Deborah Bull Quotes

In addition to exploring imaginative worlds, I believe that young people should have access to reading material that validates their life, that gives them a sense of identity - to be able to read texts that chimes with their own world, corrals thoughts, and connects with the emotional conflicts of growing up.

The chief symptom of adolescence is a state of expectation, a tendency towards creative work, and a need for the strengthening of self-confidence. Suddenly, the child becomes very sensitive to the rudeness and humiliations which he had previously suffered with patient indifference.

It was only when I got to 21 that my personality started coming out a little bit more.

If I can help get anybody through puberty, I say, 'Good!'

When we're growing up there are all sorts of people telling us what to do when really what we need is space to work out who to be.

Acting can be an amazingly cathartic thing - especially for young girls.

I didn't figure out the makeup or cute hair or clothes until oh, maybe my junior year of high school.

Dating and getting attention from boys was something that came later to me.

As a teen-ager I was constantly trying to please people, which I guess is true of all adolescents.

But there was something psychological happening there that was just a little bit different. And the other thing was, there was no stigma. Kids weren't going into the 'Center-for-Kids-That-Need-More-Help' or something like that. It was 826 Valencia.

Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love.

I know who I am by now. And I am my own brand.

Female adolescence is - universally - an emotionally and psychologically intense period.

Self-love has very little to do with how you feel about your outer self. It's about accepting all of yourself.

I've realised I can be happy.

I was a shy child, and when I was 13, I started wearing braces on my teeth. I used to be acutely self-conscious, and I think writing was a way of withdrawing into my own imagination.

Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts.

By reshaping or decorating our outer selves, we express our inner sense of self: 'I like that' becomes 'I'm like that.'

I don't think I found out what I liked to wear until I was, like, 18.

I've kept a journal since I was 15. And I feel like it's been crucial to who I've become and trying to maintain stuff, a sense of who I am just for myself and not for other people.

I spent my life figuring out ways to make the room OK with me.

I'm a young woman, and I'm growing up and trying to do it in a way I feel comfortable with.

Being down makes you think who you are.

I did struggle with what I want to say socially, but it's important to reflect where I'm at mentally.

I just felt that I was going to fall apart if I didn't learn to be myself.