I would like to introduce you to C.J. Carleton, author of What Makes You Unique? Discover the Truth or Believe the Lie. Her book was the winner of The Word Guild 2008 Canadian Christian Writing Award in the Young Adult Category. This devotional style book is written for teen girls. Carleton tackles head on the questions every teen girl questions concerning boys, friends, parents, and peer pressure.  I knew this would be a book that would catch a teenagers attention with these chapter titles:

How Dark is Your Tan?
Dealing with Parental Dictatorship
The Dating Game
Get a Life!
Live Your Life Fully, Completely, 100% No Turning Back, Full-Out for Christ

to name a few…

But don’t let the funny titles fool you, C.J. Carleton backs up everything with scripture while bringing girls closer to God. She helps them answer the question of why did God make me the way I am? Each chapter ends with a place for journaling along with ways to actively apply these lessons to your life.

If you have a young teenage girl, I would recommend this devotional style book.  But don’t take my word, hear from C.J. herself in this video and she was nice enough to visit with us here today.

C.J. Carleton thank you for joining me here, please tell us a little bit about yourself?

I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. I am a wife and mother of two girls ages 5 and 7. I am the founder of Unlimited Potential International Inc. a non-profit organization whose goal is to empower women of all ages to live their lives with and on purpose. I won the 2008 Canadian Christian Writing Award in the Young Adult category for my book “What Makes You Unique? Discover the Truth or believe the lie.”

When did you develop a passion to reach teenage girls?

After my involvement in the modeling industry I spent a lot of time soul searching. I knew that my goal in life was to help the teen girl generation not make the same mistakes that I did. Throughout my teens I kept wishing that someone would come along side me and help answer some of my questions and steer me in the right direction. So that became my mission. Through my book I tried to answer all the questions that I had as a teen and the questions I had from teens that I met when I travelled across the country speaking in high schools with Campus Crusade for Christ.

You go into detail in your book, but can you briefly explain what you found in your research concerning the lack of truth?

In my research I found book after book was trying to convince me that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that I, as a follower of Jesus Christ, am weak, selfish, judgmental and close-minded. If that isn’t a challenge I don’t know what one is. It was obvious to me that someone needed to share the truth to this generation.

I enjoyed the fact you give a straight godly talk about sex. What is some advice you can give parents of teenage girls when talking about sex?

You need to talk to your daughters early and often. Who do you want them to learn from? You or the world. It shouldn’t be a sit down lets’ have a talk. It should be an ongoing conversation, start at a young age with appropriate information to what they are asking about or what they need to hear. Don’t ever put their questions off for a better time, drop what you are doing and take the time to understand what and why they are asking and answer as well and as honestly as you can. If you miss your chance it may not return or they may ask someone else who may not have the same morals and values that you do.
Be honest with them about sex. It is not a bad thing, so you can’t present it as that. You need to present it as it was intended – a special connection between a husband and wife. You need to explain why it is important to wait. If you just say “no” that isn’t going to help them to understand. When they get to the age for this conversation, treat them like an adult and even though it is difficult – sharing from your own experience would be extremely beneficial. Did you or didn’t you wait? Why? Would you change it? Why or why not? You can read my book to see my answer and how I will talk to my girls about it someday. If this is an issue that you have not dealt with, today is the day to start on that journey. It is not only beneficial for yourself but your children as well.

What is the target age for “What Makes You Unique?”

I get asked this question a lot and it is hard to answer. I would say, if your daughter is learning morals and values from the world, then they need to read it. There are many teen girl bible study groups that are using my book for their study. I have also heard from Mom’s who have read my book before they pass it on to their daughters and they have told me that by reading my book they were able to deal with issues they had been struggling with from their teens. So there is something or a wide age group.

What spiritual insight would you like teen age girls to walk away with after reading, “What Makes You Unique?”

My goal is that whoever reads my book will have grown as a person by the time they finish the book. At the end of each chapter I have an ‘Apply it to your life’ and ‘Journaling” sections. I didn’t want my book just to be a “good book” I wanted it to be a challenge to the reader to become the woman that God created them to be.

Thank you for this opportunity to share your book with others, is there anything in the works that you can share with us?

I am writing leader’s notes to accompany my book for small group study, they will be available on my website (www.cjcarleton.com) and I am working on a book about mentoring. I have come to the realization that I can’t help all the teen girls by myself. We all need to live our calling that we find in Titus 2, but I am writing in a way you may never have looked at it before. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to share with you today. If you would like to know more about me or my book please stop by www.cjcarleton.com and I would be happy to hear from you.

Be sure to check out C.J.’s site, it is beautiful. Thank you for visiting me here today C.J. and thank you for this important book for young girls.

What Makes You Unique: Discover the Truth or Believe the Lie can be purchased on Amazon.