created for children with ADHD or ADD to listen to on a regular basis and transmit positive encouraging messages into their unconscious mind.

From early on, children are looking to discover their place in the world and longing to understand how their personalities, traits, and talents fit in. The assurance that they are deeply loved and a unique creation in our big universe is certain to help them spread their wings and fly.

Since her parents' bitter divorce, Mclean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move - four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, Mclean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, Mclean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself - whoever that is. Perhaps her neighbor Dave, an academic superstar trying to be just a regular guy, can help her find out.

Fifth grader Patrick Lowe loves to draw. While he fills sheet after sheet with beautiful drawings, he imagines he is the indomitable White Knight, far removed from the problem that haunts him at school: he can't read. When he tries, the words blur, and he feels like he's suffocating. As a result, many of Patrick's classmates think he's stupid - and Patrick believes them.

Cody Lee Carson leaves his old self behind as he starts at a new school for his fifth-grade year. The new Cody is a brilliant author who keeps a journal to record this stunning transformation, but changing is not easy. Has Cody really left his old self behind?

Alice is ready for eighth grade, but she isn’t ready for this summer. All her friends are spending their days swimming in the neighborhood pool - all of them except Alice. Somehow neither curiosity about her widowed father’s new girlfriend nor the thrill of reading a forbidden book can distract her from her greatest fear: the deep end of the pool. Brimming with high spirits and courage, Alice the Brave tackles some of the biggest problems of growing up: conformity, popularity, and independence.

For each of us, there is a connection between our early family dynamics and experiences and our current attitudes and decisions. Many of the people Dr. Laura has helped did not realize how their histories impacted their adult lives, or how their choices in people, repetitive situations, and decisions, even their emotional reactions, were connected to those early negative experiences, playing a major role in their current unhappiness.

Though fashions may change, certain things never go out of style - like your favorite little black dress that can take you from a business meeting to a dinner party to a night on the town. But what makes it work is not the dress; it's how you present yourself while wearing it. A woman who is polite, well spoken, gracious, charming, and thoughtful is always welcome - though such women appear to be in short supply these days!

After a summer of being the worst witch at a fancy witch school, Hasani can't wait to get back to the peace and normalcy of Riverbend Middle where she knows all the rules and is destined to be captain of the Mathletes. There are a few little hiccups to work out—like how she's going to tell her best friend that she's a witch—but even though the other two members of Hasani's coven have joined her friend group and her school, there's no reason to think that eighth grade won't be smooth sailing...That is until her former friend (and fellow witch) LaToya shows up.

Though Anders and his friends have delayed a war between ice wolves and scorch dragons, their mission is far from over. With adults on both sides looking for them, they’ve sought refuge in Cloudhaven, a forbidden stronghold that could hold the key to saving their home. Meanwhile, Holbard has been ravaged, and its citizens are reeling. Many have been forced into bleak camps outside the city, and food is running short.

Ghostgirl features Charlotte Usher, a high-schooler who can't help but feel no one knows she's alive. Then her nagging fear is confirmed. One day she no longer just feels invisible - she is, in fact, dead and literally haunting the halls.

No one ever saw Faolan as a leader. Banished as a pup, he survived and returned as a gnaw wolf - the lowest member of the wolf pack. But Faolan wasn't meant to be a gnaw wolf. It's not just his strange, splayed paw, or his uncanny connection with the bears. There's something about Faolan that inspires certain wolves...and leaves others deeply suspicious. Now, with a dangerous threat on the horizon, the pack must make a choice. Will they trust the silver outsider with the task of leading?

Will is the only round kid in a school full of thin ones. So he hides…in baggy jeans and oversized hoodies, in the back row during class, and anywhere but the cafeteria during lunch. But shame isn’t the only feeling that dominates Will’s life. He’s also got a crush on a girl named Jules who he knows he doesn’t have a chance with, because of his size—but he can’t help wondering what if? Will’s best shot at attracting Jules’s attention is by slaying the Will Monster inside him by changing his eating habits and getting more exercise.

The tween years are an important time to learn and discover the world and shape who you will be in it. While these are exciting times, they can also be tricky. Preteens are dealing with big emotions and physical changes that they may not feel equipped to handle.