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RLHS alumna Heather Anne Grubbs has been mentoring teen girls for the past several years and now she has found a way to reach a bigger audience by releasing her book, The Devotional for Teenage Girls: a year of inspiration and reflection.

Her journey with helping teen girls started in 2017 when she founded Wildflowers with Purpose, a leadership program designed to bridge the communication gap between teen girls and their parents/guardians and teen girls and educators.

“My passion is helping teen girls,” Grubbs said. “With Wildflowers for a Purpose, I had a vision of creating Wildflower schools and homes. I became a financial planner in 2018 and things kind of slowed down with that, but in 2020 I started searching and praying about what I was supposed to do with the Wildflower organization. All of these thoughts and ideas wouldn’t go away. So, I asked God what he wanted me to do.”

Out of nowhere in May 2020, Grubbs received an email from a publishing company wanting her to write a book.

“Originally, I thought it was a scam,” Grubbs said. “There are a lot of self-publishing companies out there that will market the idea of publishing a book and then ask you to pay to get it started. My husband basically said, ‘Well, it’s 2020, so anything can happen.’ He didn’t tell me this at the time, but two weeks earlier he was doing research and came across a LinkedIn post about a person who wrote this book and was telling about this publishing company and it was the same publishing company that contacted me. The publishing company actually found my website and read my work.”

With a project from the publishing company at hand, Grubbs started writing, but she said something did not feel right about it.

“The first project they wanted me to do was something for younger girls,” Grubbs said. “Honestly, I was so anxious about it. My husband told me with me being super anxious he didn’t know if it was the thing I was supposed to be doing. I prayed about it and called the agent back. When I called the publishing company, the lady told me that a new project had just come across her desk; a 52 week devotional for teenage girls.”

Now with something in her wheelhouse to write, Grubbs got to work.

“It was perfect,” Grubbs said. “It was a devotional meant to empower teenage girls through the Word of God They gave me the outline and it fit so perfectly. I was staying in my brand.”

Writing the book itself was a painful process, Grubbs said.

“They wanted me to write the book in three months,” Grubbs said. “I mean, I have not written anything of this magnitude in my entire life. I’m a chemistry major and I’m a numbers person. Now I have to come up with lots of content and having to pull from memories of my life. I have overcome a lot of things in my life that was super painful. On the other side, I’m glad that I survived and I am so pleased with the product. It is so beautiful and I can’t believe it.”

The reason Grubbs is so big on helping teenage girls, she said, is because her biggest struggles came during her teenage years.

“During those years, I wish I had a mentor,” Grubbs said. “When I was teaching high schoolers I found myself counseling more than I was teaching. It reminded me of the pressure and labels placed on teen girls. I want to help them overcome the labels and pressure placed on them. I believe that all teen girls do want help, I just believe they don’t know how to ask for it.”

Grubbs hopes the book doesn’t just reach teenage girls, but their parents, as well. To give parents insight on how to communicate and lead their teen girls.

“I don’t think teen girls not wanting help is the issue,” Grubbs said. “I think some teen girls are afraid of their environment and others aren’t sure what to ask for or what exactly they need. That is why I have the vision for the Wildflower homes and schools, so they can get the support they need. If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.  The Wildflower schools and homes will give them the tools they need to be set for a lifetime.”

Grubbs book, The Devotional for Teenage Girls: a year of inspiration and reflection, is available on Amazon or anywhere books are available.