‘Dear Teen Self’ Author Jaynay Johnson Pens Interactive Book That Will Change Teens Lives

One can say that from experience comes great wisdom. Coming from a background as a troubled teen, Jaynay Chanel Johnson is creating a career for herself as the guardian angel many teens need in this challenging day and age. But don’t get it fooled, this first time author has the credentials to back up her wisdom. With a Bachelor’s in Psychology from my own alma mater Delaware State University, HORNETS, and a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from La Salle University, Johnson has studied what she needs to act as a pillar to aid in shaping the lives of our youth; an important task that she found purpose in at the age of 28.

Johnson’s idea for her first book Dear Teen Self was something rooted from experience. “The motivation came directly from my life,” she told Glambergirlblog.com exclusively. “I was a horrible teenager. I think I made every wrong decision there was to make. Developing as a therapist, I realized that teenagers was a demographic that kept coming to me.” With the additional nudge from a colleague who informed her that a core demographic would find her, Johnson stumbled upon the perfect career path. It became her mission and purpose to help teenagers, specifically teenage girls, develop in a way she hadn’t at that age.

Photo: Dear Teen Self

Understanding teenagers can be hard to work with, Johnson saw that teens are a very underrepresented but critiqued so harshly group of people and she felt she needed to “jump in” and change the game. But how do you start a book that will change, and possibly save, lives? Just get started! Dear Teen Self was birthed last November in a coffee shop that Johnson would visit after work every week for six months. “I just decided that I was going to get it done. I no longer wanted to be that girl who had ambition and did nothing about it.”

But that ambition turned into action and into a book. Dear Teen Self is not your typical chapter book. At the top of the book Jaynay goes over the topics that will be discussed such as: school issues, mental health, relationships, and sex. There are 82 tips in the Non Fiction book that has a headline and gives descriptions, or personal experiences, on the headlines.There are activities, a journal space, and words to know as a developing teen. Sex was a big section of the book Jaynay touched and in turn she talked candidly to GGB about her first sexual experience and how that helped her come to terms with her own self-worth and seeking worth in sexual partners.

Another topic touched on in the book is coming from a fatherless home. “I wasn’t fatherless, I knew who my dad was. I spent summers with him, but he wasn’t active throughout my life. People often say we don’t want or need it, but we really do. Girls need their father.” She continued to say, “Your father is your first example of a man, especially for a girl, that’s your first role model.” Knowing a lot of teen girls struggle with wanting a father around that isn’t really active; she opened her heart up on that subject. Blended families is a subject that she wanted to touch on in her book that she didn’t, so stay tuned for a possible follow up.

Photo: Floyd Shade of Nightshade Images

So what would the Dear Teen Self author say to her teen self given the chance? “Never dull your shine!” Johnson added, “I say that because I’ve always been super eclectic. I’ve always been a free spirit. I’ve always knew what I wanted to do, but I would dim my dreams a lot for other people. I would dim it for other people to feel comfortable. I would dim it to not be in the spotlight because I was naturally put in the spotlight. I would do things to make sure people didn’t pay attention to me and with that said, never dull your shine. What is meant for you is for you only.”

Currently Johnson runs a teen group to help her stay in tuned with her demographic, young teen girls. She said it keeps her humble, grounded, and motivated. Her girls keep her going and the conversations she has with them assure her she’s walking in her correct path.

In 2016, which I’ve coined the year of milestones, is going to be a great year for Dear Teen Self  and Jaynay Johnson.  She wants her book to be the “therapeutic education” teens need to know they have the power to create and control their future and connect with fellow teen advocates to get her message out there. Johnson also wants to start the “Teenage Dream Awards” where teens in the tri state area will be recognized and awarded on the amazing things they are doing in their communities. She always has goals to open her own teen practice. I’m sorry to tell you, but HORNETS just do it better!

Be sure to visit www.dearteenself.com, where you can purchase Dear Teen Self and stay up to date on all the things Jaynay Johnson and her movement has coming up by following her personal Instagram page @JaynayChanel and Dear Teen Self‘s Instagram and Facebook page @DearTeenSelf and on Twitter @DearTeenSelf_.

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Photo: Floyd Shade of Nightshade Images