Face Time: A Review

Remember the pressure you felt to fit in as a teen girl? I think most of us knew the temptation to lose our identity in what our peers told us to be, what Teen Magazine told us to be, what some TV ad told us to be. Women are told how they are supposed to look and act to be the “ideal woman” from a young age—from perfect looks, to perfect grades, to perfect popularity.  But those of us who grew up pre-social media could take a break from those pressures.  We could go home and have a “time out” from school and peer demands. It was easier for our parents to monitor what we were hearing, seeing and thinking so that they could reassure us and ground us in truth.

Social media has changed all that for our girls. No matter how hard we try, we can’t totally shield them from the comparisons, pressures and feelings of exclusion that saturate a social media world. But we can speak truth into their minds and hearts early and often.

Kristen Hatton wrote her book, “Face Time: Your Identity in a Selfie Culture,” because she saw the severe effects of today’s social pressures in her own daughter’s life despite a warm, caring, Christian home life.  Kristen wants to help our girls understand where true identity and meaning is found, and how a deep, personal knowledge of that identity can help them survive the perilous journey through the teen years.

In the book’s 12 Bible Study chapters, Kristen makes deep, life-changing truths completely relatable and speaks in language that teens can really grab on to. My daughter, Lucy, walked in last week and announced to me that her Face Time devotional reading that morning seemed like it was written about her.

Kristen affirms the fact that we are MADE to be in relationship with each other, but then she shows us how this true creation-need has been twisted. Because of that, we now want to derive our identity from things that will never satisfy. Kristen points us to the One who can actually fulfill that true need in us.  Then she takes those truths into the many places we try to fix our broken identity apart from God—body image, perfectionism, materialism, friends, boys, partying and more.

Face Time covers difficult and mature topics with sensitivity and grace. I encourage moms to read the book for themselves and use their wisdom in choosing how to handle each topic, but I also strongly encourage Christian parents to sensitively introduce God’s truth into these topics before the world shapes your daughter’s view of them.  As I have interacted with Christian children in all forms of school settings, from public to private to homeschooling for the last 20 years, I have been deeply convicted that all of our children are usually hearing and seeing more than we think, earlier than we think. We have to stay out in front of these topics with open, honest, biblical conversations.

Redeemer Women's Ministry is excited to be hosting author Kristen Hatton at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 12 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. This event is helpful for all women in junior high through adulthood, and we especially encourage mothers and daughters to attend together. Kristen's books, "Face Time: Your Identity in a Selfie World" and "Get Your Story Straight: A Teen's Guide to Learning and Living the Gospel" will be available for purchase at the event. We hope you will join us! RSVP here.