You Have To Say I'm Pretty, You're My Mother: How to Help Your Daughter Learn to Love Her Body and Herself

Phyllis Cohen · Stephanie Pierson

Feb 2012 · Random House

About this ebook

At a time when it's never been more difficult to get from twelve to twenty in one sane, self-confident piece, this book provides explanations, straightforward advice and strategies, even a script, to help parents cope with their daughters' body image problems. This is the truly practical book, Stephanie Pierson looked for in vain when her own daughter developed anorexia and body image problems. Written with Phyllis Cohen, a psychotherapist with 30 years of experience of adolescent problems, there are chapters on why daughters have negative body images and how mothers can prevent this, staying connected with your daughter, communicating, daughter's viewpoint, sex, developing a realistic sense of self, problems of coloured teenagers, health and nutrition. It provides the warning signs of depression: changes in sleep patterns, appetite, eating patterns, lethargy, social withdrawal, irritability; and the danger signs: suicidal thoughts, drug or alcohol use, self-mutilation, anorexia and bulimia.

About the author

Stephanie Pierson has written on teen, family and lifestyle issues for years. She is a contributing editor for Metropolitan Home Magazine and a creative director at a New York advertising agency. Her first book, Because I'm the Mother, That's Why! dealt with issues of raising children and husbands and was optioned and developed as a sitcom by 20th Century Fox and CBS. She is the co-author of Merilu Henner's book I Refuse To Raise A Brat and has recently written Vegetables Rock! about teenage vegetarianism which has won numerous awards. She has appeared on Oprah. Phyllis L Cohen is a Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist, who has had a full-time private practice in Manhattan and Brooklyn for over twenty years. She is a lecturer on issues of adolescence, a former co-founder and Clinical Director of Brooklyn Center for Families in Crisis, Director of Thomas Asleen Youth Project of JBFCS and director of Female Adolescent In-Patient Service at Kings County/Downstate Medical Center.