In this episode we chat with author, coach and mentor Jenna Lee
about supporting women and teens to confidently express themselves through writing.
Jenna shares her story around being a teen and not knowing how to express herself,
how journalling helped transform her life and also about how she got started writing books.
Jenna shares her recommendations for getting started with journalling,
and how it can be such a helpful resource to get our thoughts out and not feel so overwhelmed.
And so much more!
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YMP S3 Ep6 – FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sound bite
[00:00:00] Having a journal prompt really helps them with getting the thoughts out. So it could be anything from, how am I feeling today or what happened at school that made me upset today, or, you know, what’s on my mind. What’s something that I can’t let go of. And just having those journal prompts really prompts you to think about things more deeply.
generic intro
[00:00:23] Hello and welcome to the youth mentor podcast. This is your short burst of inspiration tips and research about teens for parents, educators, and mentors. I’m your host, Amanda Rootsey, founder of teen personal development school Shine From Within and coach to incredible youth mentors all over the world. Now I certainly don’t know it all.
[00:00:40] So I interview the experts about what’s going on for youth today. From psychological insights to really practical advice, this is your moment of inspiration, motivation, and a few laughs amidst the ever changing world of teens and tweens.
Episode Begins
Amanda: Hi everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Youth [00:01:00] Mentor Podcast. I’m so excited to introduce you to Jenna Lee today. Thanks so much for being with us, Jenna.
Jenna: Thank you for having me.
Amanda: Oh, that’s great. So Jenna, you are an author, coach, and mentor supporting daring women and teams to confidently express themselves through writing. Could you tell us a little bit about. How you’ve ended up being an author and a coach and a mentor, and you know what’s your life like? What do you do?
Jenna: Get straight into it. So my journey really began as a teen myself. Yeah. As a teen, I didn’t know how to express myself and I got sent to a lot of counselors and things like that, and I really just didn’t know what to say to them. I just sat in the room and yeah, didn’t know how to speak out verbally, how I was feeling.
Jenna: So I got given a journal and that sort of really, really helped me in [00:02:00] expressing myself and really thinking and writing out how I was feeling. And it really took the pressure off and I really just went from there of really discovering who I was and you know, what was going on, and really tapping into a lot of, lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings.
Jenna: So, As a teen, I went through that of just the love of journal writing and it really supported me with that. And as I got older, I, yeah, went through a lot of stuff as a teen, just doing everything I could to fit in and drinking and just, yeah, doing a lot of things just to have friends and be part of the cool, cool group.
Jenna: So when I got a bit older, I started writing books and I started writing fantasy books, and then it sort of went into, I really wanted to write a book for teens, a self-help book that really talked about these hard [00:03:00] times that we go through in these experiences and. Really write fiction stories about that and share from my own personal experience and then create, create worksheets and positive quotes that can really help people, you know, if they find themselves in this situation, how they can get out of it, and how they can really discover who they are and what resources and just a heap of different worksheets that can really.
Jenna: Just really practical and really help them with moving forward. So that book was really hard and difficult for me to write, and it did take a long time to get the courage to, yeah, really write it. And just going back to my own experiences, it was difficult in that sense. But once I wrote it out and I worked with Amanda to yeah, get the book out there I did the youth mentoring course when I was [00:04:00] writing the book, and I just found it so helpful to really find the right voice. And when you’re writing you gotta, especially a self-help book for teens, It, I really had to get into. A different voice that wasn’t like the mother type voice where it’s very, I didn’t wanna sound to, this is what you gotta do, this is what you should do sort of thing.
Jenna: I wanted it to be like, I was one of them, I was a teen. And going through the same difficulties as them and just a way that they can find that support and advice. That’s sort of yeah, my journey.
Amanda: So Cool. It’s it’s such an awesome book. The book you’re talking about there. Daring Journey. It’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about it.
Amanda: Well a few things actually. One, I feel really privileged to have seen the, it come to life and, and evolve and be expressed through you and, and seeing that behind the scenes journey. But the other thing that comes to mind is that it’s [00:05:00] not fluffy. You know, there are so many self-help books that are really you know, positive and uplifting and important.
Amanda: But yours is all of those things too. But it, it’s, it really talks about. Quite serious issues at times too. Hey, And like things that young that, things that I don’t know, aren’t necessarily talked about that often.
Jenna: Yeah, just those heavy, heavy topics.
Amanda: Heavy, Yeah.
Jenna: Yeah. That we do go through as teens. Not everyone, but like things like self harm and excessive drinking and just very, very heavy topics, but if you are going through it, and I know like I went through that sort of stuff and I really wanted to talk about it and make it okay to talk about it and make teens feel like it’s okay what they’re going through.
Jenna: It doesn’t make them feel you know, that it’s not, not okay. If that makes sense.
Amanda: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It’s such a, Such a beautiful book for someone that might be going through some of those heavier things to really [00:06:00] feel like they’re not alone. And here are some really practical things that you can do to support yourself to, to move through it and express yourself, which is such a big part of all of the work that you do.
Jenna: Yeah, definitely.
Amanda: Yeah, it’s amazing to hear that. I don’t think I’ve heard that story before about the way that you got into journaling and how transformative it was for someone to just give you a journal.
Jenna: Yeah. Yeah, it definitely, definitely saved my life. And I’ll be honest in saying that as a teen, like it was a very difficult time for me, and it definitely did save my life of being able to use that as a resource to really get those thoughts out and not feel so overwhelmed.
Amanda: Mm, amazing.
Amanda: So if someone listening has a young person in their life who they’re thinking, Oh, I think journaling would be really great for them. They, they could use another avenue to express themselves, or I wonder if this might help them. What are your recommendations for actually getting started with journaling?[00:07:00]
Jenna: Yeah, so buying just a blank journal is fine. Just something that they can write on and really encouraging them to look up. You can look up really great journal prompts on like Pinterest or on the internet. The, just having a journal prompt really helps them with getting the thoughts out. So it could be anything from, how am I feeling today?
Jenna: Or What happened at school that made me upset today? Or, you know, what’s on my mind? What’s something that I can’t let go of? And just having those journal prompts really prompts you to think about things more deeply and things that you weren’t sure that you are really thinking about, but it is there like in your mind, and it’s really powerful of just writing it out and letting go of it and forgiving people for things that have happened during the school day, or forgiving yourself or saying something negative towards yourself.
Jenna: It can [00:08:00] be really, really healing and there’s so many different ways that you can journal in, in terms of just letting it. Go onto the paper or affirmations and saying them to yourself in front of the mirror. There’s just so many different avenues that you can take when you start journal writing.
Amanda: I love the idea of, of having those prompts. I feel like it can be a bit we talked about it before we started recording too, just how almost like intimidating it can be to just have a blank piece of paper staring back at you and be told to journal and it will fix all of your problems.
Jenna: Yeah, it can be because it’s daunting cuz you’re like, I’ve got so much I wanna say, but where do, where do I start with how to get that out?
Jenna: And journal prompts is definitely the key to that.
Amanda: Yay. And so how did you go from just writing in a journal to actually writing fantasy young adult books as well as self-help books.
Jenna: I’ve always loved [00:09:00] reading and I think, yeah, I talked to my best friend cuz we really love reading and talking about books together.
Jenna: And I come up with a story idea and I told her about it and she just encouraged me to, Yeah, start writing it. What are you waiting for? Just, just doit. So that sort of was the beginning of, Yeah, writing the book and I found it. So just so empowering for me to create these strong female characters and really talk about, throughout the books, just talk about these issues and struggles that we go through and make it real and make it raw and really talk about what, what we go through every day.
Amanda: Mm. I had the privilege of being on one of your classes in our online academy the other day, where you were, you were running a story writing workshop, and it was so special to see the way that you took the young people through. You [00:10:00] took the teens, the members, through this process of, of starting to craft a story and after they went away for a little while you know, writing themselves, hearing that the stories and the characters that they were coming up with was just so incredible.
Jenna: Mm. And that, that makes me like so happy and is like one of my passions. Just, you know, seeing what they come up with. And the imagination is, So, so important and just yeah, going back to creating these stories and thinking of ideas and using your mind and using everything, you know, to create these characters and what journey and story that they’ll go on and, you know, there’ll be hurdles along the way, but just creating that can be so, so powerful.
Amanda: Yeah, I bet. Ah, cool. It’s It’s so great to just hear, hear about how tools like this, that, how, you know, writing, expressing yourself in, in whatever way feels supportive for you, can help you get through those tougher times. Definitely. As a [00:11:00] young person. Mm. And so if people wanted to work with you in some way, how can they do that? What do you, what do you have on offer at the moment?
Jenna: Yeah, so I’m all about writing, as you’ve probably noticed. So I do have courses, like online courses and workshops that revolve around story writing and journal writing as well, and. Yeah, you can find out more about them on my website, which is JennaLee.biz.
Amanda: Yay. And I can see I’ve got your website open at the moment. I can see that you do one-on-one coaching as well. You have your online courses, the different writing courses for teens and even adults, your books.
Jenna: Yeah, there’s definitely, definitely a lot. And there’s a really great, if you are looking for journal prompts, I do have a book that is my Daring journal, which is a six month journal, and it’s da, it’s got daily prompts. So you go into your journal each day and [00:12:00] write down the responses to the prompts, and it’s got really great worksheets and quotes throughout it as well.
Amanda: Yay. I can’t believe you’re just mentioning that right at the end.
Amanda: That’s the perfect thing for anyone wanting to get started with journaling or to support a young person to, to give it a go.
Jenna: Yeah. I, and I use it every day. I absolutely love it, and I think that’s why I create most of the products and books that I have, because I think of it and I’m like, Oh, that would be cool, and I’d really like that, and then I’d, I’d just create it so, yeah.
Amanda: Thanks so much for, for joining us, Jenna, and sharing a little bit about your story and how you were able to get, get some thoughts out of your head and move through some heavy stuff as a teen.
Jenna: Yeah. Well, thank you very much for having me and yeah, you’re a really great supporter and mentor to me, so it’s, yeah such an honor to be on your podcast.
Amanda: Thanks, Jenna.
Amanda: Isn’t Jenna great. You can find [00:13:00] her at jenna lee dot biz and the daring press.com. Coming up in the next few episodes of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we’ll be diving deeper into one on one mentoring, supporting teens to regulate their nervous system, what to consider when scaling a youth mentor business and lots more.
Amanda: In between episodes make sure to come and join us at Shine from within HQ on Instagram and reach out anytime. If you wanna connect or if you feel like there’s a way we could work together or we could support you in some way, just email us at info@shinefromwithin.com.. Okay, keep shining and I’ll chat with you in the next episode.
Outro
Amanda: Isn’t Jenna great. You can find [00:13:00] her at jenna lee dot biz and the daring press.com. Coming up in the next few episodes of the Youth Mentor Podcast, we’ll be diving deeper into one on one mentoring, supporting teens to regulate their nervous system, what to consider when scaling a youth mentor business and lots more.
Amanda: In between episodes make sure to come and join us at Shine from within HQ on Instagram and reach out anytime. If you wanna connect or if you feel like there’s a way we could work together or we could support you in some way, just email us at info@shinefromwithin.com.. Okay, keep shining and I’ll chat with you in the next episode.
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