Your Daughter Needs A Hero Blog Tour

We are one of today's hosts for Your Daughter Needs A Hero Blog Tour presented by Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Tours. This non-fiction books written by Maria C. Furlough tackles some important issues teen and pre-teen girls face today: self-image. 

Your Daughter Needs a Hero 

by Maria C. Furlough 

Genre: Non-fiction (family/relationships/parenting book) 

Blurb: What drives teenage girls? What tempts them? What causes their insecurities? More importantly, what can parents do to make a difference in their lives? Author Maria Furlough battled self-image and self-esteem issues as a teenager, and in Your Daughter Needs a Hero she uses a mix of personal stories and years of experience counseling teenage girls in youth ministry to show parents what their teenage daughters are going through and how best to help them.

Furlough explains how things such as fad diets, the media, and pornography influence a teen girl’s body image, and she guides parents on how to counteract the constant pressures and influences that affect teen girls every day. This book will show parents how to effectively build their daughter’s self-esteem, self-image, and, most importantly, their faith in God and in their parents. If you have a daughter, Your Daughter Needs a Hero is a must read!

Purchase links: Amazon | Tate Publishing

Book Excerpt:
I’ll never forget the very first time I looked in the mirror and thought I was fat. I was nine years old and spending my Saturday afternoon like I always did, locked in my room with a Teen Bop magazine. 

The afternoon festivities went something like this. First, I went to extreme lengths to make sure neither my parents nor my younger brother entered into my room without first alerting me. Second, I needed a soundtrack, which usually included Wilson Philips or New Kids on
the Block. Thirdly, and most importantly, was the full-length mirror.

That full-length mirror entertained me for hours. I would pose, dance, sing, model, dress up, imitate my parents, and put on makeup all in front of that one long, full-length reflection. But this Saturday, this specific Saturday, would forever change the way I looked in that mirror.

So, first on the agenda for that afternoon was reading my Teen Bop magazine, and truth be told, the pictures were the only thing that really mattered. I would go through the pages, find a picture of a girl I thought was cool, and then pose like her in the mirror. At this particular moment in time, a picture of Tiffany Amber Thiessen stood out to me. She was propped up against a locker with one leg up and her hands on her hips. Now was my turn, so I propped up against my dresser carefully in order to copy her perfectly. I put one leg up and hands on my hips. I remember feelings of dread and sadness came over me as I looked in the same full-length mirror that had previously brought me innocent views of myself. My next thoughts were thoughts that, to this day, are imbedded permanently in my mind: I don’t look like her. I am not as skinny as she is. And that was it. From then on, was ruined. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks: I don’t look like the girls in the magazines.

I realize that from the outside looking in, this story doesn’t sound like a very big deal. A cute little girl realizes she doesn’t look like the girl in the magazine. So what? Well, to me and to so many young girls, it is a very big deal. After that instance, I began to grow up believing I was too fat for words (which I wasn’t) and that my worth a woman lied solely in the way I looked in a skirt. I lost all of my years as an adolescent going to great lengths to try to get to a place where I was comfortable in my own body, a place where I loved the way I looked. The sad part I was on a journey to a place that could never bring true fulfillment to a young woman simply because it is a place that does not exist.

This place is a place that the media convinces us exists, place of physical perfection. Us girls, we tell ourselves that if we work hard enough and hate our bodies enough, then someday we will find that euphoric place. Sixteen painful years later, I can say with confidence that it is a
lie that I don’t want another single young girl to buy into. 

About the author: Eighteen years ago, an eleven year old girl looked in mirror and for the first time in her innocent life…she realized she hated what she saw. That girl was me. It continued to be me until in my early twenties I realized two things: God had a bigger plan for me than that and part of that plan was for me to help other girls not be like me.As God slowly picked me up out of the pit I was in, I began to look around me and see many of factors that contributed to my poor body image. As a youth leader I watched, studied, and prayed for the young girls God put into my life. I struggled with them as they constantly asked about the caloric content of the cookies I put out or begged me not to take pictures of them. It made me so sad to see so much of myself in them. Then one day, after an interaction with parents, it hit me like a ton of bricks “they don’t know!” Their parents,my parents…they didn’t and don’t realize the depths that insecurity reaches. It was time for action.

After the birth of my first child, Faith, I sat down at my computer to write. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. I actually wrote all the way through the birth of my second child David (it took me quite awhile with two under two at home!!!). What I wrote is simple: parents you need to know…Today my family and I live in North Carolina and we excitedly begin this journey as an author and speaker. My husband Dave is the catalyst behind all that I do. He has encouraged me and enabled me to be on this journey and I am so thankful for his love and his companionship. My daughter Faith, now turning four, inspires me every day to stand firm to the message I believe in. It is for her that I take serious every word I utter about beauty. It is for her I strive to be a woman who models a God given security in prayer that she will not struggle the way that I did. It is for her my life’s mission is now clear. My son David is now two and he is the ball of laughter and energy that keep this home going. His smile, his laugh it is all contagious and I look forward to the man God is molding him to be. Furlough baby # three, Aaron has officially arrived into our lives. Since the day he was born he has been a perfect reminder of God’s grace and love for us. Aaron is our perfect gift.

Authoring is by no means my life, but it sure is something God has excitedly called me to do and I look forward to all that the future has in store! May this book, this blog, this life of mine bless you as we partner to help our girls into a life of true worth.

Feel free to contact me at any time at maria@trueworthministries.org for more information on booking events, signings, prayer needs, or simply to share your story.

You can visit the author’s website at www.trueworthministries.org.