OK - so picture this. You’re at home in front of the mirror. Telling yourself exactly what you think of yourself. Too fat. Too pasty. Too little. And that’s just your little finger you’re looking at. You don’t even think of paying yourself one single compliment. Are you your own worst enemy? Enter the bully - she can pick you in a moment. She knows she can take a shot at you and you’ll fall down in a heap, and you know why? Because she’s actually on your side, she’s picking you to pieces in the same way that you treat yourself. There’s really only one lasting solution to the bullying nightmare. You’ve gotta learn to ILY yourself and understand that it’s not your problem. ILY is short for I LOVE YOU, and this self-help book for teen girls teaches the importance of loving yourself and others so you can be happy in the teenage years. 14 year-old Australian teenager Julia Weber knows only too well what it’s like to be bullied, both in person and via cyberspace. She has become an anti-bullying campaigner and now fills the pages of ILY with heart-warming, witty and practical advice for teen girls about everything from bullying and low self esteem to gratitude and forgiveness. Julia uses affirmations from the world’s most famous self help author Louise L Hay, writing teen translations of her words which are fresh and relevant. She speaks at conferences, participates in research and is part of a youth advisory panel which advises on counselling services for young people.

If there’s one thing I know about, it’s teenagers. I am 14 years old so obviously that gives me some firsthand experience. But I am also the youngest in a very modern family. My parents divorced when I was three and my mother remarried when I was five. I have two half brothers, one natural brother, one stepbrother and two stepsisters. If you need help with the math, I am the youngest of seven kids, and I’ve had to put up with more teenage stuff than your average sibling.

So that means I get away with like, zero. My parents know every trick in the book which makes me cranky to say the least. You know those times when you really want to go somewhere but you know your parents won’t let you? So you make up this whole story as to why you should be able to go. Sometimes your parents are convinced, sometimes not. Well for me, it’s usually the ‘not’ option because they’ve heard the story six times before. Great for me!

Then when I put my own puberty on top of that, life’s just a barrel of laughs around here!

I am lucky to have a Mum who is very switched-on and she’s taught me a lot about looking within myself to find the answers to my problems and to seek happiness rather than fights.

She’s also taught me to take positive ideas from little cards called affirmation cards, and I have them tacked up all over my bedroom. It was those cards that gave me the idea for this book. I have really found that they help me to turn my mood around when I’m feeling miserable. I read them and the words soon become part of my feelings about things - they overtake the sadness or the anger I was engulfed by earlier. Affirmations and a good laugh are the two cures for my teenage woes.

Julia Weber was born in 1996 in Sydney, Australia and is being raised in a blended family with six older siblings. She is an anti-bullying campaigner who uses music, humour and resilience as her secret weapons for a happy life. She plays piano, double bass, trombone and percussion