Boys For Beginners by Lil Chase - Blog Tour

As Part of Lil Chase's Blog Tour for the launch of Boys For Begginers We welcome Lil as she recounts her own experiences and her teenage cringe moments.

Cringe Binge

When writing for pre-teen girls – stories about friendship, boys and first loves – try and be funny. It’s the moments that make you scrunch your eyes and grind your teeth that really do it for me. I’m naming the genre ‘Cringe Fiction’.

My book, BOYS FOR BEGINNERS, is very definitely based on things that happened to me in my teen and tween years. Peer pressure is really kicking off at that age and embarrassment feels deadly.

So, in an effort to share, offload, and even inspire you here are five of the most embarrassing moments of my lifetime.


1.    I was on my way to meet some friends, friends that included boys. Before I got there I checked my makeup in a car’s sideview mirror: reapplying lippy, touching up my mascara, and dabbing on blusher. Then the man sitting in the car honked his horn. I didn’t need that blusher after all. 

2.    A bus passed by me and Frank* – a boy I fancied – was on the bus and knocked on the window (*real name changed to protect the humiliated). Instinctively, I responded – not with a wave, or a coy smile or even a sexy wink. No, I chose to use an expression I have never used before or since: a double thumbs up with gigantic grin. Not sexy. Not cool.


3.    I was writing a letter to a boy in boarding school, trying to impress him. Back then, all I had was my sense of humour so I wrote pages and pages about how mental I was, ‘I’m mental! I’m the mental one. You’ll be able to recognise me because I am soooooo mental!’ Or at least, that's what I thought I wrote. My spelling is rubbish. Apparently I’d written: ‘I’m metal! I’m the metal one. You’ll be able to recognise me because I am soooooo metal!’ I didn’t find out until he came home from boarding school and showed the letter to everyone.

4.    After my friends had left my house I ran downstairs shouting, ‘Mumpaline!’ (That’s what I called my mum, don’t ask me why.) ‘I need a mummy cuddle!’ Then I heard the toilet flush. Then I died of embarrassment as Ben walked out into the corridor. I’ll never forget the smirk on his face.    

5.    We were hanging out in the playground, a group of us, and I farted. Something to do with the tightness of my jeans meant that it was not quiet. ‘Lil, did you just fart?’ I tried to tell them it was the wooden bench I was leaning on but the more I denied it the redder I went.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my embarrassing moments. I’d liked to say I enjoyed telling them but that would be a lie. Still, I’m hoping that some of you will divulge your shockers.  Get it all out, share, watch as we all bite our lips and feel the agony with you. See if you can weave them into your story. They were horrendous at the time, so the least they can do now is help the sales of your book!

And remember, we’re not laughing at you… well okay, maybe just a little bit.