Nerves Out Loud: Critical Moments in the Lives of Seven Teen Girls - Softcover

Susan Musgrave is a poet, novelist, children's writer, essayist, and columnist. Her home is on Vancouver Island with her two daughters.

Introduction

In the film Sliding Doors, a young woman just fired from her job gets a chance to live two lives. One life begins as she races to catch a subway train in London and the doors close in her face, the other when she squeezes through the sliding doors and rides home to find her boyfriend in another lover's arms.

Most of us never get to know how our lives might have turned out if things had gone differently. Instead, something big happens -- and all of a sudden, your world is no longer the same. You can't go back to being what you were before this big thing occurred. And now you're on tenterhooks about what the future might hold.

In this book, seven writers look at the pivotal moments in their teenage years -- an event or series of events that forever changed their lives. There will be something for every reader to identify with in these gutsy and straight-from-the-heart stories. Perhaps you're involved in championship sports, and you're thinking of calling it quits. Maybe you've started to experiment with drugs or alcohol. You might have lost a close friend, or a parent. You could have problems at home, might have experienced sexual or physical abuse. Or maybe you feel like a freak because you want to kiss your best friend, who is a girl. I hope in this book you'll find that whatever it is you're going through, you are not alone. "I am losing control and I am terrified," writes Karen Rivers, who, in her teen years, suffered from an eating disorder. She echoes our darkest fears: "I think: If people knew I did this, they would hate me."

No matter what fate doles out to you -- whether the sliding doors slam shut in your face, or you ride the subway train home -- there is hope, and so much possibility at the end of the tunnel. By fearlessly telling their stories, these writers give us all permission to speak out about our lives, our own terrible and beautiful teenage years.

-- Susan Musgrave