8 Ways to Make Yourself Smile

We've all had days when it just seems impossible to smile. Maybe you're stressed, or upset, or just tired of being so busy.

MAYBE AN ORANGE MAN HAS JUST BEEN ELECTED PRESIDENT.

But it's important that you look after yourself, and ... that thing you're down about? I'm guessing that, however bad it is, there's not much you can do about it. The good news is that the one thing you can control is the one thing that, I've found, really helps.

You have to step back and do something that'll make you smile.

(I guess it's important to note here that I'm not a doctor or a metal health professional. I'm just a human who gets sad, and these things have been known to help me be happy again.)

#1 ~ Bed. Book. Bliss

Grab that book off your TBR - you know, the one that you've been looking forward to for weeks but never quite got round to - brew some hot chocolate, or tea, or coffee, and burrow yourself inside your duvet. It doesn't even have to be evening, if you don't want it to be. Just laying back and drifting into your own little book-cocoon really does help you get perspective ... and, of course, puts a smile on your face.

(By the way, if you're reading this in summer ... sitting on your bed without the cocoon and sipping something ice-cold and fizzy is just as relaxing without the sweat factor.)

#2 ~ Enlist the help of the internet

After I've been upset about something, I'm often left feeling kind of fragile, as if I'll burst out crying at the slightest hint of something going wrong. And ... well, I'm definitely not smiling when I feel like that. 

I like to reach for my laptop and scroll through a special Pinterest board I keep called "I Need to Smile Today". It's stuffed full of ridiculous memes, bad puns and basically everything the internet has to offer that might distract me and lift my mood a little. And it might take ten minutes or so, but by the end I am always smiling.

#3 ~ Don't go it alone

When I'm sad and I don't really know why ... it often turns out that I'm more lonely than anything. And even if there is something I definitely know that I am sad about, it just makes me sadder to be sad alone.

That paragraph had the word sad in it a lot. Let's just go with it, okay?

So when you are sad, try to stop being sad by talking to someone. Hug your parents. Or your neighbour. Or your cat. If you need to talk to someone, call a friend - even if you just want to chat about something completely unrelated and get them to make you laugh for a while, they'll be there for you. Don't worry about being a burden, because if they really care they'll be happy to look after you.

#4 ~ Watch some comedy 

Sometimes just smiling isn't anywhere near enough. There are levels of sadness that cannot be beaten by anything but a full-on belly laugh, and if you're looking for full-on belly laughs you need people that are trained to make you full-on belly laugh.

That would be a comedian, if you're wondering.

Personally, I like to listen to people like Tim Minchin and Russell Howard, but they are very very rude. And some of the things they say might be a little - or a lot - controversial. So choose whoever's going to appeal to your sense of humour, type their name into Google, and be prepared to laugh so hard you can't breathe.

It helps. I promise.

#5 ~ Get on with something

After a while ... well. There are situations when you can look after yourself as well as possible and make yourself laugh as much as you can, but as soon as the last joke fades - you're back to crying again. 

It's a horrible cycle to be in, I know. I've been there - and to be honest, we probably all have. To stop it, though, you're going to have to give yourself a bit of tough love. Take a deep breath, put it to the back of your mind, and come up with something you can do instead. Something you can achieve - preferably in a pretty short time. Let it be the only thing you focus on until you're done; and trust me, the feeling once you've finished that task, achieved your goal, and ticked that item off your mental to-do-list, might just put a smile on your face.

#6 ~ Sleepy time, suckers

You know when you've got some sort of electrical device that just isn't working, you'll turn it off and on again? Well ... sleep is kind of like that. (I'm about 75% sure I got this comparison from somewhere on Tumblr, but the blog has hidden itself in the dark realms of the internet where I can't find it, so if you know where, tell me! I'll be a good girl and link up.)

So you've tried a bunch of things, and you still can't smile? You need to turn yourself off and on again, mate. Being overtired isn't exactly going to help in a situation where you feel run-down, and even when you feel pretty okay, it's important to get enough sleep so that it doesn't catch up with you. This, as I'm sure you're aware, would lead to sadness and that is bad.

Oh. You just woke up from a super-long sleep, and you're still sad? Maybe you're ... hungry?

Yeah. You're probably hungry. My point is, deal with your basic needs. They might be what's making you gripey.

#7 ~ Remember that you don't have to be perfect

Expecting the best from yourself when you've had a bad day is just kind of unrealistic. And silly. And unhelpful. I mean, I do it the whole time, but ... yeah. Isn't a good thing.

A rough day is often a sign that you need to take it easy and look after yourself. THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO ACHIEVE EVERYTHING OF EVER AT THE SAME TIME, 'KAY?

Because ... perfect is overrated and unachievable. Trying to reach something impossible that probably wouldn't even make you very happy when you got there would stress anyone out. So don't.

Just be you instead.

#8 ~ Also, THIS. This ALWAYS makes me smile.

That's right. Only on Another Teen Reader could an almost cheesily earnest pep talk be followed by a comedy ballet.

In the comments: What do you guys do to cheer yourselves up? Would you recommend it to others, or is it just your thing? Do you have any advice for people going through difficult times?

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Here's Why YOU Are Awesome

So here's the thing.

Chances are, your day today wasn't the worst you've ever had. Maybe it has been utterly terrible, so bad that I can barely even comprehend what's happening in your head right now, and if that's the case I don't want to trivialise what's happened. But the fact is that, if it is the worst day ever, tomorrow has to be at least a tiny bit better, right?

It's okay to be sad, or angry, or stressed, or scared, no matter what about. It's okay to cry easily. It doesn't make you pathetic, or immature, or over-dramatic.

It's okay not to cry, too. It's okay to feel numb when you go through tough times. It doesn't make you selfish, or cold, or weird.

All of it. It's all okay.

You've made mistakes, sure ... but that's what makes you human? There's this amazing quote from J.K. Rowling:

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.                      ~ J.K. Rowling

Maybe you've heard it before, maybe you haven't. But I guess this is what I think it means.

It means that when you fail, you just have to take a second to dust yourself off - then go out there and fail all over again. It means that if you're scared of doing something in case you fail, you're just being scared of the next step in your life. 

So go ahead. Sign up for that class you think you might crash and burn in. Try out for a play or sports team just because you can. Ask that cute human out, just so you can see what happens.

(By the way, I'm probably a hypocrite to tell you this. I've teetered on the edge of doing stuff because I was terrified of it going wrong. But when I did? Most of the time, it was pretty awesome.)

And hey, if you fail to even try those things? Just pick yourself up and try trying again tomorrow.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that you - no, really, YOU - are awesome. Maybe the stuff you've done in the past wasn't that awesome, but back then, even fifteen minutes ago, you weren't the same person you are right now. Because I'm also guessing that if you're reading this, you want the confidence to make a change, right?

And if you just need the confidence to stay who you are, and to keep living your life, you're still awesome. Just because.

You're awesome because someone out there loves you for who you are, and really, someone does. If you don't think you know them right now, you probably just need to think harder and be a little nicer to yourself.

You're awesome because you have talent. Everyone has talent at something, be it ... art. Or ... science. Or looking after babies, or drawing manga or looking after your friends or ... I don't know. Writing pep talks. Again, if you can't see that talent? Be a little nicer to yourself!

Mostly, you're awesome because you're YOU. You're utterly unique and there's no denying that fact. There's no use you trying to be something you're not, because then the world will be missing the influence of an amazing person who's trying to do a job someone else has already got covered. Oscar Wilde probably said it better:

Be yourself; everybody else is taken. ~ Oscar Wilde

So here's the thing. I could go on for hundreds and hundreds of words about how you, personally, are awesome, and then do that again six billion times. But you know I'm not that patient, and because I don't know you nearly as well as the people who truly love you, I wouldn't even scratch the surface of said awesomeness. You're just going to have to trust me that just because you're not flawless - and remember that I consider that a compliment because flawless is the highest level of boring - doesn't mean you're not absolutely, irrefutably awesome.

Now go out there and fail, you awesome soul.

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4 Personal Obsessions That DON'T INVOLVE BOOKS

Now, it might surprise you to realise this, but I'm actually a multi-faceted creature. Every so often - admittedly pretty rarely, but it still happens - I'll actually think about something other than books.

I'm presuming you actually want to know what these things are. If you don't, then that's a shame, but I'm going to ramble on about them anyway and hope for the best. At the very least, I'll have had fun writing about the stuff I love, right?

I guess I'd better get cracking then.

#1 - Musical Theatre

Singing is basically my life. You're a special person if you can shut me up.

I'm also a massive drama queen and sometimes have to be shoved off stage during drama class. (Sadly I won't be taking it for GCSE, but I like to get my moment in the spotlight.)

And I like to dance, too. Yes, you can dance in a wheelchair.

Singing + Acting + Dancing = Musical Theatre. I've pretty much only ever been in a school play of The Lion King, but I watch it. Lots. The only reason I can't list my top ten favourite musicals is because I keep changing my mind on the order, and just because I kind of lost track of Glee in its last two seasons doesn't mean I don't want to be a member of the New Directions more than I want you to read this post.

No wait, I didn't mean it! Come baaaack ...

#2 - The Olympics and Paralympics

For three and three quarter years out of every four, I will pretty much forget about this particular obsession. I just live my life as normal, surviving on books and musicals and everything else I'm about to talk about. But those other two or three months? That's Games time.

Firstly, it's the one time when I'm actually prepared to watch sport. I guess a lot of people might hate me for this, but football manages to bore and confuse me at the same time, rugby just kind of makes me cringe because people get so injured, and however amazing the Tour de France (that big long cycle race) is, it takes a long time to watch each stage. But gymnastics? Diving? Sports I don't usually get to watch, where British athletes have a chance ALL IN THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS WHEN I HAVE NOTHING MUCH TO DO? Huzzah.

I obviously have my own reasons for loving the Paralympics even more, given the whole "disability inspiration" thing, but what I love most is that The Last Leg (a kind of news satire show involving disabled comedians that started as a way of explaining the London 2012 Paralympics) will be on.

But while all that sport is amazing, what I really love is all the athletes' backstories. For the last couple of weeks, I've just been watching interviews on YouTube pretty much constantly; Laura Trott and Jason Kenny (a pair of British track cyclists who are engaged and have ten Olympic gold medals between them) are pretty much my OTP right now. I read athletes' Twitter feeds because they describe Olympic village banter. Or ... as BBC sport presenters have been brilliantly describing it ...

COPACABANTER.

#3 - Sherlock Holmes

I love any sort of murder mystery in general, whether it's in books or on TV (you should see the creepiness of my Netflix history), but there's just something special about the original consulting detective. Maybe it's because he's captured the imagination of so many amazingly creative people, but anything touched by Sherlock Holmes always seems to turn to gold. Look at Elementary. Look at Robert Downey Jr. Look at Sherl-

Actually, don't look at Sherlock. That entire show in trouble with the fandom for not existing right now.

If anyone knows about some decent books inspired by Sherlock Holmes, please let me know. I've just discovered that Brittany Cavellaro's A Study in Charlotte (which I've been quietly coveting mostly due to its beautiful cover for the last six to nine months) isn't available in eBook format or stocked by my local bookshop, and I'm going to have to order a LOT of books on Amazon to make the shipping worth it. I might as well find some other Sherlockian reads to get at the same time, right?

Okay, that one was slightly to do with books. Forgive me. What was I thinking, talking about books on a book blog?

#4 - London

I've always been somewhat drawn to the capital city of my beautiful little country. It's so ... iconic, I guess? I just love how many places you can get to quickly - and how many places you can get to just by walking - a concreted, twenty-four hour city is kind of mindboggling when you can't even walk a mile to the local train station because there isn't any pavements or street lighting. I will live there one day. I will.

Don't doubt me, internet. London has the West End - not to mention half the publishing houses where I'd love to work in one day. I'll fight my way there no matter what.

***

In the comments: What obsessions do you guys have that I might not have heard about? Might we have any in common? Or are mine just too weird for that?

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13 Facts About Me (Because I'm Dreadfully Unlucky)

There are a few reasons I thought I'd use this post to tell you guys about myself. It's partly because I haven't said much about myself on this blog, partly because I was missing my GIFs, but mostly because, as a benign ruler, I feel a responsibility to let you know what kind of girl your overlord will one day be.

You think I'm joking. But you shall never know if I really am . . .

     1.   Yes, we all know it's cliché, but I love Harry Potter so much that I would break into Hogwarts if I knew its location. At the age of eleven, I didn't want to go to secondary school open days, because I was convinced it would all turn out to be a waste of time when my powers as a witch were announced. As of now, they still haven't bothered to surface.

     2.   I want to read 100 books this year. To some people, I know that's not a lot, but I have school and exams this week and all sorts of other fun stuff going on that prevents me from constructing a book nest. As of today, I am a whole book ahead of schedule, and that is good, but I can tell it's never going to last. If you need me on December 31st, I will probably be buried in books as I make a last-ditch attempt to make the target.

    3.   It is highly likely that I will never have a favourite author. Possibly not a favourite book, either, because I have reading commitment issues and there is no way I can just choose just one. Not when there are HUNDREDS of possibilities and PRACTICALLY EVERY AUTHOR is amazing and lovely and crazy talented.

    4.   Don't panic, but I have a strange obsession with forensic crime dramas on Netflix. Like, the kind which are based on real life and feature grainy shots of slightly gruesome evidence. Maybe you want to back away slowly now - this is generally a wise policy when dealing with me - but I do like a few relatively normal shows. Yes to Modern Family, The Graham Norton Show, and anything even remotely related to Arthur Conan Doyle (I'm looking at you, Sherlock and Elementary).

    5.   My favourite subject at school is English because I love writing. You also get ten minutes at the start of the lesson to read any book you like, pretty much, and that is my idea of heaven. No-one is surprised by any of this; it's me we're talking about, but hopefully you should be reassured by the fact that your resident book lover reads constantly and writes . . . sometimes.

    6.   On the subject of writing, I actually do write novels sometimes. I am yet to finish one, but my current W.I.P is about boarding schools and posh boys and poker. You'll need to forget about that now, because it gets worked on pretty sporadically and I've no idea if it's any good. Any hopes will soon be smashed, judging by what's happened before with other book-ish things.

    7.   Marzipan is the best substance known to man and I love it even more than chocolate. That is the end of this conversation unless you have any chocolate-covered marzipan.

    8.   In an ideal world, my books would be pristine, but I'm a hopelessly messy reader who wishes she wasn't. I have this horrible habit of eating as I read, because it's dinnertime and no this chapter cannot possibly wait half an hour. Which is all fine and dandy until something gets dropped on it - inevitably - and my inner book perfectionist makes me spend that half an hour mopping up spilled chorizo (it's usually chorizo), which just makes the stain worse.

    9.   Um . . . there are certain books I like to smell*, and certain ones I don't. Because it isn't weird at all to think that fiction books from WH Smith's have really bitter-smelling ink, and yet revision guides smell amazing. I don't need to read the knowledge as long as I take it in through my nose, right? RIGHT? (If not I need to go and revise for Year exams like, now.)

*Read just the bold and I sound like Yoda.

    10.  You knew this already, but I am weird and there's no way I'm ever going to be ashamed about that. Yes, my laugh is weird and I talk too fast and I regularly have spirited arguments about things that only exist in people's imaginations. That's what makes my life awesome and it's not about to change.

    11. I like to think that I'm quite musical, when the mood takes me (as in when I don't have my head buried in a book). It gets to the point where I literally cannot remember a point where I haven't been singing: I must admit that it's constant and more than a little bit annoying for everyone else, but I promise to stop as soon as someone tells me how. And then there's the loud, bad French Horn playing.

    12.  At least half of my t-shirts contain a Big Bang Theory reference. In fact, I'm wearing one right now, and you should be too.

    13.  And lastly, because I feel like I need to reinforce this most of the time, do not talk to me when I'm reading. It hurts my poor little bookworm ears and if I'm lucky I'll be reading a hardback, so when I do hit you over the head you'll be so concussed you won't remember long enough to file the assault charges.

    Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. BUT DO NOT TALK TO ME WHEN I'M READING!

Now thank you for reading about me, minions. I'm sorry if I'm mind-numbingly boring, but hey, there was only one way to work out exactly how dull I am . . .

***

In the comments: You know what's coming, right? Tell me some facts about you! 1 or 3 or 5 or however many you want. It depends how much you're willing to reveal . . .

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A Letter to my Older (and Hopefully Better) Self

So, I've been poking around the bloggersphere a bit more lately, and I've noticed that everyone is writing 'letter posts'. You know, letters to the people they used to be, letters to the person they want to become (just take a look at the title) and the people they might someday meet.

I'm not one to ignore a trend, and this looks like a fun bandwagon to jump on. I therefore present to you, the loyal followers of Another Teen Reader (and whoever else happens to find it) A Letter to Me When I Leave School.

Hi, Year Eleven Lara!

Do you have any idea who I am? Probably not - I'm barely a Year Nine yet and you're probably far too cool to have people like me on your radar. But I know an awful lot about you.

Provided I don't go through a complete personality change in the next three years, you're obsessed with reading, writing and musical theatre. You're probably still a blogger, but it doesn't matter if you aren't, because I've told everyone who'll listen that you should only blog if you want to, if you love it.

You got your GCSE results this week, didn't you? I'm sure they were fantabulous, and my Mum keeps saying you'll do well, but don't fret if they're not exactly what you wanted. You tend to have overly high expectations of yourself anyway. Heck, I don't even know what you took those exams in, which doesn't bode well.

I'm supposed to choose them at the end of this year.

Ooh, what did you read last? I'll tell you I just read Playlist for a Broken Heart, because I'm curious to see if you still remember it. It was good but not life-changing (or maybe it turned out to be . . . please say more!) and I'm still thinking a bit like the main character. Have you dived into Lord of the Rings yet? Or finally ventured properly into the scary world of Adult Fiction? I'm so jealous, because you'll have read so many more books than me!

I wrote this letter so you remember who you used to be, and therefore who you are, in case you're feeling lost. You are Lara. Reader, writer, singer, weirdo. Just because the years might have made you a bit different to me, we're still the same person. So do me a favour and follow your dreams. I want to know that I won't be stuck in some dead-end job that I hate when I finally grow up. I am here to remind you of all the things you wanted to be when you were little: horse-rider, singer, novellist, Agony Aunt, psychologist, computer programmer. . . the list is as endless as it is unrelated. I'm hoping by now you'll have some idea of the direction you want to take, but it's okay if you don't. You're only sixteen.

I hope you are a better person than me not because I am bad now, but because a person should always want to improve themselves. I hope you help people more, have less prejudice (have learned how to spell prejudice) and have the determination to find your true passion.

Hoping that you'll give me a good life to look forward to,
Year Eight (Nearly Nine) Lara

***

Thank you for indulging me with that, guys. I know it's very personal - but letters to future and past selves are actually really good fun to write? What would you say to yourself in three years? And do you have anything to say to future ME?

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She is Malala

I wasn't planning to write this blog post, but as you're about to see, I felt I needed to.

I just finished I am Malala, the autobiography of Malala Yousafzai. If you've never heard of her, she's a Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out about female education, and one of my biggest role models. The entire book was utterly amazing, but one particular quote stuck with me:

"Back home I was considered a bookish girl because I had read eight or nine books. But when I came to the UK I met girls who had read hundreds of books. Now I realise I've read hardly anything at all and I want to read all those hundreds of books."

Malala Yousafzai, I am Malala

This suddenly made me realise: without an education, none of us would be able to read the books we love so much. We wouldn't be able to meet the characters that have become our friends, or hide in the settings that have become our homes. We wouldn't be able to read, and for me, that's a big part of my identity. 

What's amazing about Malala isn't just that she fights for her education - she really makes the most of it. You can see that from Malala's promise to read 'hundreds of books'. In Pakistan, it's traditional for women to ink flowers and birds onto their skin with henna, a paste that dries to look a bit like temporary tattoos. Malala and her friends would ink formulas and chemical elements all down their arms instead. She had a massive testing rivalry with another girl, Malka-e-Noor, and cried the first time she came second instead of first. Because, no matter how hard we complain about school, it's still hugely important, and the hardships Pakistani girls face show us how lucky we are to get one. After all, education gave us books, and it's giving us a future.

Why shouldn't we be grateful? And why can't all of us get one?

I am Malala has showed me that, even when school is at its hardest, I should remind myself how privileged I am to be able to go without fear or death threats. Please, please read it.

That way, we can all join the fight.

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The Essence of Being A Teenager

(I got the idea for this post here: https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/tcwt-november-2014-blog-chain/. I'm not officially part of the chain, because I found the website months after it had finished, but I thought I'd have some fun with it anyways.)

Being a teenager is hard.

But it could be a lot harder.

It's also crazy.

But don't we all need a little more crazy in our lives?

Sometimes we get treated like children.

But we also get to behave like them.

Sometimes we have to be grown-ups.

But it's more fun than you'd think.

Our friends mean far too much to us.

Which is pretty cool, if you think about it.

We don't even have a proper job yet.

So we still have time to decide what to do with our lives.

School can suck.

But only sometimes.

We're 'too old' to read children's fiction.

And adults' is maybe a little daunting.

But that's okay because YA is AMAZING!

Whatever you have to say about it, being a teenager is . . .

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