BeYOUtiful: Radiate confidence, celebrate difference and express yourself

At a time when the mental health of our young people has never been more in the news, BeYOUtiful is an important, inspiring and empowering insight into what it actually means to be beautiful and, more importantly, who gets to decide. It's absolutely not a guide to what to wear, how to apply make-up or to pose for a selfie, but it is a guide to believing in yourself, using your beauty as your own unique superpower and building up the confidence of those around you.

Written by a beauty industry insider, BeYOUtiful looks at different ideals of beauty through history and culture and also reveals some insider secrets. As well as looking at beauty through the lens of history, science, art and fashion, the author also invites the reader to be a global beauty detective, looking at body shape, hair, skin and beauty around the world using a huge diversity of real-life stories of amazing women, from Marilyn Monroe to Meghan Markle, Cleopatra to Lily Cole, Barbra Streisand to Beyonce.

She encourages readers to be boss of their own beauty and explores the world of social media, encouraging readers to look critically, ask questions and form their own opinion. She exposes the media image manipulation used in the advertising and beauty industries and by influencers on social media, showing readers how to feel positive about themselves and find their own style - encouraging them to start a beauty revolution.

Welbeck Kids is acquiring a well-deserved reputation for stunningly-produced, stand-out non-fiction and BeYOUtiful is a masterpiece. Janmohamed's writing style is irresistible; direct and chatty like an older, wiser big sister, while Timothy’s doodle-like illustrations are perfectly matched - bright, positive and energetic. This accessible book is packed full of fascinating facts, positive tips and useful, practical activities to feel good about yourself and change the world for the better. It's the book equivalent of the old teen magazines, easy to dip in and out of and to come back to when you need a boost. Parents will find it a useful tool for starting conversations.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Every 10+ deserves a copy, every school library needs several.

128 pages / Reviewed by Eileen Armstrong, school librarian

Suggested Reading Age 9+

A fabulous title for a book that really does deliver what it says it will, encouraging children and young people to 'Radiate confidence, celebrate difference and express yourself'.

Since the author works for a major marketing company, she knows all too well how the images we see around us are manipulated into impossible standards of beauty; and how those images impact on girls and young women in how they see themselves. This book helps address the issues this raises, providing clear and useful advice on how to see our individuality and to enjoy diversity in how we all look; each one of us is beautiful, we just need to learn how to see it.

BeYOUtiful is not a traditional 'beauty' book - there are no tips for make up or making the best of our looks - but there are sections on the history of beauty (showing us how different societies saw beauty differently); the variety of body 'types' there are; how to look after and value the skin you're in; and an appreciation of all different kinds of hair and hair styles.

The illustrations by Chante Timothy and the magazine-style layout support the chatty tone of the book; it is a very comfortable, positive read and easy to pick and choose different sections to read. There are also several 'fact boxes' about real people overcoming challenges or achieving against the odds, to remind us that it's not how you look but what you achieve that marks you out.

In BeYOUtiful, the reader isn't being given suggestions for how to change their looks to make the most of themselves; they are being shown that the looks they already have, and their confidence in themselves, are what makes them beautiful. In our world of screens and social media where children and young people are bombarded with images, this is a valuable reminder to love the body you're in and to see beauty in the people around you.

128 pages / Reviewed by Elen Green

Suggested Reading Age 9+