Guest Post: Kimberly Pauley, Author of Cat Girl’s Day Off + HUGE GIVEAWAY!

The biggest (and best) advice I would give to Nat (the main character in Cat Girl’s Day Off) is to learn —as soon as she can—that it doesn’t matter what other people think of you. It only matters what you think of yourself. Of course, it took me a long time to learn that and it definitely wasn’t something I understood as a teen.

Heck, let’s be honest. It doesn’t always come naturally as an adult either. I’m often backsliding into doubt and embarrassment and I have to remind myself that life isn’t a competition. It doesn’t matter if someone thinks I’m weird (though, actually, I kinda like it when people think I’m weird…I’d much rather be weird than normal! Have you seen what goes for normal??) or too fat or too short or too whatever.

And the thing is…no matter how you think others see you, chances are you are wrong. Really wrong. I remember myself as a teen as always feeling too fat (and OH I was SO not too fat back then!), too short (which, okay, I am seriously short but it’s not like that matters, except when you can’t reach things on the highest shelves), and not remotely cool at all. I was insecure and always second guessing myself.

Funny thing.

You know Facebook? That kinda evil, time-sucking thing? I’ve reconnected with a bunch of people I knew back then, both teachers and friends. And guess what? Talking with them now, it turns out they all remember me as being really cool. Confident. Daring. Out of the ordinary. Someone they looked up to.

Crazy. I can’t reconcile the two images in my head. And I think the same thing will be true for Nat. If I imagine her years from now attending a high school reunion and talking to the people there, I think they’d be talking about how fearless and cool she is. How they thought she was interesting and how some of the very things she is so terribly concerned and embarrassed about are the very things that make her someone they think is cool.

And I bet you are just like that too.

The thing that I wish is that people had told me back then what they thought. Shoot, maybe they did, but I wasn’t ready to hear it. That could definitely be! It’s easy for all of us to hear and assimilate criticism. It’s so hard for most of us to take a compliment.

So I’ve got a challenge for all of you reading this. Tell a friend or (why not?) someone you barely know what it is you admire about them. What makes them cool. What makes them unique.

I know Nat would thank you.

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