North of Beautiful

Dear reader, I know we've all felt down and depressed about the way we look, going so far as to body-shame ourselves. Media, movies, and television does such a number on both men and women as far as body shape, healthiness, diet fads, perfect skin, make-up, the works. First of all, it's just plain silly to try to fit into a shape/skin that's not truly and uniquely yours; but even more so for people (such as myself) who have no hope at all trying to fit in with the "regular" person displayed on screen. Which is possibly why I love Justina Chen's book North of Beautiful so very, very much.

At first glance, this book could be perceived as the standard coming-of-age-high-school-romance-chick-lit, but it is so much more than that. Chen's remarkable prose is able to take us deeper into the characters and story than just the standard, run of the mill YA chick-lit (of which, do not deny, I am a major fan of). It is always a treat to discover a book within this sometimes ridiculed genre that is so much more than the standard fair.

Terra Cooper struggles daily not just with an overbearing, controlling father and, at first glance, a weak-willed mother, she also bears the brunt of stares wherever she goes. Terra's face displays a port-wine stain birthmark that takes up a sizable amount of her right cheek. Since she was a child, Terra's mother has taken her to Seattle Children's Hospital for various treatments, some incredibly painful, to try to remove the stubborn splotch. And yet, it endures. After too many treatments to count, Terra's father put his foot down. No more treatments, no more money for treatments. When a new laser treatment becomes available, Terra's mother orchestrates a way for the money and Terra to get to Children's without her father knowing. It won't help anyway as Terra has found out over the years. Her birthmark is stubborn and refuses to lighten for anything. But she can't deny her mother, who has only the idea that Terra might be "normal someday" to cling to.

Enter Jacob, interesting Goth boy who Terra literally collides with on her way home from a treatment. Different and interesting, Jacob snags Terra's interest in spite of herself. As the two grow into friends, and beyond, their mothers also connect.

This whole wonderful novel culminates in a trip to China and, of course, empowerment of the best kind. But the real reason I love this book is that Terra changes so much inside, but her birthmark stays. It doesn't magically go away. The laser treatment doesn't work. She doesn't find a special concealer that makes it invisible. She begins to learn to live with it. As someone, among many millions of people who I'm sure feel the similar about their "shortcomings," learning to live with my limp and the male-patterned baldness (from radiation treatment years and years ago) has been the most trying experience of all of my vast experiences. And I'm still learning. Everyday, I learn something new about acceptance of myself. This, dear reader, is what Chen so amazingly illustrates in this novel. I think it is beyond important for all of us to read books just like this one, so that we might understand that, yes, we are all different. But we are also the same in our striving towards acceptance and a place in the world.