Saturday 11 August 2012

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Pushing the Limits Blog Tour: Katie McGarry on Body Image and Self-Esteem

Today I have the honour of having debut author of Pushing the Limits, Katie McGarry stopping by my blog as part of her UK blog tour! I absolutely loved Pushing the Limits - you can read my rave review here - so I am ecstatic to have Katie on my blog! Read on for Katie's thoughts on self-esteem.

Katie McGarryKatie McGarry on Body Image and Self-Esteem


Every time I stood in the mirror at sixteen I saw the same things: brown mousey hair that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be straight or curly, scars on my side from where I’d been bitten by a dog in second grade, a scar on my hand from when I broke my arm as a child, a big nose, calves that were way too muscular for a girl, and a chest that drew attention from guys who never looked into my eyes thus causing me to wear overly large sweatshirts and to constantly cross my arms over my chest.


In a few words, I felt ugly.

I can’t tell you how often I tried to either lighten or darken the colour of my hair. Sometimes, I would try a make-over with clothes or make-up, but no matter what I did, I still never felt pretty.

Here’s the truth: pretty is on the inside. I’m going to be honest, I didn’t like who I was on the inside and until I learned to love who I was, I was never going to love the girl on the outside.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarryMy character, Echo, from Pushing the Limits has to learn this tough lesson. At the beginning of the novel, the reader meets Echo. Two years ago, she experienced a horrible accident that has left her scarred and labelled a freak at school. She constantly wears long sleeves or gloves to keep people from seeing the scars on her body.

The truth of the matter is, after a string of events, Echo became a shell of the person she used to be. How could she love her outside if she was so lost on the inside? Throughout the story, we get to see Echo examine herself and it was utterly amazing to write this story and see how Echo emerged from her shell and found confidence. As Echo’s confidence grew, her body image grew. What declined was her obsession of what other people thought of her.


Echo found beauty in her artistic talents, in her friendship with her best friend, in her relationship with Noah, and through therapy she found that beauty within herself.


Thank you, Katie, for such an awesome guest post! Be sure to check out Katie's website and get your hands on a copy of Pushing the Limits, which was released on 3rd August!

2 comments:

  1. What a great guest post! I felt the same way growing up but I can feel my confidence grow as I'm able to like myself better.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I'm so glad your confidence is growing! :D

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