Tag Archives: Bryony Gordon

You Got This by Bryony Gordon Book Review

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You Got This by Bryony Gordon Book Review

You Got This is a truly fabulous book for teenage girls. Being a teenager is hard, and being a teenage girl even more so. It is a time I would not want to go back to. Especially with all of the toxic message girls get now. The rise of social media has also caused problems. This brilliant book from the amazing Bryony Gordon covers periods, comparisons and has a fantastic chapter letting teenage girls know they are not snowflakes, but are instead brave people who are standing up for equality on the basis of gender and race. I am so sick of the word ‘snowflake’. The generation who calls out racism and sexism anytime they see it are not ‘sensitive’. They are brave and making the world a better place. This book also covers mental health extensively which is to be commended. The mental health of our children is so important and educating them about mental health is essential. I also loved the bit on how girls are taught to compare themselves to others. This book is fun, smart, entertaining and full of everything I wish I had been told when I was a teenager. Absolutely brilliant.

 

I wanted to be a unicorn. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be an astronaut.

But the thing I really wanted to be more than anything else, was a little less like me.

It was only recently that I realised not wanting to be me was at the heart of every dumb decision I ever made. And so now I am writing this book containing all the life lessons I wish someone had taught me.

A book for the teenage girl in me. And for every teenage girl out there. Because the most powerful thing you can be when you grow up is yourself.

You Got This is available here.

 

The Baby Show Review | 2015 Highlights

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The Baby Show Review The Baby Show Review 2015

You may have noticed by now that Frost Magazine has a new(ish) parenting section. To find great articles for it, and have a bit of fun, I headed to The Baby Show at the Excel Centre. The Baby Show is the UK’s leading event for bump, baby and beyond. This year it also incorporated The Work & Family Show. a section sponsored by My Family Care and dedicated to helping new parents return to work after having a family – giving them access to a range of ideas for starting up their own business and advice on how to make the successful transition to the role of a working mum or dad. The Baby Show itself is sponsored by Made for Mums.

The Baby Show Review talks

There is a lot to do at The Baby Show and you really get your money’s worth. There are a lot of great exhibitors and you can buy pretty much anything you could ever want for your offspring as well as getting plenty of advice. In fact there was over 200 brands exhibiting including Mothercare.com, iCandy, Chicco, Emma’s Diary, mamas & papas, Maxi-Cosi, Quinny, Stokke and Tommee Tippee. There was plenty of talks on The Baby Show stage and the Work & Family Show stage. On The Baby Show stage nutritionist and author, Annabel Karmel MBE gave a great talk on weening, leaving the audience feeling inspired. Other experts who gave great talks included breast-feeding gurus Clare Byam-Cook and Geraldine Miskin, sleep experts Jo Tantum and Lisa Clegg, fitness guru, Michelle Heaton and child safety expert, Tracey Taylor from the British Red Cross. Tracey was great and showed the audience how to save their baby’s life. It was fascinating stuff and I can recommend taking a Red Cross class on first aid for your baby.

The Baby Show Review sling

Treading the boards of The Work & Family Show stage experts include Daily Telegraph journalist and author, Bryony Gordon, Stylist Editor, Lisa Smosarski, business coach and founder of CEO Mums, Nicola Huelin, Chief Executive of Working Families, Sarah Jackson and prize-winning journalist and former editor of Psychologies and Good Housekeeping, Louise Chunn.

Louise Chunn gave a great talk on being a working mother. Louise also talked about the fact that her own mother was always starting businesses and that her most read article was one about her regrets about being a working mother.

This year’s charity partner was Theodora’s Children’s Charity which works hard to fund laughter in children’s hospitals, hospices and specialist care centres across the UK.  They train ‘Giggle Doctors’ who are professional performers such as magicians, singers, actors and musicians, to bring magical moments and laughter to brave children in difficult times.  It is a worthy cause so donate if you can.

The Baby Show Reviewannabel

Highlights on The Work & Family Show included:

A CV Master Class – how to make your CV stand out from the crowd after a career break

Building your Network – building relationships

Balancing work and family

Building your personal brand – gaining confidence and believing in yourself

Visitors will listen to industry experts and inspirational working mums give their advice on how to balance work and family and choose the career path best for them.  The Baby Show stage will also host a dedicated session on Shared Parental Leave and what it will mean.

Other highlights of The Baby Show include:

Catwalk shows with all the latest fashions in maternity, baby and toddler wear

Exclusive show offers and competitions from top parenting brands

A complimentary crèche where parents can drop off their little ones

The Baby Show Stars’ themed competition held by Bumpkins Photography where the Show’s cutest baby will be awarded a high end, exclusive photo shoot

Dedicated baby facilities including the Tommee Tippee feeding area where parents can take advantage of heating and sterilising equipment, complimentary baby food and a comfortable space for breast feeding.

 

www.thebabyshow.co.uk / www.theworkandfamilyshow.co.uk

The Baby show was a brilliant event. I learned a lot and there is a lot to do. It takes a full day to go around all of the stands and listen to the talks. There is also an option for networking and a complimentary crèche so you can take a look around without your little ones. The Baby Show will be in Birmingham in May next, then Olympia in London in October, followed by ExCel again next February. Catch it if you can.

The Baby Show Review pregnancy

There Is Only One Word For Sex Selective Abortion: Gendercide. But Should It Be Illegal?

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gendercide, sex selective abortion, abortionOn Monday the 23rd February MPs voted on whether to amend the serious crime bill to make abortion based on foetal gender a crime. MPs ultimately rejected the amendment to the bill from Fiona Bruce. But was it the right decision?

Sex selective abortion is only one thing: gendercide. This brilliant article on gendercide in The Economist states the shocking fact that at least 100 million girls have been killed. It will be much more now, the article was written five years ago, but it has always stayed with me. I always thought sex selective abortion was a problem in China and India, I had no idea that it was also problem in Britain. And lets be clear: it is a problem, and a growing one.

I tend to be wary of amendments to abortion rights. In the US more and more bills are passed to take away a women’s right to her own reproductive future. History also proves that it doesn’t matter if abortion is legal or not, women will still have them. Legalisation means less maternal deaths. I am pro-choice even though I would never have an abortion myself. A woman’s body belongs to herself, not the government. But what about gendercide? Which is a very real crime.

As I write this I am 35 weeks pregnant with a boy. When we told people the sex of our child I was shocked at the sexism. I was told congratulations for having a boy. I was even told it is ‘better to have a boy’. Why? Usually no reason was given. Or a fluster of babbling that made no coherent sense. I was supposed to feel proud that my body was making a boy, as if by making a daughter I would somehow have failed. What makes a boys life more important than a girls? It’s a good question, if only so we can address and dismantle it. If there is pressure for a white, British, non-religious female to have a boy, can you imagine how much pressure a woman from another culture would feel?

Feminists widely criticised the amendment. Bryony Gordon spoke out against it. Rebecca Schiller wrote an amazing article on it but I think they are both wrong. Should gendercide be illegal? Yes. Schiller says “This is not about whether sex-selective abortion is right. This is about a woman deciding what happens to her body throughout her life and valuing her as the key protagonist in these decisions across her lifetime.” She makes a good point, but if that decision is to kill a baby girl then it is not okay. The Telegraph did an amazing expose on doctors agreeing to do sex selective abortions.

Lisa Hallgarten, chair of Voice for Choice, said: “We urge MPs from all political parties to oppose this dangerous amendment. This is the wrong piece of legislation to address the issue of son-preference and gender discrimination and could disadvantage the very women it claims to be helping. “If passed, this amendment would seriously undermine abortion law and provision in this country, which is clearly the intention of its proposer Fiona Bruce MP.” Some feminist may be up in arms but what is more anti-feminist than a girl being aborted just because of her gender? One way to fix this is the gender of the child not being revealed until the abortion limit has passed.

Women’s reproductive rights have been hard won and should always be protected but the truth is sex selective abortions are becoming more common in Britain. Christina Odone wrote a great piece in The Telegraph and stated that ‘We should be up in arms at the thought of would-be parents deciding that girls are not worth conceiving. In a country where the culling of baby seals brings out street protests, the culling of baby girls is happening without a murmur.”  We must defend the rights of girls. In the womb and out. Labour MP Yvette Cooper MP has said that the practice of aborting a foetus simply based on their sex is already illegal, but more must be done to enforce it. Over one million girls are lost every year to gendercide. Something must be done about it. We must show that a girls life is just as important as a boys.