When Victoria Johnson invited me to write a guest blog about what I would tell my 16-year-old self, I instantly had an image of  being sixteen and looking at myself in the mirror--an image I kept dismissing.   I had a template in my mind about what I should want to tell myself at that age--things about how it was possible to be a powerful woman, about how time would teach me to overcome the superficial.  About relationships and what I should value.   Of course I couldn't think of anything to say.  And finally I did what I often do when I write--I surrendered to the obvious, the banal, to the what-first-came-to-mind-and-is-stupid.   In other words--I began with the image of looking at myself in the mirror.

What followed was a deconstruction of everything I thought I should say.  And Victoria was kind enough to keep it the way it was.    It's up tomorrow on her site...

http://victoriamjohnson.com/

Many thanks, Victoria!