Maisie Martin is looking forward to her Christmas break, because every year her family gets to go to the beach and enjoy themselves for weeks with their good friends, the Lees. She’ll get to see her longtime crush, Sebastian Lee, and enjoy watching the action movies and romcoms she loves so much. But this year, things are different. Her father has to work, so he can’t join them. Her older sister won’t be there yet. And her best friend Anna is joining her, which is great because she just broke up with her boyfriend and her mother made travel plans without her.

But when Maisie sees sparks between Anna and Sebastian, her heart breaks a little. And when she is stuck with Sebastian’s best friend Beamer, who is clearly just keeping the ugly girl company while Sebastian gets the hot girl, Maisie’s heart breaks a little more. And when she tries to call her father and gets his voicemail, her heart breaks a little more. And when Maisie is too self-conscious to be seen in her bathing suit, her heart breaks a little.

As a school assignment, Maisie has to keep a journal of her time on break, and her mother the teacher checks up on her to make sure she’s really doing it, so Maisie writes down what happens every day. At first, she is reluctant about it, but as time goes by, she starts to see the journal as a friend. And as one of her new friends, her journal helps heal her heart a little. As does meeting new friends there in Cobber’s Bay. As does taking a wild chance and entering the local teen beauty pageant.

As Maisie opens herself up to more experiences and faces her fears, she learns how to take small steps to build stronger relationships, to be honest about what she’s feeling, and to learn to like herself. What I Like About Me is a truly charming ya novel about self-acceptance and growing up. Maisie is a combination of everything that is best about being 16 and everything that is most painful. Her fears, her frustrations, her insecurities, her courage—all of it is such a part of the experience of being a teenager that I barely noticed that the book is set on the other side of the world (Australia).

While the story of Maisie Martin is about her being “plus-sized,” and about her learning to love herself as she is, it’s also universal. Because even if you’re not now or never were an overweight teenager (which I absolutely was), everyone experiences insecurity as a teenager. Everyone has something they hate about themselves, even if only for those teenage years. Maisie’s story is everyone’s story. But funnier and more entertaining than any story I could tell.

I absolutely adored this book. I would recommend author Jenna Guillaume’s What I Like About Me to anyone who is. teenager, will be a teenager, or has been a teenager and wants to see those years with a sense of humor and bravery. I seriously loved this book!

Galleys for What I Like About Me were provided by Peachtree Publishing Company through Edelweiss, with many thanks.