How To Text Girls by Kelli Dunham

Book Review

A short overview of this book

How To Text Girls and Everything You Need to Know About Friendships, Crushes and Social Media by Kelli Dunham, is the book that all tweens and young teens need to be given alongside their first phone.

​Also a great book for parents to read on how to start navigating the perils of parenting a cyber using teen.

Ideal Age

Ideal for children aged 10 to 13 years.

Buy this book

✅ Buy a copy of How To Text Girls and Everything You Need to Know About Friendships, Crushes and Social Media from Amazon.

Video Transcription

A transcription in case you are more of a reader than a listener

Okay, this is a book by Kelli Dunham, who’s written the Boys Body Book. So this is a book for boys. So it’s on, for boys, on how to text girls. So obviously it’s written for straight boys, boys that like girls. So it’s about everything you need to know about have friendships, crushes and social media.

Now look, this book came out very recently. This is actually a library version. I tend to lately borrow books from the local library if I can, before I go out and buy it because my husband’s a bit upset with how much I spend on books. So this came out in 2016, but I’m actually going to order these for myself because they’re the sort of books that I would like my daughter to look up, especially because she’s going to high school in a year and she’ll be getting her first phone. So we need to start talking about that sort of stuff.

And I think this is just a great way to introduce it. So this came out in 2016. So it’s very recent. Kelli Dunham is a registered nurse who does a bit of media stuff, but she also writes really good books. So she’s very practical because, I think nurses do tend to be, I’m a little bit biassed because I am a nurse.

But I think nurses do tend to write a very practical approach because nurses, when we first started off in nursing, we are very practical and very hands on. So this, if you look inside it visually, is a beautiful book. There’s lots of images. It’s nice and thick. It feels great to hold.

It’s not too big, and it breaks the sections up beautifully. So if you look at what it’s about now, does it have an index at the back? No, it doesn’t, but the headings are broken up quite easily. So you know, why this book, What’s Going On with My Friends? So it talks about the fact that as you get older and puberty kicks in, relationships change and that relationship with friends becomes quite important.

So it talks about different ways to communicate. So it talks about relationships, that you can have a face to face relationship, but then you’ve got a text relationship. So you’re on your phone sending someone a message. What does that mean? And stuff like that. Gives good examples of good conversations and bad.

So, for example, lots of images like that where it shows examples of texting. And it gets into the question of when am I old enough for a crush? How do I know if I’m ready? Why do girls get romantic? How do I tell my parents about this stuff?

And how do I talk to my parents about crushes? Talks about conversations online and how to be, I guess confident and not naive. Talks about self esteem, being careful about what you’re putting on there. Wonder if it talks about selfies?

I would like to think that it would mention something about not taking photos of your pink bits and posting them online. Sorry by pink bits. Aussie slang on genitals, so no penis, vulva, breast bits, which pink bits? It’s just not appropriate Because nowadays we’re so culturally diverse that our bits aren’t all Brown.

It depends on what cultural background you come from but sorry, there’s some slang that I still use that I know is not politically correct. God I waffle. Sorry. So other things that talks about when to be careful online. How to not be online too much.

Talks about conversations and how it’s good ways to communicate with other people, how to stand up to peer group pressure, how to start talking, and lots of really good information so as you go through it’s just set up beautifully. So look, I think it’s great if you look at the back it tells you actually, why didn’t I just read that rather than waffling on.

Self esteem online, you’re more than your likes, social media safety and savviness, setting boundaries of friends and crushes, digital vacations – how to give yourself a break when you need one, as parents, I think it’s up to us to model this as well as in if we’re constantly on our phone doing stuff. Well, of course your kids are going to just be doing the same so we need to set an example and show them the sort of behaviour that we would expect or like from them. The nuts and bolts of successful communication online and offline, starting conversations and making small talk with new crushers and new friends. So important.

Do you remember what it was like yourself going through that? Liking a boy and liking a girl and not being able to talk to them, blushing and not having the right words or saying silly stuff. Texting with grownups, controlling your reputation online, and much more so look, this is definitely one that I’m going to order and then hide from my husband. Luckily he loses track of what I do and don’t order but look, it’s a beautiful book And I think it’s one that as parent as soon as your kids have got a phone or start on social media It’s the sort of book that they should be reading so I think it’s a really important book anyway, I hope that helps you.

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