cover image Hey Ladies!: Tales and Tips for Curious Girls

Hey Ladies!: Tales and Tips for Curious Girls

Kennedy. Main Street Books, $12.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-385-49094-8

Coating the pill of a common sense guide to adolescence in the colored sugar of her zany, idiosyncratic humor, Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, better known as Kennedy, the former shoot-from-the-hip MTV VJ, aims to boost teenage girls' self-esteem and self-awareness. As someone wise enough to have perspective on her own awkward metamorphosis but not so old as to sound out of touch, Kennedy amplifies nuggets of solid, women's-magazine-style advice via her own sometimes hilarious experiences. Her style is fast-talking and verbose; she sprinkles an honor-roll vocabulary into a plethora of pop-culture references. Despite her ultra-hip media career, readers may be surprised to learn that Kennedy is refreshingly conservative in her views on drinking (dare not to do it), to sex (consider the risks and wait), fashion (""find your fancy"") and mothers (always apologize to Mom). Drawing on her own life (""I was the prime minister and queen of the underdeveloped nations in junior high and high school""), she assures girls that being flat-chested and nerdy is just swell and that the popular, obnoxious, buxom cheerleaders of high school ""always turn out either fat or strippers."" Entertaining interviews with such experts as a dermatologist, a wardrobe stylist and an Orthodox nun offer slightly more information and insight. Style and substance are well matched here, but it remains to be seen if the intended teenage/20-something audience will clamor for the wisdom of a VJ no longer in the MTV spotlight. (Apr.)