August 2, 1999
Web posted at: 5:09 p.m. EDT (2109 GMT)

By Jamie Allen
CNN Interactive Senior Writer

(CNN) -- Sara Shandler knows how difficult growing up can be.

"For me, at the time I was 15 or 16, I was terribly unhappy," says the 19-year-old, describing her bouts with identity, body image and boys. "And the thing that made it so much worse was that I thought I was the only one who was so unhappy and the only one who really understood what I was going through. It made me feel so lonely and so terrible about it.

"It would have been so great for me to know that I wasn't alone," Shandler says.

Shandler's making sure that other adolescent girls aren't feeling alone. Spurred by her teen experiences, Shandler has compiled a collection of essays, poems and journal entries written by girls from across the country.

The book, "Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self" (published in May by HarperCollins), offers eye-opening perspectives on teen issues like family relationships, sex, drugs, depression and identity. Shandler introduces each section with personal observations and confessions.

While getting published is impressive enough for someone Shandler's age, "Ophelia Speaks" apparently has something worthwhile to say. The book is slated for the No. 12 spot on The New York Times best-seller list for August 8, according to Publisher's Weekly. More than 100,000 copies of the book are in print.

In other words, Shandler has gone from confused high school student to best-selling author/college student. She has been interviewed on National Public Radio and CNN's "Talk Back Live." She has become a leading voice on teen girl issues that go far beyond the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

"I don't think I've quite grasped the concept of thousands and thousands of people actually seeing me and actually reading the book," says Shandler. "It's still hard for me to believe that people that don't know me are actually reading this. It blows me away."

'Why don't you write a book?'

While she was living in Amherst, Massachusetts, Shandler's idea for the book started as a simple observation.

"I read 'Reviving Ophelia' when I was 16, and I really felt like (the book's author) Mary Pipher was right on the money with pretty much everything that she said regarding adolescent girls," Shandler recalls. "But I felt like in some ways that it sort of cheapened it that she was saying it for us, because I really felt like we were perfectly capable of speaking for ourselves and describing what was going on in our world, in our own words."

Shandler talked to her father about it. "He said, 'If you're such an expert, why don't you write a book?' And I said, 'Maybe I will,'" Shandler laughs.

Soon, she was meeting with her parents' agent -- they've both written books -- and being courted by publishers intrigued by her proposal.

Her senior year, Shandler's school let her work on the book for an English credit. She used the time to send out 7,000 letters to junior high schools and high schools across the country, asking adolescent girls to send in their stories.

Shandler's house was soon flooded with 830 letters. Reading each one, she noticed a common thread: girls struggling to understand their experiences during the difficult passage from child to young adult.

"I think girls put a lot of pressure on themselves to really have it all together at 15 and to really know who they are and be a strong person and put their best foot forward," she says. "And of course, we can't. We're young, and we're still figuring it all out."

'These girls gave me so much of their lives'

Some of the entries in the book skirt schoolgirl issues like crushes; others carry a haunting resonance.

One piece, written by an 18-year-old from the Midwest, follows the path of the writer as she is sexually abused by her stepfather and turns to alcohol and other drugs. Eventually, she gets pregnant by her boyfriend, and by the end of the piece she sounds hopeful as she describes her 2-year-old baby, her first classes at college, and the idea of resurrecting a father-daughter relationship with the stepdad who abused her.

Another piece, written by a 13-year-old, describes in heartrending detail how she lost her mother to cancer at age 11. Riddled with guilt, the writer recalls how self-centered and spoiled she was, until it was too late for her to apologize.

"She wrote with such incredible maturity and insight and self-reflection," Shandler says. "It was so amazing to me that this 13-year-old girl -- so, so young -- could be able to do this for herself and her mother.

"These girls gave me so much of their lives," she says. "It's amazing to know so much about people that you've never met ... know their deepest, darkest secrets."

To her credit, Shandler doesn't treat the entries like talk-show gossip. She wants people -- young and old -- to learn from the stories.

"I hope adults will read it and have a greater understanding of who we are and what's going on with us and a little more of sense of what they can do to be in touch with what we're going through," she says.

'If anyone else was in my position ...'

Shandler's publicist at HarperCollins, Patty Garcia, says the author is mature beyond her years.

"She takes care of me," Garcia laughs.

Shandler is modest when complimented about how well she's handling her success.

"People tell me that I'm a natural," she says, and it's the closest she comes to bragging. She considers herself lucky to have the opportunity to be heard.

"I think most adolescent girls are pretty smart if you give them a chance to talk," she says. "Most of us don't have the opportunity to really say what we think and have people who want to listen. But I think if anyone else was in my position they could do this, too."

Shandler has no definite plans to write another book, though she has entertained thoughts of revisiting with the contributors of "Ophelia Speaks" in a few years to see if they "come out the other side, like I did," she says.

Meanwhile, she admits that she's a bit tired of the daily responsibilities and commitments associated with promoting a successful book. She wants to continue taking classes at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, but she refuses to commit to a major just yet. She wants to hang out, like any college student.

"I've been in a real rush to grow up for a long time," she says, "and now that I've had a taste of the adult world, I'm really ready to run the other way for a while and go back to being a kid."