**Finding Inspiration and Perspective: A Reflection on Life-Changing Books**

As I reflect on my life, I realize that certain books had a profound impact on me, especially during my teenage years. These stories not only resonated with me but also helped shape my personality, relationships, and worldview. One book in particular, "Eliza's Monsters," came to mind as I read it again, years later. The main character's struggles and experiences felt eerily familiar, and I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if I had discovered this book during my formative years.

Reading "Eliza's Monsters" was like looking into a mirror, seeing myself reflected back at me. The protagonist's anxiety and nervousness felt like my own, and her relationships with others were relatable on a deep level. As an anxious teenager, I often found myself overshadowed by my best friends, who had larger-than-life personalities that seemed to dominate every conversation. I struggled to find my own voice and experiences, feeling like I was stuck in the background while they took center stage. In hindsight, I realize that having books like "Eliza's Monsters" available would have been incredibly helpful. It would have shown me that I wasn't alone, that there were others who felt and thought like me.

The experience of reading "Eliza's Monsters" was not unlike looking into a terminal illness-stricken soul. The author's words cut deep, piercing my defenses and forcing me to confront the insecurities and fears that had been holding me back. This book helped me understand that I didn't have to be defined by my anxiety or my relationships; I could forge my own path and discover who I was meant to be.

Another book that resonated with me during this time was "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore. In the midst of my Twilight-era obsession, I devoured fantasy novels, often finding myself swept up in stories about complex characters and relationships. "Graceling" stood out among these books, however, as it presented a relationship that felt refreshingly healthy and supportive. The bond between Katsa and Po was a beacon of hope in an era where toxic masculinity and codependent relationships seemed to dominate the genre.

What I loved most about this book was the way it challenged my perceptions of what it means to be strong and independent. Katniss Everdeen, another complex protagonist, had long been a role model for me – her quiet strength and determination inspiring me to be more confident in myself. However, "Graceling" offered something new: a nuanced exploration of relationships that prioritized mutual respect, trust, and communication over possessiveness or control.

In contrast to the often-toxic relationships I'd seen in other books, Katsa's relationship with Po was like a breath of fresh air. They were two strong individuals who respected each other's boundaries and allowed each other space to grow and evolve. This portrayal felt especially important during my teenage years, when I was struggling to define my own identity and navigate the complexities of relationships.

**Breaking Down Barriers: The Importance of Diversity in Literature**

Another book that had a profound impact on me was "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas. Growing up in a predominantly white, upper-middle-class town in the Midwest, I rarely encountered people from different racial backgrounds or with diverse experiences. My private school and neighborhood felt like an echo chamber, where everyone seemed to share similar perspectives and values.

This book shattered my complacency, forcing me to confront the realities of systemic racism, police brutality, and social inequality that had been invisible to me until then. Thomas's vivid portrayal of Khalil's experience – a young black man caught up in the crosshairs of racial injustice – was both heartbreaking and eye-opening.

As someone who had never encountered people from diverse backgrounds or experiences, I felt like I had been living in a bubble. "The Hate U Give" shone a light into that world, illuminating the struggles and triumphs of characters like Khalil, Starr, and Maverick Carter. This book showed me that there were countless stories waiting to be told, perspectives waiting to be heard.

**Empowerment through Representation**

These books not only spoke to my own experiences but also offered a message of hope and empowerment. They reminded me that I didn't have to conform to societal norms or expectations; instead, I could forge my own path and discover who I was meant to be. Reading these stories helped me develop a more nuanced understanding of relationships, identity, and social justice.

If there's one takeaway from this reflection, it's the importance of representation in literature. Books like "Eliza's Monsters," "Graceling," and "The Hate U Give" show us that diverse voices and experiences are essential for growth and understanding. They challenge our assumptions and broaden our horizons, helping us see the world through new eyes.

As I look back on my teenage years, I realize that having access to these books would have been a game-changer. They offered a lifeline of perspective, helping me navigate the complexities of relationships, identity, and social justice. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam and this is top five Wednesday if you are new to top five Wednesday I will leave the link to the Goodreads group down below for topics and such this week's topic is books for your younger self so this was actually a topic that was recommended to me on Twitter I asked him like I'm bulk fill a ton of videos before I'm going on vacation see I'm filming this before I've even gone down to Florida for book net fest and for seeing Sarah Jane and everything but I wasn't sure what to film and someone recommended this is a possible topic and I was like that's a great topic for taught by Wednesday but it's all pretty challenging so the whole like theme of this topic is books that you wish your younger self had read because of maybe adding yourself esteem or giving you a better like world view or a new perspective or something like that and there's a ton of books and I'm like oh I'd have had fun with these when I was younger but these are more books that I feel like could have potentially taught me something but also it's super difficult to think of myself as a teenager I mean it's been a while over ten years obviously it's not been in those shoes and I've changed so much especially in your 20s you just change so much and I've had a lot of big life events that have really impacted my particular personality so it's hard to think back like to what I was like as a teenager and like I know what I was like as a teenager but like my thought processes you know so I'm probably taking this a little bit too seriously but it's like so the first book or rather a series is under the never Scott by Veronica Rossi this is a dystopian young adult series and it came out I think around that the post Twilight Saga time of young adult releases because it definitely has some similar beats to Twilight but the thing about this series is the relationship in here is incredibly healthy and even though there's some things like the two main characters get separated in the second book like every way that came out around that time their relationship is so strong and they also have really strong friendships and I think that would be a good alternate perspective to what Twilight was showing which I loved Twilight has like most people did at the time so having this kind of like toxic codependent relationship juxtaposed by this that was not codependent and they were really independent people and they both had their strengths and they both supported one other right after Twilight because it's still some of those same beats that would have felt really like homey to me at that time I think it's about a good book for me in my teen years then we have Eliza and her monsters by Francisca sepia this is a book that's all about like fandom but also the main character has some mental health stuff going on such as anxiety and depression and what I was a teenager up into adulthood and to only very recently I had unmanaged panic disorder and anxiety and I still have anxiety he thought he never goes away but my panic attacks are not controlled by medication that works for me and I think seeing someone even having anxiety would have been so groundbreaking for me because I lived my entire teen years not knowing that I had a mental health condition it was talked about as you have a nervous stomach it was treated like indigestion and no one told me you have anxiety until I was an adult and it like the damage had been done of like the years stress and panic and just awfulness trying to manage this thing that I didn't know was actually a thing and something that I blamed myself for and thought even you know as part of my anxiety that something else is causing you know like oh my gosh living with a mental health disorder that you don't know what it is especially as a teenager it's horrific so this would have been fantastic to actually see a book character that had anxiety and relating to that and also seeing them participate in fandom which it would have been different back then in the fandom as we said like saying live journal then the fandom in here but it's still a bit of so cool just to see that because I was kind of dipping my toes into that and I think I was related to this book a ton when I was a teenager I really do it now but even as a teenager have been really cool then we have since you've been gone by Morgan Matson this is a contemporary story it's about a girl whose best friend kind of big takes off something happens where she leaves her a list of things to do like experiences to have kind of like a summer bucket list and I relate to this a lot as an adult reading this a couple years ago and I read it because I was like I am this main character like as a teenager again my personality is really flushed out over the years and I've gotten to be a lot more of spoken and independent and all these things but as a teenager and I feel like a lot people do this you have this like best friend and I always bonded with people who have really large personalities and I still do but I feel like a lot of times I have best friends in high school that really overshadowed me and that I like became the most codependent with and I didn't have a lot of my own experiences because I was anxious and nervous and whatever and I think again having something like this works like I could see myself in it and also see like look you can do more and you can try these new things and you don't have to be like attached to your best friend and you can make other friends and all that stuff would have probably prevented a lot of stress because I'm sure some of you have also these kinds of experiences of as a teenager having these friendships that implode as like a you know preteen and teen when you have this best friend they're like your most important thing and then something happens you have a falling out and you feel like rebuild from scratch if you have a larger friend group that doesn't happen so I think just seeing this kind of story it would have been again similar to Eliza her monsters a little more illuminating and probably wouldn't have pushed me into my current personality that quickly cuz it took you know a terminal illness to really push me over the edge but it maybe would have helped a little bit sooner who knows then we have Graceling by Kristen Kish or this is another one I think would have been good in like that post Twilight kind of time period and also I was reading a lot of urban fantasy books that had really toxic relationships with really toxic masculinity and some borderline abusive tropes in them and this relationship in here one CATSA is a wonderful human who is it completely independent and - her relationship with Poe is amazing and again they're supportive they are not codependent they are independent they both go off and do their own thing and still really deeply care about one another and I think that would been a really good example for me again as a teenager who really romanticized things like oh I wish a guy would start a fight with another guy over me oh and also katha is asexual I mean it's not really confirmed in the book but after you see it then you to realize it a little bit so I think even seeing that would have been really good for me as a teenager not knowing things and kind of trying to figure out their own identity and everything like that so yes this was been a good book for like other relationship perspectives and just toxic masculinity codependent dude bros and lastly we have the hate you give by Angie Thomas I grew up in the Midwest I grew up in a town that is fairly segregated I mean not officially obviously but my side of town was very white upper-middle class and I went to a private school which also was very white and upper-middle class and I just didn't have a lot of experiences with other people of different races different gender identities different religions really like anything until I was an adult and moved to the East Coast and just got very immersed in that but in my hometown was very like the same as me and I think having other perspective would have been very good for me I didn't know anything about racial inequality and police brutality or anything just because of the area that I was in and like the nature of where I grew up and no one talked about it and that time it wasn't on the news and it just like and know anything about anything so I think a book like this where it showed another person's perspective and another person's life and what they lived with every day would have been incredibly illuminating and I'm glad that there are books like this out there now and movies coming out of this book which I've seen like the trailers for and cry like every time but I think that's so helpful to people who aren't closed off from a lot of things and don't even know that they can seek out these other perspectives because they're so in their own perspective and surrounded by people just like them so I think this has been incredibly helpful for another perspective as a teenager and I'm really glad that this is a book that's available to people now so those are some books that I wish my younger self would have had comment them below let me know some of your books that you wish your younger self would have had access to so thank y'all for watching and I'll see you guys soonhey guys it's Sam and this is top five Wednesday if you are new to top five Wednesday I will leave the link to the Goodreads group down below for topics and such this week's topic is books for your younger self so this was actually a topic that was recommended to me on Twitter I asked him like I'm bulk fill a ton of videos before I'm going on vacation see I'm filming this before I've even gone down to Florida for book net fest and for seeing Sarah Jane and everything but I wasn't sure what to film and someone recommended this is a possible topic and I was like that's a great topic for taught by Wednesday but it's all pretty challenging so the whole like theme of this topic is books that you wish your younger self had read because of maybe adding yourself esteem or giving you a better like world view or a new perspective or something like that and there's a ton of books and I'm like oh I'd have had fun with these when I was younger but these are more books that I feel like could have potentially taught me something but also it's super difficult to think of myself as a teenager I mean it's been a while over ten years obviously it's not been in those shoes and I've changed so much especially in your 20s you just change so much and I've had a lot of big life events that have really impacted my particular personality so it's hard to think back like to what I was like as a teenager and like I know what I was like as a teenager but like my thought processes you know so I'm probably taking this a little bit too seriously but it's like so the first book or rather a series is under the never Scott by Veronica Rossi this is a dystopian young adult series and it came out I think around that the post Twilight Saga time of young adult releases because it definitely has some similar beats to Twilight but the thing about this series is the relationship in here is incredibly healthy and even though there's some things like the two main characters get separated in the second book like every way that came out around that time their relationship is so strong and they also have really strong friendships and I think that would be a good alternate perspective to what Twilight was showing which I loved Twilight has like most people did at the time so having this kind of like toxic codependent relationship juxtaposed by this that was not codependent and they were really independent people and they both had their strengths and they both supported one other right after Twilight because it's still some of those same beats that would have felt really like homey to me at that time I think it's about a good book for me in my teen years then we have Eliza and her monsters by Francisca sepia this is a book that's all about like fandom but also the main character has some mental health stuff going on such as anxiety and depression and what I was a teenager up into adulthood and to only very recently I had unmanaged panic disorder and anxiety and I still have anxiety he thought he never goes away but my panic attacks are not controlled by medication that works for me and I think seeing someone even having anxiety would have been so groundbreaking for me because I lived my entire teen years not knowing that I had a mental health condition it was talked about as you have a nervous stomach it was treated like indigestion and no one told me you have anxiety until I was an adult and it like the damage had been done of like the years stress and panic and just awfulness trying to manage this thing that I didn't know was actually a thing and something that I blamed myself for and thought even you know as part of my anxiety that something else is causing you know like oh my gosh living with a mental health disorder that you don't know what it is especially as a teenager it's horrific so this would have been fantastic to actually see a book character that had anxiety and relating to that and also seeing them participate in fandom which it would have been different back then in the fandom as we said like saying live journal then the fandom in here but it's still a bit of so cool just to see that because I was kind of dipping my toes into that and I think I was related to this book a ton when I was a teenager I really do it now but even as a teenager have been really cool then we have since you've been gone by Morgan Matson this is a contemporary story it's about a girl whose best friend kind of big takes off something happens where she leaves her a list of things to do like experiences to have kind of like a summer bucket list and I relate to this a lot as an adult reading this a couple years ago and I read it because I was like I am this main character like as a teenager again my personality is really flushed out over the years and I've gotten to be a lot more of spoken and independent and all these things but as a teenager and I feel like a lot people do this you have this like best friend and I always bonded with people who have really large personalities and I still do but I feel like a lot of times I have best friends in high school that really overshadowed me and that I like became the most codependent with and I didn't have a lot of my own experiences because I was anxious and nervous and whatever and I think again having something like this works like I could see myself in it and also see like look you can do more and you can try these new things and you don't have to be like attached to your best friend and you can make other friends and all that stuff would have probably prevented a lot of stress because I'm sure some of you have also these kinds of experiences of as a teenager having these friendships that implode as like a you know preteen and teen when you have this best friend they're like your most important thing and then something happens you have a falling out and you feel like rebuild from scratch if you have a larger friend group that doesn't happen so I think just seeing this kind of story it would have been again similar to Eliza her monsters a little more illuminating and probably wouldn't have pushed me into my current personality that quickly cuz it took you know a terminal illness to really push me over the edge but it maybe would have helped a little bit sooner who knows then we have Graceling by Kristen Kish or this is another one I think would have been good in like that post Twilight kind of time period and also I was reading a lot of urban fantasy books that had really toxic relationships with really toxic masculinity and some borderline abusive tropes in them and this relationship in here one CATSA is a wonderful human who is it completely independent and - her relationship with Poe is amazing and again they're supportive they are not codependent they are independent they both go off and do their own thing and still really deeply care about one another and I think that would been a really good example for me again as a teenager who really romanticized things like oh I wish a guy would start a fight with another guy over me oh and also katha is asexual I mean it's not really confirmed in the book but after you see it then you to realize it a little bit so I think even seeing that would have been really good for me as a teenager not knowing things and kind of trying to figure out their own identity and everything like that so yes this was been a good book for like other relationship perspectives and just toxic masculinity codependent dude bros and lastly we have the hate you give by Angie Thomas I grew up in the Midwest I grew up in a town that is fairly segregated I mean not officially obviously but my side of town was very white upper-middle class and I went to a private school which also was very white and upper-middle class and I just didn't have a lot of experiences with other people of different races different gender identities different religions really like anything until I was an adult and moved to the East Coast and just got very immersed in that but in my hometown was very like the same as me and I think having other perspective would have been very good for me I didn't know anything about racial inequality and police brutality or anything just because of the area that I was in and like the nature of where I grew up and no one talked about it and that time it wasn't on the news and it just like and know anything about anything so I think a book like this where it showed another person's perspective and another person's life and what they lived with every day would have been incredibly illuminating and I'm glad that there are books like this out there now and movies coming out of this book which I've seen like the trailers for and cry like every time but I think that's so helpful to people who aren't closed off from a lot of things and don't even know that they can seek out these other perspectives because they're so in their own perspective and surrounded by people just like them so I think this has been incredibly helpful for another perspective as a teenager and I'm really glad that this is a book that's available to people now so those are some books that I wish my younger self would have had comment them below let me know some of your books that you wish your younger self would have had access to so thank y'all for watching and I'll see you guys soon\n"