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Julie-Anne grew up with loving parents and four older brothers. She was performing in water-ski shows by age six, and appeared to have a happy and well rounded childhood. As an adult, Julie-Anne was successful in numerous careers before settling on the “job of her dreams” as a 911 dispatcher. By early 2008, Julie-Anne appeared to have it all. That changed in a heartbeat on December 7th 2008 with the events presented here. Today, Julie-Anne has released two books, does public speaking engagements, and runs a website, a Facebook page and an online store. Most importantly, she works to remove the stigma of depression and mental illness. For more information, see her website listed below.
Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite
“Things I Wish I’d Known” by Julie-Anne is the book we’d all like to write. Who hasn’t had occasion to think “if I’d only known then what I know now . . .”? Julie-Anne took that lament one step further, and put it on paper, in the hope of helping even one teenager from repeating some of the mistakes she now realizes she made as a teen and young adult. Personally, I play that "if I knew then what I know now” game all too often, and I am sure I am not alone in that regard. Julie-Anne has bared her soul in her effort to help others. In fact, she not only has published this book, but she is also in demand as a motivational speaker, and has at least one other book to her credit.
Some of the advice she gives is universally accepted as common knowledge among adults, but if you think back to your teen years, you may have a difficult time recalling any of it passing through your mind. She presents her own mistakes without condemnation toward the teens to whom she is writing. She spends a large part of this short book trying to convince those very teens that NOBODY else’s opinion about them matters. Their own opinion about themselves is all that really matters, not only in the long run, but in the short term as well. Yet, in retrospect, how many of today’s adults did NOT feel a great deal of pressure in High School just hoping others would esteem them to some degree? “Things I Wish I’d Known” would be a very nice gift for your teenager, or for any teenager with whom you are acquainted. They may not absorb every piece of Julie-Anne’s advice, but if they take ANY of it to heart, you will have helped them cope with at least one of the many pressures they face each day, and helped them along the road to adulthood. I wish this little book had been available when I was in High School. If I only knew then . . .
