Letter to my teenage self

On a recent Friday, Grace Halphen, 15, opened a package containing a book with a glossy red cover, fresh from the presses. Letter to My Teenage Self is a collection of letters from more than 50 prominent and inspiring Australians giving advice to their teenage selves.

A brilliant idea, the contributors range from Collingwood coach Nathan Buckey to singer-songwriter Missy Higgins. What made the book’s arrival so significant for Grace Halphen is that the brilliant idea was hers.

‘Holding it in my hands seems so surreal,’ says Grace, who is the book’s editor and curator.

‘Obviously, it’s been so much work on top of school work, musicals at school and everything else. But it’s been so worthwhile and I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity.’

The book had a deeply personal beginning for Grace, who was struggling with the transition from primary school to secondary school.

‘Girls were mean, social media dictated my every move and I desperately wanted to fit in, but I never felt that I did,’ she writes in the introduction. ‘This all seemed like the end of the world, and I just couldn’t see that I wasn’t the only one feeling like I was on the outside.’

At the school she was then attending, Year 9 students had to do a year-long project. In Year 8, Grace (pictured above) had read Fiona Scott-Norman’s book, Bully for Them, in which 22 famous Australians talk about being bullied and shunned at school.

The book was an inspiration for Grace, who began emailing well-known Australians asking them to write a letter for advice to their teenage self. She sought out Fiona Scott-Norman, and asked for advice on how to contact people. After they met, Grace received an email from the author: ‘By the way, I passed your idea on to my publisher at Affirm Press and they’re interested in publishing your idea as a book.’

A few days later, Affirm Press got in touch, asking Grace if she wanted to go ahead and publish it.  ‘I was like,  Oh. Wow. Okay.’

‘So a year later, I’ve got 53 people on board and I’m about to release a book,’ says Grace, who is now in Year 10 at her new school, Wesley College.

Grace says a common theme that comes through the book is when you are young, you worry about little things that don’t really matter in the long run.

‘For me, the most inspirational thing is that all these people have gone through something, some hurdles during their lives, and they’ve gone on to do such amazing things,’ she says.

‘I think that’s the thing that I take most comfort from and hope lots of other people can relate to as well.’