“A picture’s worth a thousand words, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.”
Ashleigh Maynard is the school’s good girl. Her dad is the superintendent of the school district, she’s a cross-country star and she has a perfect 4.0. However, what’s a person without a few mistakes? In an effort to receive attention from her boyfriend, Kaleb, Ashleigh sends a picture of herself at a pool party, but without her swimsuit on. Things are perfect in their relationship until Kaleb goes to college, leaving Ashleigh behind in her junior year of high school.
After a nasty breakup, Ashleigh is heartbroken, but Kaleb wants revenge. Pretty soon, the whole school has seen the text captioned with the words, “Slut up for grabs.” Ashleigh sees her world tumble down as she gets kicked off the cross country team, her friends ditch her and half the town wants her dad fired from his position. From there, things get even worse, if you can imagine that.
At her community service, Ashleigh meets a variety of people and one person who stands out above the others.
Personally, I enjoyed the story very much. I have never been in a situation like this, so it gave me more information that I wouldn’t have known without reading the book.
“I chose to write this book because it is relevant,” author Jennifer Brown said. “There are teens out there who are experiencing the humiliation and
embarrassment that Ashleigh goes through, simply by virtue of making a poor decision.”
Sexting is a word that makes most kid our age shift in our seats awkwardly and it should. It’s an uncomfortable topic and an even more uncomfortable situation to be in. It’s a hot topic issue in today’s society and a topic that high schools all over know all too well. DoSomething.org says over 24% of high school students have been in a sexting situation, most of which have ended poorly.
Ashleigh is a relatable character for most high school students. Even though you might not have sent an inappropriate picture of yourself, you have made a mistake at one point that affected the way you were viewed by others. That’s what high school is all about, right? Ashleigh goes through a process that many of us have gone through while trying to rebuild our reputations. She meets new friends, drops old ones and starts putting her situation into perspective.
Nothing is ever deleted or erased on the internet or in a texting conversation. It’s still out there floating around in cyberspace. Anyone can see it and anyone can get a hold of it. This is a lesson that many teenagers have learned the hard way. Reading this book can be learning that lesson the easy way when you take a look at Ashleigh’s situation. This book shows you what can happen and how bad things can get, but it can also show you how to move on.
One of the biggest things I learned from this book is while a picture may be a thousand words, it doesn’t tell the whole story. After all, we all make mistakes and some of us get caught and some of us don’t. There are big mistakes and there are little mistakes. Some have higher consequences and some don’t. These mistakes might seem like they won’t ever go away and in some cases they won’t ever fully go away. But as Ashleigh learns in the book, mistakes do not define you.You can’t let other people decide who you are, whether it’s the “good girl” or the “slut up for grabs.” Only you can decide who you are and who you are going to be. A great lesson from A Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown.

Q&A with author Jennifer Brown

What made you write this story?

   “As with all my books, I wanted to write it because it is relevant. There are teens out there who are experiencing the humiliation and embarrassment that Ashleigh goes through, simply by virtue of making a poor decision. A lot of teens who need to hear that they’re not alone.

   I spent much time during my teen years feeling isolated, so it’s important to me to reach out to teens in pain, to let them know that there is a light at the end of this tunnel they’re going through and that things will get better for them. I don’t have answers, but if I can create a character readers can relate to and then give that character hope, and in turn give the reader hope, I’m happy.”

What happens to Ashleigh and Kaleb is pretty scary. Can that really happen?

   “Can and has! While several states have changed, or are currently working to change, laws surrounding teen sexting in some states sending a nude photo of a teen is considered distribution of child pornography, a felony offense. Teens and young adults could find themselves arrested, charged, convicted, ordered to do community service or other diversion programs, or even given jail time and required to register as a sex offender.

   But there are a great many more cases of teens who’ve had to deal with emotional fallout of sexting gone awry. There are cases in which teens have had their nude texts go viral, have found themselves ridiculed to the point of having to move to a new school, have been suspended. And, sadly, there are even instances of teens committing suicide as a result of bullying due to nude texts.

   That’s why it’s so important to think before you hit send. Anything you send out into cyberspace is out there forever. You can’t take it back, and you never know when you might sorely want to.”

Many of your books focus on a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship gone bad. Why?

   “Because these are the relationships that I remember most vividly from when I was a teen. Best-friend and boyfriend relationship problems caused me so much pain and angst! So a part of me may be still trying to work out relationships-gone-sour circa the 1980s, but also a part of me knows that I was definitely not alone. Boyfriend-girlfriend relationships cause angst for everyone! The complexity of relations in general, intrigues me. There’s so much to talk about. I could write a thousand books and never touch on it all.”