The One and Only You! How to Be the Best, Truest, You-est You

At last, a book for tweens on learning to own and love being who you are--in all your messy, beautiful uniqueness!

Jam packed with fun illustrations, ample opportunities for self-exploration, and open spaces for creativity--The One and Only You! is an "emotions workbook" for kids in fourth through sixth grades. Topics include:

• brain science
• growth mindset and grit
• automatic negative thoughts and how to work with them
• why community engagement matters
• how to make better decisions

Tweens also will learn the value of belonging, diversity, internal motivation, and compassion as well as the power in being ridiculously yourself.

Given current rates of teen depression, anxiety, and suicide--and the fact that anxiety affects nearly one-third of adolescents today--The One and Only You! arms kids early enough in their lives with social-emotional skills that they might reach their teen years resilient and ready to talk back to their negative thoughts.

The One and Only You! also features an appendix for teachers, counselors, youth group leaders, parents, and other caring adults of innovative group enrichment activities for enhancing classroom social-emotional learning for tweens.

"The One and Only You! elegantly normalizes the fears and big emotions carried by all our tweens! Sievers leans on compassion and clinician expertise as she explains the emotions that can contribute to, or erode, our individual and collective wellness. Teachers, counselors, and parents alike will benefit from the plethora of tools provided in the text. Our young adolescents will benefit from the explicit teaching and loving kindness infused throughout." - JESSICA SWAIN-BRADWAY, PhD, Executive Director, Northwest PBIS Network, and author of Integrating and Enhancing Social and Behavioral Learning Using a Multi-Tiered System of Supports

"This is an important book for children, and parents of children. Sievers continues to display her unique skill of approaching kids on their level and explaining life to them in their language. The pages here dealing with anger alone should be required reading for any child in early adolescence." - CHARLES R. CROSS, music journalist and author

of nine books including New York Times bestsellers such as Heavier Than Heaven

"The One and Only You! is the road map every kid needs. Rendered with clarity, funk, wisdom, tenderness, and joy, this book is a celebration of individuality and creativity. . . . It's a user-friendly tool kit of self-reflection and personal empowerment all wrapped up in unconditional love." - DONNA GAINES, PhD, sociologist, social worker, and author of Teenage Wasteland: A Misfit's Manifesto and Why The Ramones Matter

"As a successful professional actor and creative person, the two sure things I needed growing up were a healthy self-esteem and the can-do attitude for forging my own successful creative path in life. This book helps connect the dots through excellent real-world examples and engaging workbook moments to help record thoughts and move through emotions carefully, which help unpack and navigate the sudden flooding of emotions and thoughts that happen while growing up. It's a private guidebook to becoming your true self. Where was The One and Only You! when I was growing up? What a much-needed book!" - LEONARDO NAM, actor renowned for roles in films and TV series such as The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Westworld

"This is a book I'll gift my nieces and nephews and other young people as it offers tools and road maps that encourage us to trust our own creative processes and devote ourselves to a life rich with creativity, purpose, and meaning." - AUSTIN BISNOW, lead singer, MAGIC GIANT

Nicole (Cole) Jon Sievers, MSW, LCSW, is an innovative problem solver, speaker, licensed clinical social worker, educator, social justice advocate, and co-author (with Norene Gonsiewski) of the award-winning It's Your Mind: Own It! A Manual for Every Teen. For over thirty years, she has worked with youth and the systems serving them. Her diverse roles have included therapist, teacher, educational district consultant, Outward Bound instructor, and forensic consultant. Nicole is the founder and executive director of Stand for Courage (standforcourage.org). This bullying-prevention program employs stories, creativity, and popular culture to recognize students leading bystander action to eradicate bullying. In 2014, the SFC school-based program was honored by the American Psychological Association with a Visionary Award. In 2017, an academic study reported that victimization decreased by 69 percent when schools implemented SFC bullying-prevention practices. Building on her bullying prevention work, Nicole also served as a producer for the IndieFlix documentary The Upstanders, about the bystander's role in bullying prevention. Nicole also is the co-founder of Little Mercies (littlemercies.org), a nonprofit creating channels for simple kindness and for the distribution of essentials to ease the suffering of children living in the world's harshest conditions. The current focus of Little Mercies is migrant children awaiting court dates in U.S. border towns and Burmese refugee children in Thailand. An important component of Little Mercies is youth supporting youth. Little Mercies' backpack program has delivered close to 3,000 backpacks filled with essential items. Many of these have been collected by youth and filled by youth. Also an avid supporter of the arts, Nicole served on the Seattle Music Commission from 2014 to 2019. She also is an Advisory Board member of the Origins Project Foundation, which strives to address the challenges of the 21st century through public events with thought leaders. Nicole lives in La Jolla, California. She and her husband, Eric, are the grateful parents of five sons, two large dogs, and a cat.

Darcy Cline is an illustrator, graphic designer, and artist with a career spanning over thirty years. She studied graphic design and art at Central Washington University, The Art Institute of Seattle, and Pierce College, where she won Art Student of the Year and discovered the Student Life programs. This connection led to working with design and international students as a designer/mentor with Pierce College Student Life and Tacoma Community College Office of Student Engagement. From 2001-2010, Darcy led mission trips to La Gloria, Mexico, with Esperanza. Through this organization's programs, high school and college students spend a week building community and cinder-block homes with families in the towns of Tijuana County. Darcy also led student trips to work with the people of the Crow Reservation in Billings, Montana, and with migrant farm workers of Lynden, Washington. All these mission trips were community-building and learning-based experiences. Darcy is the proud mother of four grown children and two grandchildren. She lives in Washington State with her husband, two rescue pups, and an abandoned cat who adopted the family.