Gabrielle Union felt ugly; Michelle Obama thought college was beyond her. In the follow-up to '06's bestselling Letters to a Young Brother, actor Hill Harper (CSI: NY) asks dozens of well-known pals to share advice and coming-of-age struggles. "I realized so many girls now have the same insecurities," he says. "This book is like a hug on paper.
MICHELLE OBAMA "I used to get up very early before school to get a handle on my studying.... Neither of my parents went to college, and I never knew colleges or Ivy League universities were an option for me until my big brother Craig [went to] Princeton.... I thought, well, shoot! I'm smarter than him! So I applied and got in. And because of how hard I worked and the grades I made, I was ready for anything."
GABRIELLE UNION "I started developing crushes on guys, but they'd wind up liking my friends over me. So I started to question why: 'Maybe it's my hair, maybe it's the size of my nose, maybe it's my skin color?'... I would put pillowcases on my head, or T-shirts, and prance around in front of the mirror imagining that it was my hair and that I was finally beautiful.... I look back now and realize how much time I wasted.... We are never inadequate."
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