Becoming You for Girls: Everything You Wanted to Know about Growing Up!

Becoming You for Girls is a Christ-centered guidebook designed to help preteen girls understand, navigate, and grow through puberty--physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Written in an accessible, warm, and encouraging tone, the book explains biological changes, emotional development, friendships, identity, safety, wisdom, technology, and faith, all while grounding each topic in biblical truth.

Counselor Darby A. Strickland offers a trustworthy, gospel-shaped vision of growing up that goes beyond body changes to help children grow in wisdom, love, and godliness. Awkward or sensitive topics are handled with gentleness, dignity, and appropriate humor, helping girls feel safe, curious, and confident rather than embarrassed or afraid.

Encouraging girls to embrace their identity in Christ and understand both what is happening and why God designed them this way, the book can be read independently or alongside parents, making it a valuable resource for fostering meaningful conversations about topics like personal safety and body image. An included appendix equips parents with conversation starters about physical and emotional changes, along with practical guidance for navigating even the most uncomfortable questions.

Darby A. Strickland, MDiv, is a faculty member and counselor at the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation (CCEF). She is a contributor to Becoming a Church That Cares Well for the Abused and author of Is It Abuse? A Biblical Guide to Identifying Domestic Abuse and Helping Victims, the children's book Something Scary Happened, and the minibook When Children Experience Trauma. She writes regularly for the Journal of Biblical Counseling. Darby and her husband, John, have three children.

Lourdes Navarro is an illustrator of children's and young adult literature. She completed her higher studies in illustration and graphic design and has spent ten years working in the children's illustration market. She is currently a freelancer in the Spanish market, with a vision to expand internationally.