She’s Got Papers – Misses Collection
Reviewed by Evelyn D.

I miss the days in the summer when my two younger siblings and I would set up lemonade stands at the end of our driveway. We could each make a few bucks selling icy cups of lemonade for fifty cents and two Oreo cookies for a quarter. After a few hours of hard work, we’d eventually got bored and call it quits for the day. As we walked through the door I would make sure to check the countertop where my mom would put our mail. It was the most exciting feeling when I found a bright green envelope with my name on it. It meant that one of my friends had written me a letter from sleep-away camp!! Sometimes decorated with stickers, these letters included all of the latest gossip at camp. Who did my friend have a crush on now?! Is she in a fight with someone? I remember even getting jealous when my sister received letters from her friends and I didn’t.

Now, the only letters I get are from colleges trying to get me to come to their school, and maybe the occasional Victoria’s Secret postcard telling me about an upcoming sale. With cell phones, we don’t need stationery anymore—if I want to catch up with someone, I’ll either call or text them. I have to admit that sometimes I miss decorating letters, using colorful pens and going on stamp runs.

I recently got this adorable pack of stationery from www.shesgotpapers.com. My cards are from the Misses Collection, and they have one of three designs: a pair of sunglasses, a lip gloss tube or a pair of trendy jeans, with sayings like “Smooches” or “Good to See You.” The cards are blank on the inside so there is plenty of room for gossip and decorations. The website is designed as if you are writing a letter to someone, which is so sweet! If I were to go back a few years, before we had cell phones, I would totally use these to send to my friends at camp, but now I don’t know what to use them for! We are too old for summer camp, and our cell phones are just so much faster. Society is so fast-paced now; no one has time for snail mail. Children nowadays don’t always learn the concept of patience because everything is so immediate, and things are done at the speed of light over the Internet. Sometimes I wish it would all slow down just a bit—and if it did, I might have a use for my cool new stationery.

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The Cinderella Society
Reviewed by Evelyn D.

The Cinderella Society, by Kay Cassidy, is a book about a 16-year-old girl named Jess Parker. Jess starts out as an outsider—the “nerdy” girl. She is extremely insecure about herself, which causes the school’s most popular, but cruel, girl to pick at every weakness she has. Everything changes when Jess is invited to join a secret sisterhood called the Cinderella Society. This sisterhood encourages its members to be extraordinary and to overcome their personal insecurities, including doubts about their personality, appearance and what they have to offer the world. The girls learn how to become leaders, fighting the wickedness in their lives. The society also makes the girls feel like part of a group; before this fabulous opportunity, they were mostly flying solo.

Every teen girl has insecurities. The Cinderella Society taught me that we all need to learn to accept them and emphasize our strengths as much as possible so that our peers don’t catch on to what makes us a little shaky. We all deserve friends and acceptance; no one deserves to be bullied and stepped on.

I truly recommend this book, because I literally cannot put it down. I read it on my 45-minute train ride twice a day. When I hear the voice over the loud speaker telling everyone to gather their belongings before arriving at our destination in the next couple of minutes, I struggle to read as fast as I can because I’m curious about what’s next! I think it conveys an extremely important message to teen girls about empowerment and self-esteem.

I even entered The Cinderella Society “Be Extraordinary” Sweepstakes by becoming a fan of it on Facebook and posting how I plan to be extraordinary for the day. It may be a little corny to post on a Facebook wall, but I’m willing to take that risk in order to win a cute new pair of heels. If you don’t want to read the book, at least enter this contest—you have nothing to lose (and maybe a new pair of shoes to gain)!

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Teen Reviewers
By: Evelyn D.

Everyone needs advice sometimes. I admit it—teenagers included. We know what we want, but we might have a difficult time finding what’s perfect for us. Even though there are many adults who seem to know what they are talking about, teenage girls would much rather listen to a girl their own age than an “expert.”

For example, since prom is just around the corner, I am starting to think about what makeup would look best with my dress and my features. I am more likely to search “prom makeup ideas” on Blair Fowler’s YouTube channel (a teen beauty and fashion vlogger I trust) than let the makeup artists at Sephora decide my beauty fate for the night. It makes me nervous going to get my makeup done and not knowing what it will look like in the end. This is prom, after all, and I want to be certain that I will have no mishaps and will look my absolute best. Yes, it might be worth it to look at my favorite celebrities’ makeup styles, and, yes, the makeup stylists are professionals; however, my fellow sisters are the ones I trust in matters like this. We are the experts on our own lives.

When my friend tells me that she recently finished a great book and thinks I would like it, I take her word for it, and she gladly lends it to me to read. Even if we have different taste in literature, I am more likely to read something if it is suggested to me by a friend my own age than if I see an advertisement for it that was probably created by someone much older than me.

I trust teen reviewers because they are my age and I agree with what they like. When I know I want to buy a new tube of liquid eyeliner, I think of that one video I watched on YouTube of a girl using inexpensive but great-quality black liquid eyeliner. I write down the name of it and immediately drive to my local CVS to buy it. When I see a video of a girl showing her audience everything she bought that day at Forever 21, it makes me want to run to Forever 21 to see if there is anything there that I might like. This is not to say that I want to be like this specific girl who writes fashion blogs, or another girl who gives relationship tips—what I am saying is that I give my trust to teen reviewers because I hope that I can benefit from them.