Article: 16 Things I would say to my younger self

'If I could turn back time...'

Aged 18, with my best friends, Lynn and Jackie

I have been musing today about what advice I would give to my younger self, should I ever have the opportunity to go back in time and meet me. Not that the teenage Karen James would ever have listened to any advice. But it was a fun exercise anyway.
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• Stay true to who you are.  Don’t let anyone steal your sparkle.  Recognise that there are those who will try to do this – and learn to avoid them.
• Take that cigarette Joanne Parrish offers to you behind the bike shed when you are twelve.  Yes, it will make you vomit but it is far better to be sick on your socks and put off from smoking when you are twelve than start the habit at sixteen and become a life-long nicotine addict.
• Boys, lots of boys, will come and go. Stop obsessing over them; there’s far, far more to a happy life than men. You’ll be amazed.
• Hesitate and think carefully before using the word ‘should.’ Steer clear of those who repeat it like a mantra.
• Get on a bloody plane and do the travelling you always dreamed about.
• Your may think your education will finish at twenty-one but you will never stop learning. Embrace the changes in technology as they arrive.  This new-fangled thing called the Internet will make your fortune.
• Please remember that you don’t lead a charmed life. Don’t use rope swings or climb onto the back of motorbikes when you are drunk.
• Your love of reading is what makes you into you and is the foundation stone of your future career. Don’t let anyone stop you reading.
• Put aside at least fifteen minutes every day to practise your writing – and don’t let rejection put you off. Scribble, scribble and scribble some more.
• Never give up on your dreams. They can, and will, come true.
• Enjoy being young, pretty and confident but remember that skinniness doesn’t last for long.
• Your mistakes are good; you will learn from them. All 100,000 of them.
• Parenthood is an exhausting slog – but it is the best, most rewarding thing you will ever do in your life. Seriously.
• Friends will come and go, but that’s okay. You will still be making new friends in your fifties.
• Money is good – not bad – and it should be horded. Save money instead of spending it. Avoid credit cards like the plague and remember that banks are NOT your friend.​

• Buy shares in a company called Google.