“Beyond the Pressure” is tailored to inculcate some useful habits, values and attitudes in teenagers so as to help them overcome various struggles they have such as parental issues, peer pressure, negative effects of the social media, low self esteem, addiction and depression, among others. These various personal struggles stated above are common amongst teenagers on their journey to becoming adults. This book is one that empowers teenagers, by making them to have a positive attitude towards life and dealing with peer pressures.
The author, Bukola Aladesulu, gave a glimpse into the teenage world which included puberty, parental issues and pressure, dealing with peer pressure, positive and negative effects of social media, helping to build a positive image and many more interesting topics involving teenagers.
The most delicate phase in life is teenhood, between the ages of 13 to 19 years. Teenagers are faced with a lot of changes emotionally, biologically and physically. They get to deal with puberty, parental pressure, school pressure, peer pressure and many other challenges which are new to them.
Quoting from the book, “Teenage years can be both the best and worst years depending on the forces acting on the teenager. This is not always the fun stage; it is full of responsibility and fast growth. A stage to discover one’s potential, build goals, dreams, a stage to discover who we are”. This paragraph is simply saying that the teenage hood is the most difficult aspect of one’s life. It is in this stage one would have goals and make decisions on what to become in life so one has to be strong enough during this phase of their life. This stage of one’s life is similar to laying the foundation of a house.
In this phase, teens go through a lot of transformation and they are neither children nor adults, so it is definitely a confusing stage. Most importantly, in this phase of a teenager’s life, they go through different pressures like parental and peer pressures which makes them uncomfortable and in some instances these pressures can lead to depression and low self esteem, which can also lead to suicide.
“Many parents often disregard the desires and dreams of their children and what they want to make of their lives, these teens are always pushed into things they have no interest, this pressures forces these teens into depression and everlasting fears, such teens are often destabilized and unable to concentrate on normal life issues…” the author mentioned on Page 8.
Too much pressure on teenagers from parents damage the child’s self esteem and makes them uncomfortable and this would make them worried and stressed out about a lot of things.
Peer pressure also comes in different ways, the negative and the positive way. So the major way of dealing with pressure from your peers when it is negative is by building your confidence and esteem, but if you fail to build it, it will lead to depression and depression can lead to engaging in some harmful and unsafe habits like drug usage, smoking, drinking, and sex and so on.
Bukola also wrote that, “People who began using addictive substances before the age of 15 are nearly 7 times likelier to develop a substance problem than those who delay first use until age 21 or older”
I feel by the age of 21, the brain is already developed and you might choose not to get addicted to any of the activities you engage in, but the mindset of teenagers are feeble and flexible, they tend to practice anything they are introduced to by their peers, which would lead to addiction.
The book is gripping and it kept me turning pages, because it’s a very interesting piece.
I love the flow of her writing, and I don’t think anyone that picks up this book would read first paragraph and stop. You would want to know more, like what’s next and I feel that’s one of the qualities of a good book.
Lastly, the book felt real to me. I liked the fact that she also asked for other people’s opinion and used it to explain further in the book, which made some situations and topics easier to understand.
In this world I feel nobody and nothing is perfect to suit everyone’s taste, you would surely have flaws that some individuals are going to notice on you. Beyond pressure is a very interesting piece and to my little understanding, the only flaw I got to notice in the book is the repetition of some words in some pages. Apart from that the book is cool and very gripping. It makes someone always wanting to know what was discussed in the next page or chapter.
I really enjoyed reading the book and getting to review it, it was a very interesting piece and I believe it is going to achieve the main purpose it was written for. This book is going to instill a lot of knowledge in most youths and even parents.
TITLE: Beyond the Pressure
AUTHOR: Bukola Moyosore Aladesulu
PUBLISHER: Samee Omoba Investments
YEAR: 2020
PAGES: 51 Pages
PRICE: ₦500
ISBN: 979-8-668-44214-0
REVIEWER: Agbaje Tolulope
Add Comment