Hug Yourself: Body Positivity and Empowerment Stories for Teenagers a Powerful Anthology of 16 Stories Featuring Prominent Writers Like Anuja Chandramouli, Harshikaa Udasi, Santhini Govindan, Shals Mahajan Among Others
My take on the book:
Hug Yourself is a collection of sixteen stories of body positivity and empowerment for teenagers.
A fourteen-year-old girl is passionate about swimming but that also meant horrible tan on the body and grey hair — may be due to the chlorine in the pool water or genetics inherited from her grandfather. All her adult life she was only concerned about the grey hair and 101 ways of hiding it. Many years later, when she met her school mates at a school reunion, will they remember her as the girl with the grey hair or the one who could do a hundred laps in the pool?
Another teenager is conscious of her curvy body and her weight issues, until she met a dude online who seemed to be sensible and admired her. Things were fine till he asked for nude pictures; will she give-in to the teenage hormonal rush and regret her action later?
Dharti is embarrassed of her large breasts and wondered if she should cut them like Nangeli from Kerala. While her mother tries to pacify her as breasts nurture life, Dharti is confused how large breasts at fourteen years age are nurturing life, because the judgement and sexualizing offended Dharti.
The Kapoors, the Sethnas and the Basheers have been friends for ages; when Meher Basheer starts avoiding Aarav, nobody not even Meher’s best friend Delnaz realizes the possible reason. Will Meher be able to confront her abuser?
Adz is great in the track and field events but owing to her tiny personality she is selected in the sub-junior’s category while her classmates are competing in the juniors or seniors’ categories. Unbeknownst to her, Adz is motivating a lot of kids in the school but will she ever realize her self-worth?
Nandini had to hear snide remarks of her schoolmates and her mother’s friends, as she had too much hair on her body. While girls her age showed off their toned legs, Nandini found ways to roll her socks up to hide her legs. Ms Dublina the new art teacher at school loved to break rules which is a first at their school. Will Ms Dublina help Nandini overcome the bullying for being hairy?
Asha hated being a chubby kid; until her attempts to drastically loose weight resulted in her face being paralyzed partially. Will Asha be able to overcome these recurring hurdles to gain her self-confidence?
Fourteen-year-old Shreya is excited that her Ammamma is visiting them, her grandmother always brought hand-knit surprises for her. Shreya also wanted to showcase her running prowess in the 100-meter sprint to her grandmother, but she wanted Shreya to stop participating in athletics and outdoor games as Shreya who is already dark complexioned like her father is going to tan further and will not find a suitable groom.
Raaga is a very talented dancer specializing in classical dance. However, the teachers only commented on the dry, wrinkled skin on her legs instead of her stupendous performances. Her dark complexion also meant advise from others to stick to only few colors for clothes. Will the audience remember her for her performance or for her complexion and dry skin?
The sixteen stories cover a wide variety of issues that generally bother girls in their teenage and pre-teenage years, especially in their school environments. Though these issues have been persistent for the past many decades, some of them have been normalized to such an extent that most of us take them for granted. However, the bullying and shame that starts at such tender age generally affects an individual’s self-confidence as these keep haunting them much later into their adult years.
Each of these stories are narrated from the girl’s point of view to make the reader feel their emotions and turmoil. While some are open ended, most of the stories have a sensible suggestion/resolution for the issue at the end. In addition to normal stories, there is one poem, and one graphic novel also included in these sixteen stories. All are contemporary, urban stories so I wished there were few from different backdrops like rural India as well, as these societal expectations and taboos are more prevalent in rural areas.
The stories will make for a good read for young adults as well as parents as I hope these will help kids and parents have a more open communication.
My rating:
4.5/5.