New Book Empowers Young Women To Be Happy, Healthy, and Whole During International Women’s Month
In a world where women are often told that their bodies need to be controlled or suppressed, a new book from Lumen Press, in partnership with The Guiding Star Project and the Vitae Foundation, offers a different narrative. Written by women’s health nurse practitioner and co-creator of The Hormone Genius Podcast, Teresa Kenney’s new book The Happy Girl’s Guide to Being Whole aims to set young women free to believe their bodies were made good, and should be supported and respected. With over 20 years of clinical practice, working with women across the reproductive lifespan, and her service on the board of directors of the Guiding Star Project, a national, “wholistic” women’s health movement, Kenney’s experience amounts to a wealth of information for women seeking the truth about their bodies.
The Happy Girl’s Guide to Being Whole declares that each woman deserves to understand the natural design of how her body works, which leads to a more holistic approach to her health and a deeper appreciation of her worth as a woman. The book discusses the implications on individual women as well as society when 65% of child-bearing aged women are suppressing their natural bodily functions through artificial birth control. Filling in the gaps that high school health classes don’t cover, Kenney proceeds to lay out the risks and side effects of different forms of birth control, which often go unaddressed by the doctors who prescribe them. With full-color design and beautiful illustrations, The Happy Girl’s Guide to Being Whole also covers nutrition, fitness, sleep, self-care, and male anatomy and fertility, making it a well-rounded overview of all things related to feminine well-being.
For co-editors Leah Jacobson, board-certified lactation consultant and founder of The Guiding Star Project, and Megan Drapa, Manager of Research and Education at the Vitae Foundation, the world’s foremost leader in research of abortion decision-making, releasing the book on International Women’s Day is important. It emphasizes that women are unique, different from men, valuable to society, and deserving of deeper understanding and respect of their mind, body, and soul.
“We feel strongly that it’s a fallacy to dominate the narrative on women’s healthcare with reproductive ‘choice,’ when we have failed to empower women with knowledge and truth about their bodies that would allow them to advocate and optimize the whole self,” Drapa and Jacobson concur. “So many young women are hungry for the information this book contains. Teresa’s writing reflects her personality: caring, thoughtful, and very much approachable. The book is written as one girlfriend to another, but don’t let her approachability deceive you. She is an expert in her field. She is trained in NaPro Technology and is skilled at getting to the root causes of women’s health issues—those same issues that most doctors minimize or are content to just cover up their symptoms.”
When asked to sum up the reason for her excitement about getting her book into the hands of young women, Kenney said, “This book is foundational. For years I have had women ask me why women are not told the basic information about their bodies. I am excited that this book will be the answer to many questions young women have about how their unique bodies work, and how vital this information is to their health and happiness.”
