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Smith Minard is a High School teacher and “teen expert” with a deep love and passion for the age group. A natural mentor and honorary big sister, she has logged thousands of hours spent with young women, hearing their stories, and helping guide them through life with tips and practical wisdom. Smith is a Georgia native, loving life currently in the Pacific Northwest. When she’s not teaching or writing, she is finding joy in her journey by reveling in the little moments, like enjoying a great sunset, a good book in the sunshine, or a hike through the Cascades with her fiancé or closest friends.
Reviewed by Luwi Nyakansaila for Readers' Favorite
Embrace Your Story by Smith Minard is a young woman's guide to finding happiness and a purpose in this ever-changing world. The book provides tools for navigating and creating a life you want for yourself. The author gives tips on how to gain the courage to get out of your comfort zone, search for hope in the most unlikely circumstances, and make long-lasting connections with others. For people who struggle to take the next step in their life, the book has advice on how to make decisions that will align with your desires, and fit in with God’s plan for you. Readers will learn to love themselves, build a community of people with the same values as them, and find stability with routine. Finally, the author will help them find the keys to living a joyful and more fulfilled life.
Embrace Your Story is a beautiful self-help guide highlighting pivotal moments in Smith Minard's life that helped her learn life-changing lessons. She shares these lessons as tips that will help you make decisions in critical moments and addresses many social issues that affect young women such as peer pressure, social media, family disputes, and many more. The book is meant for women, but I think it can apply to anyone who wishes to find the right path in life. So many factors influence what we want to do or be, and having a clear vision of what makes us happy and not others can make it easy for us to make decisions towards our goals. I loved how the author was honest about her life, the hardships she faced when dealing with her parents' divorce, and finding a support group that genuinely understood and cared for her. The book has engaging questions at the end of every chapter to help readers find places to implement these lessons in life and journal their progress. Great work.
