Dear Me...

Dear Me: A Letter to my sixteen year old self. I was given this book for Christmas...its taken me this long to get to it. Mental note: must make more time for relaxing reading.

I love the idea of it - the premise is that people, famous people, celebrities write to their younger selves offering advice with the benefit of hindsight. Oh how I wish I could go back and soothe my furrowed 16 year old brow.

This is what I would write:

Stop fretting about not being a pear-shaped 5'2" ordinary girl with a cleavage, like all of your friends. Being tall is good, clothes will always hang better. Having long legs is good, trust me. They last better than boobs. And I'm sorry to say, whilst on the topic, they will not grow any bigger; only for breastfeeding, which is a reality you don't want to even contemplate right now.

Try not to mess too much with your hair. Perms will never work well; if you were meant to have ringlets, God would have blessed you with some.

You will fall in love young so don't worry that you will be alone. When you get that off-the-cuff invite one Thursday night in the pub, your first term of University, do accept it, do not hesitate...it will lead to untold happiness.

Make more time for your Stepmother - one day she will be gone from your life and you'll always wish you had been kinder, nicer, less judgmental than you were.

You don't have to be a writer or a journalist or work in publishing to write for a living. There are many careers where you get paid to write stuff (amongst other things). Be more interested in business, its not a bad thing and its not dull. There are plenty of cool people who turn into captains of industry.

Invest in shoes and handbags.

When you get invited to that house party with those older friends-of-friends...to that farmhouse outside of town - go along - one day that house will be yours, you will raise your kids in it (yes there will be kids!). Have a very close look...

By way of reassurance and to show that your beloved Mummy is always right - most of the stuff you will exhaust yourself worrying about won't ever, ever happen. I promise.

What would you write?