Type 1 Teens – by Korey K. Hood, PhD

If you are a teen who lives with diabetes, I recommend this book.

If you are a parent of a teen who lives with diabetes, I recommend this book – but DON’T FORCE IT ON YOUR TEEN! 🙂

I met Korey when we did a session together for the Children With Diabetes (CWD) 2011 Family Support Weekend a few months ago.

I was able to grab his book and do a little homework before heading to the conference, and I’m very glad I did.  Meeting Korey, on it’s own, is enough to make you like, appreciate, and respect the guy.  But having read most of his book, and holding in high value the talent he displayed in writing it, made my short time with him even more enjoyable.

There is a fine line when writing a book addressed to teenagers.  You have to talk their language, but not in a condescending or offensive way.  These kids are smart, and they will pick up on the smallest amount of disrespect, and then abandon the whole conversation in the blink of an eye.

But you also need to communicate what they don’t know, and what you, as an adult who knows about diabetes (and as in Korey’s case, an adult who lives with diabetes) know.  And you need to do that in a way that gets across to them, without shutting them down.

Korey walked that line perfectly in his book.  He was graceful, respectful, authoritative (when necessary), and understanding.  This is not a clinical book about being a teen with diabetes.  This is a realistic book about being a teen with diabetes.

Even as an “old man”, I really enjoyed it, and learned from it.  I hope that it is just the beginning of Korey’s writing career, and that we see many more books from him on many more aspects of living with diabetes.  He has a lot to offer.

Korey works at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, working exclusively in type 1 diabetes.  He conducts interventions to improve diabetes management, quality of life, and blood sugar control for adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

In short, he’s helping kids when they need it most, and providing something I bet many of us wish we had as we grew up with diabetes.

Thank you Korey!