Top All Time Favorite Books/Series!

These are my top favorite books in no particular order.  I don't think that I could put them in order even if I tried! :D I hope you enjoy and check them out!
1. Harry Potter Series- J.K. Rowling- This is my absolute favorite book series ever and it was my life when I was little.  I went a little overboard in my Harry Potter believing, meaning that I made myself a robe and a wand, and even some invisible ink(:
2. Twilight Series- Stephanie Meyer- I know you all may think this series is way too hyped up, but the books are absolutely amazing and Stephanie Meyer wrote them so eloquently that they make you feel like you're living it.
3. Pretty Little Liars Series- Sara Shepard- You may say "I watch the TV show, I don't need to read the books" but that is absolutely not true.  The books are completely different and never fail to keep you entertained and guessing!
4. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging Series- Louise Rennison- This series is going to keep you laughing throughout all the books.  It also gives Americans some insight into British lifestyle.
5. The Summer I Turned Pretty Series- Jenny Han- I just finished this series and it literally made me laugh, made me cry, and made me wish for summer.  It was absolutely one of the best book series I have ever read in my life and if you're a teenage girl, you're going to love it!
6. Any Books By Sarah Dessen-  Sarah Dessen is a fantastic author.  All her books are directed toward teenage girls and all have their own life lessons.  She has around 7 or 8 books and I definitely recommend that you read them if you get the chance. (:
7. The Pact, My Sister's Keeper, & Plain Truth- Jodi Picoult- I grouped these together because they are all by the same author.  All of Jodi Picoult's books are extremely controversial and heart breaking but also very good and well written.
8. Dear John, The Last Song, & The Lucky One- Nicholas Sparks- I also grouped these together because of the author, but all of these books are amazing.  They're all very romantic and have some controversy and confusion.  Once again do not rely on the movies for these books because the movie's endings are completely opposite for most of them.
9. Stolen- Lucy Christopher-  OMG, that is almost all you can say about this book.  I don't want to give too much away but you won't be able to put this down and you are going to have extreme conflicting emotions by the end of the book.
10. World of Pies- Karen Stolz-  This book is the story of a girl's life set in the 60's.  Each chapter tells of the summers of her life and you get to grow up with this girl.  It is a great book to read and re-read.
11. By The Time You Read This- Lola Jaye-  This book is so sweet, it is about a "guide to life" that a girl's father writes for her before he passes away.  He writes basically a life handbook for his daughter so that he can help her even in death.
I hope you take the time to check all these books out.  I absolutely loved them all.  Also, don't wimp out and just watch the movies.  Movies never give books justice.(:

Love 146- Please help!

Click Here to Donate

 

Love 146 is a non-profit organization that is trying to prevent child trafficking in third-world countries.  Soon, I will be selling string bracelets (hopefully at school) that will cost $2.00.  All the money I raise is going to go towards Love 146.  

 

I also have a website that is linked up above where you can go and donate as much money as you would like.

There is also more information on the organization at that website.

All I want to know is, Why?

Statistics

• A girl is bullied every seven minutes.
• Almost one-third of girls are directly involved in bullying (as the bully or the bullied)
• 15% of girls who are bullied tell someone.
• 43% of girls fear harassment in school bathrooms.
• When girl bullying occurs: 85% of the time no intervention, 11% peer intervention and 4% teacher intervention. 

Types of Bullying

• Gossiping
• Teasing/Public Humiliation
• Relational Blackmail
• Ostracism/Exclusion
• Creating Paranoia
• Pranks and Technology

Why People Bully

• Boredom
• Desire for Excitement
• Jealousy/Insecurities about: Appearance -Relationships -Attention
• Competition for boys
• Revenge
• Just for fun
• Boost their confidence
• “Gain power” in Social groups
• Desire for Social approval 

Effects on the Person Being Bullied

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Feeling of rejection and loneliness
• Low self esteem
• Suicide
• Obesity and other eating disorders
• Substance abuse and addiction
• Romance and relationship problems
• Personality disorders
• Resentment towards women
• Dropping out of school 

Why do girls feel the need to bully one another?  Why does anyone feel the need to bully another person?  Does it really make you feel good to say hurtful things about another person?

No matter how much the person tries to ignore it, it's going to affect them in some way, whether they show it on the outside or keep it on the inside.  It doesn't matter whether you're saying the mean things to the girl's face or on the internet, it's still going to hurt them just as much.  If you're going to put these things out there on the internet think to yourself "Is what this person did to me so bad that I need to bash them publicly for everyone to see?" because whenever I hear about it all I hear is that it makes the "basher" look bad. 

Why is it that boys can get along so well and girls can't?   

Yea, a boy might be mad at another boy one day but it's all blown over the next day.  But when a girl's mad at another girl they can hate each other for years. There's no reason that a girl should say such mean things about another girl that it pushes that girl to the point of suicide, absolutely no reason.  

PLEASE, think about it the next time you want to say something about another girl that could potentially be hurtful, think to yourself "is it worth it?" is it worth making the other girl feel bad?

Having Faith.

So long, so long.  Today was the busiest, most stressful day of my life.  I had my first official National Honor Society meeting as president this morning at 7:30.  It went pretty well, then I had school all day.  After school I went to play practice for our school play, "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown."  I'm Sally Brown (: I had to leave practice early to get ready for our NHS induction ceremony at 7:00 pm.  Since I'm president I had to lead the whole ceremony and I was so nervous.  I am a horrible public speaker.  I passed my college speech class because I write good speeches, not because I can present them.  I about fainted..but I made it through. (:  This week and next week will be the most stressful because our play is next Friday and Saturday.  Soooo nervous, and I hope we can pull it together before then!! :/ I just have to have faith!!  Then the week after the play, I have to perform in a dinner concert for my Show Choir.  The theme is USO..lame xP  but it all works out because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out November 19th!!! Heaven is almost here (:

Broken Legs, NHS, School Plays, and Obsessions

Okay so I haven't been on my blog in a long while! It's sad, I know.  I started school the other day..well I guess other week, and I've been so so busy.  I enjoyed cross country while it lasted but my darn broken leg had to rear its ugly head again and as of now I can't run.  Last track season, I broke my fibula from running on it and when I started running on it again it hurt really bad, so we went to the doctor and he said it might be rebreaking.  So, tomorrow I'm going to and orthopedic doctor so we can get the dealio on it.  Also, this year I am president of my NHS group (National Honor Society), so tonight I had a forty minute discussion with our new sponsor about new ideas for this year. Along with all this, I am going to start swing choir practice tomorrow after school and on the 20th I have tryouts for our school play.  This year's is going to be "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown," so I'm pretty excited.  I've been in every school play since I've been in high school so cross my fingers for this one!!  Also I'm currently obsessed with: Beauty Gurus on YouTube, organization, Broadway musical songs, makeup & hair products, and longer jean shorts-not as long as bermudas but longer than shorty shorts. (:

Organization, Shopping Lists, and Daniel Radcliffe.

Okay so, I just got done cleaning out my closet.  It's a walk-in closet and it was absolutely full of junk.  I threw like two trash bags full of stuff away (it was mostly little kid stuff that I've never gotten rid of).  I'm so excited that it is clean(er) now!! But there are still more things I need to get to make me have more storage space and to be more organized. Well here, why don't I just put my "shopping list" on here for you to read. (:

-iPod Cover
-Little Plastic Drawers for Make-up
-Big Drawers for Closet
-Under Bed Sto-away Thing
-Drawer for Jewelry
-Clothes Hangers
-Coat Rack

Seem like a lot of stuff? Yea I know..and I'll have to pay for it all.  That's why I'm always babysitting and life guarding and teaching swim lessons.  It's all for the green baby.

Ohhhhhhh!!! and guess what I just got in the mail that I'm really excited about!!! An autographed picture of Daniel Radcliffe.  Yea I know this may seem weird or juvenile but I love him..and Harry Potter..I'm a nerd, get over it. (: But yes, it is my third picture from him..or at least his assistants, and I'm just a tad bit excited.

SIDE NOTE-When I scanned the picture it only scanned the picture part. In reality there's a thick, white border around that picture and that's where he signed it. So don't think I'm lying!!!

Weight Problems?

92% of teen girls would like to change something about the way they look, with body weight ranking the highest.

75% of teenage girls felt 'depressed, guilty and shameful' after spending just three minutes leafing through a fashion magazine.

While only 19% of teenage girls are "overweight," 67% think they "need to lose weight"

90% of eating disorders are found in girls

74% of girls say they are under pressure to please everyone

3 out of 4 girls say they feel pressure to be "super girls"

74% say they often feel stressed

So tell me, with these stats why do we feel this way? And trust me, I'm as guilty as everyone. I call myself fat on a daily basis..but why? Why do we feel this way about ourselves? Why do we call ourselves fat and ugly, even if we aren't? And it's really only in girls. I don't think I've ever heard of a boy not eating because he thinks he's fat, or puking himself every time he thinks he eats too much. So what is it with girls that makes them criticize themselves so much. Is it the images on TV and in magazines? Is it that we think that everyone else is criticizing us so we criticize ourselves? And I've noticed with myself that a lot of the time I call myself fat or ugly just so someone can contradict me, just so someone will tell me "no, you're not, you're perfect and beautiful just the way you are." But not everyone has someone to tell them that, so they just go on with low self-esteem. Let's try something, let's try to love ourselves for who we are and what we look like, no matter what anyone else says. (:

-->The stats above are from this website.

Annie, Shanae, && Cassadee

So, I was looking up a video on youtube and underneath the video there was a link to Hey Monday's "I Don't Wanna Dance" video. So, I clicked on it because I like Hey Monday but I've never seen their videos or like what they look like, and as I was watching I notice that the lead singer, Cassadee Pope, looks like Annie Clark (Fiona from Degrassi) and Shanae Grimes (Darcy from Degrassi, and Annie from 90210) put together. She looks a little more like Annie Clark, but you can kinda tell where I got the Shanae Grimes part from. I'll put pictures down below, Cassadee in the middle, Annie on the left, and Shanae on the right. Tell me if you see the resemblance to and that I'm not seeing things xD

Vlogs, Blogs, and Blood.

I just gave blood like..twenty minutes ago? and I'm feeling pretty dizzy :S but also very good for helping out in that way (: It makes me feel good to do things like that. Also the nurses were very nice and got me a Mt. Dew when I almost fainted and had to lay down. So, thank you nurses! On another note, I've been reading Elle and Blair Fowler's blogs and watching their vlogs and realized that I really want to be like them. I mean to be famous just from one of these things? Amazing. But to be famous you have to be rich, and well..I'm not. I'm far from it. I buy all my makeup and clothes and everything else that I don't absolutely need. That's where life guarding comes in, which I had to do today...and babysitting, which surprisingly is more fun than life guarding, but you don't get as good of a tan ;D So, right now I'm going to go lie down because I'm starting to see spots again, so bye!

Cabinnnn.

Ahh, I've been gone at my cousin's cabin since Wednesday, and there was no cable and very, very limited internet. :/ buttttttt I survived! It was so much fun, my Aunt Darci, Uncle Eric and their two daughters, Ava (three) and Sophia (one and a half) came up too. We tubed a lot, and water skied. But the last night we went out on the boat, my dad was skiing and when he fell he tore his hamstring! It was awful, he couldn't walk the rest of the night. But he's fine now, just really sore (: haha. But I must bid you all farewell and head off to lovely plyometrics. :D