Restrict: A Poetic Narrative

Ages 10 to 17, Grades 5 to 12

A poetic narrative fiction work written by a teenage girl touching on very real issues including eating disorders, body image, puberty, and self-worth.

Written as a poetic narrative, Restrict is one girl's journey of growing up in a world that focuses more on her weight than her mental health. As the pressures to diet start to become too much, the question she faces is: Will she ever find contentment with her body in a world that focuses too much on being thin?

Author Sol Rivera, still a teenager herself and going through the similar ups and downs of adolescents, imagines this fictionalized story based on her own and others' experiences. Restrict is a story divided into 39 narrative poems, its words powerful and cathartic highlighting and not shying away from difficult things.

This is something Sol wishes existed when she was younger and now hopes to be someone's light during their own journey.

About the Author

Sol Rivera is a reporter on the Emmy-nominated syndicated show Teen Kids News and hosts her own YouTube channel SolFood featuring self-produced videos combining her passion for cooking, geography, and literature including a segment called "A Book And An Eat" where she reviews a book from a different country and then cooks a meal from the location. She is a junior at the Mastery School of Hawken, a visionary high school in Cleveland, OH where she is also the editor-in-chief and founder of The Magnolia, its literary magazine which publishes poetry and short stories. Sol volunteers at the Friendship Circle of Cleveland, which pairs non-disabled youngsters with children with special needs and is the president of the teen board of the Cleveland Chapter of Hope for Henry, which is reinventing how hospitals care for seriously ill children. A proud JewRican, she loves to learn about as many different cultures as she can especially via young people like herself.

Author Residence: Cleveland, OH

Author Hometown: New York, NY