It’s Great to Be a Girl! A Guide to Your Changing Body by Dannah Gresh and Suzy Weibel

This resource book is meant to help girls through puberty with a Biblical mindset. There are eight chapters.

1. Your Body, a Purpose (Intro to puberty and establishing our purpose is to glorify God.)
2. Your Body, Its Practice (Covers make-up and being an image bearer.)
3. Your Body, God’s Temple (Cleanliness and hygiene)
4. Your Hair, a Crown (Hair care and legalism)
5. Food, Your Fuel (Healthy eating)
6. Exercise, Your Strength (Exercise and self-control)
7. Your Body, a Source of Life (Female anatomy, menstruation, and bra shopping)
8. Your Body, a Sacrifice (Having Christ on the throne of your life)

Each chapter is separated into two sections, the Intro and the Meditation. The Intro contains most of the information and some stories from the author and the Meditation is where scripture is used and expounded upon. This is meant to be used as a workbook, where the girl writes directly in the book.

This changing body book from the True Girl Ministry is accessible, fact-filled, and Biblically-minded. The authors do a very good job of balancing giving all the information needed for a young girl without stepping into the “too much information” zone. I also greatly appreciate that the girl reading this does not need to have had “the talk” about sexual relations before reading this book. It is girl-specific (so no male anatomy or biology is covered) and can be read independently or (as I recommend) with the child.

The authors take a Biblical approach to meditation, using scripture to fill the minds of the young ladies reading their book. I also absolutely love how they point to glorifying God as the purpose and thus motivation for taking the actions we do. This is one of the puberty books that I have personally chosen to use with my daughters. Below I have listed some things that would be good to know ahead of time, which does not mean that everything below is negative or things I disagree with, but things I think would be helpful to decide if this is the right book for your family. Overall, I think this is a helpful and Biblical resource for young girls who are approaching puberty, but I did address several things listed below with my daughter while reading together.

Things to note:
-In the introduction, the girls are asked to check between two options of how they are feeling. The last option is either “A great place for God to live” or “Unworthy of being God’s home.” This is never expanded upon or mentioned again in the book, but it seems implied that the first option is what they are hoping the girls will check. My daughter actually caught this too and we talked about how knowing we are fully unworthy of God’s favor makes His grace all the more amazing.

-Referring to the birth of Christ, the text reads, “Because there was no room for the family anywhere in town…” which should read spare room or inn.

-There is a section that talks about similar physical traits as your parents, which might be a difficult passage for adopted children, which they openly talk about as both authors have adopted daughters.

-When speaking of being created in the image of God, it reads, “It might be because we make God visible or known (we glorify him) by looking like him!” I think this wording is a bit confusing for young girls who might take it to mean physically as it’s not explained afterward.

-At the end of one of the prayers, it reads, “I want to look like you so others can see you in me. Keep transforming me. I know that what you have created in me is good!” Again, I think this wording is less than ideal and assumes the girl has saving faith. Another time a sentence reads, “If you have asked Christ to be Lord of your life, his Spirit lives inside of you.” Again, I think the wording could have been better here to not reinforce the idea that saying a prayer one time equates to salvation.

-As with most True Girl resources, there is a section that outlines becoming a Christian. I absolutely love the heart behind this- they want to reach girls with the gospel! This particular time they call it “The ABCs of Becoming a Christian.” This includes: “Admit you are a sinner. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that his death on the cross paid for all your sins. Confess your faith in Jesus out loud and to others.” It ends with, “If you want Jesus to be the Lord of your life, begin by pausing to ask him out loud right now. Then go tell someone! You have become our sister in Jesus today. Welcome to the family!” As someone who recited “The Sinner’s Prayer” many times growing up and was a false convert until adulthood, I am always very cautious about the idea of telling someone, “Pray this and if you mean it, you’re saved.” I wish instead they would have just clearly presented the Gospel.

-This book does take a stance that head coverings for women is cultural and women do not need to observe this today. While I do not disagree, I know others have different convictions. Also, during this section, The Message paraphrase is used and quoted as scripture.

-A girls’ sleepover is mentioned.

-In the chapter focusing on eating healthy food, they take a wonderful stance that we all need to eat more vegetables than meat, but they also use the US government’s “My Plate” chart and encourage grains and dairy, about which I know some people feel differently.

-In the context of self-control, the author uses the illustration of “feeding” either your spirit or your flesh and the one that is fed more will be stronger. “We feed our spirit when we get up early to read our Bibles, eat veggies when we want donuts, turn the television off when it gets nasty…”

-At the end of the exercise chapter, there is a food and exercise challenge to do something of the girl’s choice for the next 21 days.

-In one of the fill-in-the-blank sections, the girl is asked to think about how each of the things listed brings honor to God and the first thing listed is “keeping a secret.” While I think they have in mind not revealing things told to you in confidence, I know many families do not like the phrase “keeping a secret” as it can have different connotations.

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