Leigh Quantrill

Interview with the author of The Light Direction – Ces Loftus

August 23, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

Tell us a little bit about The Light Direction, and which audience it’s aimed at?

The Light Direction is a series of novels with a really unique twist. On the surface it has an intriguing story of love passion and betrayal with an interwoven plot and supernatural forces at play. Beneath the surface I have seamlessly written in real small businesses and real bespoke products that have been created for the brand and chosen by those within the potential readership. It is aimed at a female target market who enjoy a good ‘love, action, supernatural’ read and want to support a community of small businesses.

What inspired you to write The Light Direction?

There are three steps on the path to the idea becoming a reality..

STEP ONE: My best friend Angie Jones bought me the ‘Twilight’ book series for my last birthday and whilst reading these fab books by Stephanie Meyer I decided I would like to write a book series too.

STEP TWO: I had started writing down the outline of my story when my husband @JayLoftus bought me a beautiful bespoke necklace from @rachellucie for our anniversary. It meant something special about us still being in love after all we have been through with the death of our fourth son, a series of miscarriages, facing eviction and having to start the business up completely from scratch with debt hanging round our necks after we finally resurfaced from grief. The underlying message of the series is summarised by this quote from the book:

“The Light Direction is your destiny. The direction in which you will naturally find yourself
flowing regardless of which path you take or what obstacles are placed in your way. If
there is one thing I know to be unequivocally true it is that nothing will ever keep you from
reaching the light.”

STEP THREE: My business is called Creatively Minded because that is ‘who I am’ not just what I do. I am always thinking out of the box and I wanted to do something innovative using my skills as a brand image designer and creative writer to support other small businesses in the memory of son Aarlonzo.

What genre of books do you prefer to read?

I like reading love / action / mystery and sci-fi. As the publishing industry is changing it is exciting to have access to so many great new authors whether by self publishing or traditional means. I enjoy discovering new books on review sites and supporting other new authors.

I have also found an interest in Graphic Novels courtesy of the awesome team @beforethedoor. Before The Door is a production company founded by talented actor director producer Zachary Quinto along with his business partners Neal Dodson and Corey Moosa plus multitalented Sean Akers. I have been a member of Zach’s fan community for some time and the guys are involved in so many ground breaking projects supporting other creatives I really respect their work.

I was lucky enough to get a signed copy of the brilliant graphic novel they produced ‘LUCID’ by Michael McMillan (actor who played Steve Newlin in True Blood) earlier this year. The story, illustration and book design wow factor inspired me to choose to commission a complete series of character illustrations and art for my book series rather than taking a model / photographic route. The Before The Door Graphic novels have been published by Archaia who are well worth looking up if you want to discover the appeal of Graphic novels for yourself!

What was the hardest part of writing The Light Direction?

The hardest part of writing The Light Direction series is remembering I actually need to sleep sometimes LOL. I run my brand image design business Creatively Minded in the day with Biz Brand Buzz and Supportive Business Mums as additional business ventures
which I use to offer designs, advice and promotion to other small businesses. As I also have 3 kids and a hubby to look after it means the only time I have to work on The Light Direction is night.

From writing the stories, editing, creating logos and graphics, book covers, content formatting, marketing and putting together all the sites, features and blogs, 95% of it is done between 11pm and 6am before carrying straight on with my ‘day job’ and being mum after that.

I am excited by the potential of this project and dedicated to using The Light Direction to support other creatives though so I actually enjoy sitting up all night tirelessly creating content, generating ideas and publishing features to champion other small businesses.

What was the most fun part?

I love writing the content. I have the whole life story of these characters in my head and have written two years worth of lead character Emma’s rollercoaster life already. The first free two chapter ebook was released last week and now people are contacting me telling
me they are ‘hooked’ and asking about the characters and plot, wanting to know when they can read more. I am so ‘into’ the story it is very exciting to know people are relating to and being intrigued by it and it is very difficult to refrain from blurting out answers to all their questions and totally spoiling the plot of the printed novel LOL.

The most #Squeeeee-worthy moment so far (and there have been many) was the photoshoot for the cover of the first free ebook on location at Sandbanks beach. @GrahamFry took photographs of the beautiful ‘Tri-Love’ necklace designed by Sarah Marks of Tiny Gems. It perfectly captures the love triangle within the story and Sarah @hhjtinygems embraced getting involved with @light_direction right from the start so it means the world to me to be able to feature her creation and watch as she reaches a new audience with this novel promotion and benefits from the direct sales opportunities it is already creating for her.

Who is your favourite character in the book and why?

My favourite character is always going to be leading man Jez. In my eyes he is totally gorgeous and the character develops a lot throughout the story.

It took weeks creating the illustration for each character from initial sketch to final art working closely with my artist Tris Rossin @dot2uk as I had such a clear image in my mind of exactly what each character needed to look like.

I really like Denni and Katy too. Denni has a mohican and they both have black hair with blue streaks (to match my own hair colouring). They are the ‘creative’ types within the story.

Emma, Katy and Beth are all based partly on me reflecting different sides to my character.

Is the book based on real life experiences that have happened to you?

In all honesty around 80% of the content is based on life experience in some form and considering there is supernatural powers in the story the other 20% is pure creative writing.

The main locations in the book are based on real places I know very well and of course I feature real small businesses and real bespoke products that have been created especially for the series too.

I would say that the style of content has also been influenced by the sorts of films and TV series I enjoy such as Heroes, Lost, Flash Forward, Matrix, Twilight and True Blood. All brilliantly written and directed with fantastic acting making for engaging and entertaining
viewing.

What lessons did you learn whilst writing The Light Direction?

The project is still evolving and so I am learning more and more all the time! So far I have learnt that when like minded creatives and small businesses work together on a project they all feel passionately about then from a mutually supportive environment great work is
produced and the possibilities are infinite.

Did the project end up as you expected, or did it take on a life of its own?

I think in order to embrace innovation you have to be flexible and open to change. There are new developments to taking the brand forward all the time and although this is something very close to my heart I am completely open to the ideas of other creatives. The businesses involved are collaborating as a supportive community and we bounce ideas off each other all the time.

Following on from some of the creative discussions so far I am going to be launching a ‘TLD readers group’ offering inside insight, ‘ask the author’ and offering exclusive opportunities to those supporters getting involved. I have also started working with an audio production company who will be working with me to create audio books and exclusive online content. I envisage taking The Light Direction into short online film media in the future as well.

I also still have opportunities to write several real businesses and products in to the first printed novel before the initial print run next year.

Will you be writing other books in the future?

Yes. It is a lot of hard work but I love doing this. I am planning several printed novels and a whole series of free linked two chapter short stories with The Light Direction and I imagine I will continue to write something new after the TLD series is complete as well.

Win a Holiday and Gorgeous Gifts!

You can download Taste The Light Direction a FREE 2 chapter introduction ebook at http://www.the-light-direction.co.uk/taste/taste_home.html and discover opportunities to win a holiday at the actual @beside_the_sea luxury cottages featured in the story plus win the beautiful ‘Tri-Love’ necklace featured on the cover as well as lots of other gorgeous gifts up for grabs as a reward to those who support this innovative project.

Follow Ces on twitter @Ces_Creatively @light_direction and visit http://www.the-light-direction.co.uk/taste/taste_home.html to download your FREE copy of the intriguing introduction to the story now!

Filed Under: Ces Loftus Tagged With: Book series, Ces Loftus, Fiction, Graphic novel, Online Writing, Publishing, The Light Direction, TLD, Zachary Quinto

Why 80% of Sustainability Managers Fail to Change Employees Behaviour and Need These Persuasion Skills.

July 9, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

Image by squareintheteeth via Flickr

A Chief Executive told me once: “We have a sustainability programme in place, but getting all the employees engaged remains difficult. You have commitment at the top and middle levels of the company, but below that people don’t care. The bricklayer does not think about waste and landfill when he works. He just wants to lay bricks and go home.”

This comment confirms the untold truth that when it comes to sustainability, the only metric of success is behaviour change, not the number of glossy Sustainability / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports published.

Behaviour is shaped by people’s environment. Various methods to nudge employees and foster a greener behaviour in the workplace have been suggested. The majority of them rely on persuasion techniques, from the sciences of social psychology, and behavioural economics/marketing. Wal-Mart and Intel for example:

allow employees to brainstorm ideas and implement them ;
have some employees’ bonuses tied to reduction in energy usage and other environmental performances;
sponsor competitions and provide awards and rewards;
make new behaviour easy and old behaviour difficult (e.g. put the nice ceramic coffee mugs next to the coffee machine, and put the paper coffee cups to the far end of the cafeteria).

However, as highlighted by the comment of this Chief Executive, nudging techniques, although effective, are not always efficient. Unless the employees’ social and working environments are both green, each time they leave the office at 05.00pm, they return to their standard behaviour.

For lasting behavioural change, someone must seduce, influence, motivate and inspire the brick layer to become greener, both at home and at work. It implies that the person responsible for the CSR programme of the firm, is also a coach and a motivational speaker. These are two unwritten specifications in the job description. Whoever works in the field of CSR-Behaviour Change, is in the business of persuasion and influence. Unfortunately, the majority of green collar managers, usually found in the MarCom department, have no sales background and lack training in the science and art of persuasion.

A few months ago, the Head of Sustainability of a multinational company, told me the difficulties he had encountered when implementing his five-year CSR strategy (due to the sensitivity of my academic work, I can’t give names). First, he made a 20 minutes presentation to the board of the company. He was failing to convince them, and the whole plan was being rejected when suddenly, someone with better persuasion skills came to his rescue. After a historic six minutes pitch by that angel, the board members accepted the plan.

The next challenge was to convince the 20,000+ employees. One by one, the Head of Sustainability had to win over the Managing Directors of each division and their staff. He learnt that if you rely only on your job title, plus the support of the Chief Executive and the Chairman to change people’s behaviour, your cause is lost. Authority does not drive lasting behavioural change, only interpersonal and persuasion skills do.

Later, the company won many CSR Awards and the bottom line improved. Victim of the rosy retrospection bias, board members congratulate themselves on their decision to accept the plan.

Looking back at all the obstacles he faced, the Head of Sustainability concluded his story with the words: “It is not about the message, but the messenger.”

Great persuasion skills by the green messenger make the difference between a “bad”, “good” or “excellent” implementation of a sustainability programme. If he or she is insecure and lacks confidence, if he or she lacks oratory skills to defend his or her opinion, the brick layer and many other employees will not change the way they work.

How could sustainability managers become more persuasive? They need (i) a basic understanding of social psychology and human behaviour; and (ii) a full understanding of the science and art of persuasion. Without this knowledge, using nudging techniques is like using a toy gun with real bullets.

As I explain in the book, persuasion can be represented under the form of a pyramid divided into 5 layers:

(0. The Basics (not presented because obvious))
1. The Fundamentals of persuasion (The cornerstone): forget one of them, and you open the door to stress.
2. The Rules of persuasion: how to get along with anyone.
3. The Laws of persuasion: perception is reality.
4. The Techniques of persuasion: “weapons of mass persuasion”, easy to carry and
deploy, anywhere, anytime.
5. The Secret Recipe: how to get long term influence.

Let’s review the Basics that we must never forget:

Basic 1: Persuasion is a battle of perception, not who is truthfully right.

Basic 2: Persuasion is a two step process. First, soften the person’s resistance, then break it.

Basic 3: Be versatile, improvise. Your persuasion approach depends on the context and your target’s character.

Basic 4: Never take anyone for granted. Nurture your relationships from the cradle to the grave, or they’ll shop somewhere else.

Basic 5: Get your timing right. When people are mentally exhausted, or already busy doing something, they are less likely to resist you.

Basic 6: Persuasion is seduction. Whatever the product, service or idea you sell, you sell yourself first. You are a brand.

Basic 7: Always appear confident. Look into their eyes when speaking, avoid reading notes.

See the rest here.

Next time, we’ll review the next layer on the Pyramid of Persuasion: the Cornerstone.

About the Author: Victor Semo is the creator of the Persuasion Note Cards and author of Grapho-Persuasion: Mastering the Pyramid of Persuasion (Confessions of a Marketing Man) (Jamin Press, 2011). He can be found at Glocalpen.com, Birminghampost.net and on twitter/victorsemo

Filed Under: Uncategorized

I am the customer you hate!

June 30, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

Tesco Express local store in Trowbridge, Wilts...

Image via Wikipedia

I pride myself on the fact that I give the best customer service in the world, ok perhaps I exaggerate a little but I am way better at it than people who I meet and currently hold the role! I am also the customer you hate as I am the one who knows it all and is of course, always right. Today for instance I am ringing around trying to find a paper recycler for our office. All they have to do is collect for free but the more I call the more I am finding people are not able to answer simple questions such as “Do you charge for collection?” in fact, everyone I have spoken to have said “Can you email me details?” Well to be honest, NO! I have more than enough to do without you being too lazy to answer my questions over the phone. I am not talking about a small box of paper once a month we are talking serious volume here so what is so hard about making the effort when a potential new customer rings for a quote?

It is all about training and knowledge when you’re on the phone. No point having the cleaner on the phone taking calls if they have no idea what your business does, yes the phone gets answered but making the caller send further details is stupid. If I want parts for my car I go to the garage or parts shop and order them, I don’t expect them to give me the number of their supplier and then expect me to call and place an order so why is getting information over the phone so hard?

I can guarantee if I call your company and you cannot answer my question within reason, i.e. without having to email my life story, you will not get my business however if you could not answer my question and then ask for my number so you can get a response and call me back, then chances are you will. You do not want me as your customer as I expect the very best service from everyone and if I don’t get it I will ask why and then promptly ask for the Manager so I can lodge a complaint that the service is shocking, I then ask if they would like me to come in and train the staff properly. Funny enough this approach has never worked but occasionally I do see an improvement in service after my visit. I have kicked off with the best of them. I got in trouble and have been barred from Tesco at Lakeside because the sales assistant would not assist me and then refused to get the Manager when I asked. I then requested the person in charge to which (after putting down her nail file) she replied there was no one in store that could help so I thought I would be helpful and phone the Police as they were selling alcohol without a licence holder on the premises, this action prompted security to remove me and bar me from the store. I wrote to the Manager but they never bothered to reply.

Hard as it is to get ahead in business I am still surprised at how many business owners overlook this area as statistics now show people will spend more if the service is good even if the product is poor and we must get the word out to every business owner…

SERVICE IS AND SHOULD BE YOUR NO.1 PRIORITY!

What’s your opinion?

Take Care People

Angie

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Business, Business Services, Customer, Customer Management, Customer service, Education and Training, Tesco

Birds On The Blog Reaches 1250 Posts!

June 9, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

Image by The Wren Design via Flickr

I was invited to be a “bird” by Sarah, at the time I didn’t really understand what that meant. But being a Bird has helped me learn and become more confident when it comes to blogging professionaly & personally.

I first heard of Birds on the blog from my mum, who has been part of this for a while now, but it never occured to me that I could be part of it because I’m only 19!

I finally got involved on Birds on the blog when I wrote a guest post just before last Christmas, and once I realised how many people actually cared about what I had to say, I was really enthusiatic about joining the other birds and becoming part of this great site.

I’m proud to be the youngest Bird, and I’m happy to say that here, age really doesn’t make a difference at all – because we’re all women of different ages with different opinions who all have one thing in common – we love to write!! – and that’s what it’s all about!

Lynn wrote about Career Counselling, Jane wrote about Fire walking and Elaine even blogged about Lady Gaga! And that shows just how diverse we are here at Birds On The Blog!

We’re always on the look out for something new to write about and for guest bloggers too, if you have a guest blog for Birds on the blog then you can submit it here

I want to know what you like about Birds On The Blog, and why all you birds are proud to be birds!

Filed Under: Leigh Quantrill Tagged With: Bird, Blog, Lady Gaga

The Rapture: Fact or Fiction?

May 23, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

On May 21st, people all over the world had prepared themselves for the worst and were ready to face “Judgement Day”, thanks to a prediction which eventually turned out to be wrong!

Harold Camping (aged 90) is an American Christian radio broadcaster who, after one wrong prediction in September 1994 later decided “The Rapture” would happen on May 21st 2011 at 6pm, and that the end of the world would follow five months later.

According to the Bible, Christ would remove all the Christians from the earth to protect them before executing judgements against unbelievers during a period called “The Tribulation” which would last for five months until all the non-believers were punished and sent to hell. Christ would then create a new Heaven and Earth and put all the believers on it to live for a thousand years at his side.

Well lucky for me (I’m not a “believer”!) Harold was wrong again! And we’re all still here.

Of course others say the world will end anyway on 21st December 2012 as predicted by the Mayans and that we will be pounded by comets, global firestorms or severe acid rain. Some experts suggest that “the Earth’s magnetic field — which is crucial for deflecting solar radiation- will diminish to the point where it can no longer protect us from the sun’s rays. This could lead to an epidemic of cancers and a major disruption of the food chain. Compasses would stop working, animals would be unable to find their way back to breeding grounds, and the weather would become less predictable”.

Luckily most scientists say we have another billion years before the sun burns out all the oceans and reduces our planet to an uninhabitable cinder, so that must mean we’ll survive 2012 too right?

Just incase, I’ll be throwing a huge “end of the world” party on December 21st 2012 – you can all come along if you like and we’ll either wake up dead or with a hangover … Oh hold on, what’s the difference?

Filed Under: Leigh Quantrill Tagged With: Christ, Harold Camping, Judgement Day, Maya civilization, Rapture, United States

Stay safe in the sun this summer

May 4, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

As the days get longer and the summer gets closer, teenage girls all over the world are stocking up on new bikinis, flip-flops & anything that can help them get a glowing sun tan faster than sun cream!

But do any of them really know the risks?

Recent studies show that the most dangerous skin cancer ‘Melanoma’ is now the sixth most common cancer in the United States and the main cause for cancer deaths in women between the ages of 20 and 35 – over a million underaged people use sunbeds everyday. Every hour, a new person dies from Melanoma.

England and Wales decided people Under 18 shouldn’t be able to use indoor tanning equipment – and they’re right. The risk of melanoma is higher in those exposed to ultra violet light before the age of 20.

So what can we do to minimise the risks of getting skin cancer?

Avoid sunbeds

Sunbeds are estimated to cause around 100 deaths from melanoma every year in the UK. They also cause premature skin ageing – making wrinkled at a younger age. So when the tan fades, the damage remains.

Don’t spend the whole day in the sun

Experts say we should avoid the sun between 12 pm and 4 pm. Finding a spot in the shade, carrying an umbrella or parasol, and scheduling outdoor activities to avoid those hours can help to minimize exposure.

Wear sun cream -

Start using factor 50 sun cream and gradually go down, rather than wearing the lowest factor possible, straight away – like that your skin will be protected from the rays and you can still get the glowing tan you were hoping for!

Cover up

There’s loads of ways to cover up, look trendy and still stay cool in the summer heat. For ideas of what to splash out on for this summer you this article at www.yourpowertobe.com is great!

Get a fake tan

There are loads of really good self-tanning products around these days, I know people who swear by Fake Bake and Unreal Sunless Tanning were voted Number 1 party tan by More magazine for their great products

I love having a suntan but I would never put my life in danger by over doing it to look browner, and you shouldn’t either!

So stay safe this summer!

Leigh

Filed Under: Leigh Quantrill Tagged With: Melanoma, Sun tanning, Sunless tanning, Sunscreen, Tanning bed, Ultraviolet

How can I get a job without experience if I can’t get experience without a job?

April 2, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

In France, at the end of February 2011 the number of people registered with Pole Emploi (An angency aimed at people over 18 who are unemployed and looking for a job) reached a whopping 2701100!

They have a website www.pole-emploi.fr, where you can look at and apply to job offers all over France as well as add your CV so employers can contact you.

As of today, there are 191,922 jobs on their site and this gets higher every week, so why is the unemployment rate going up not down?

As a person who has been trying to find a job in France for a while I noticed that for people without experience (even the most qualified people!) it’s really hard to even get a response from these employers, even a negative one! Sometimes you get the impression that they just screw up your CV & ‘lettre de motivation’ and plonk it straight in the bin without even looking! This is frustrating because they specifically ask that you write your letter by hand, which takes time – and after writing 20 and not getting one response you start to ask whether it’s Worth the time and effort!

It’s a catch 22 – You can’t get a job unless you have experience, but how are you supposed to get experience if noone gives you a job? If noone had any experience in anything, then how would they find employees to work for them in the first place?

As well as that, when you first register with Pole-Emploi you have to go for an appointment to talk about what’s on your CV and what you’d like to do, when I went for mine and the lady realised I was English and didn’t have any experience working in France she basically looked at me and said’I can’t help you’.

I’d like to be able to blame this on the fact that I’m English and they don’t want to help, but in reality this isn’t the case – I also know someone who passed a baccalauréat last summer, has done work experience in numerous places and has been looking for a job since – without luck.

So my question is, how are we supposed to get around this? And if it’s this bad right now, what’s it going to be like in ten years, or for our children?

I just wish, that someone would be understanding enough to give someone ‘without experience’ a chance to get some!

Leigh

Filed Under: Leigh Quantrill Tagged With: Business, Business and Economy, Employment, France, Job Search, Unemployment, Work experience

Formspring – The next big thing?

March 3, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

Formspring is a question-and-answer based social website, launched in November 2009. As of today, they have around 22 million registered users from all over the world.

When you sign up you’re asked 5 random questions by Formspring to get your page started, so it doesn’t look boring and blank.

My 5 random questions were:

What fear would you most like to conquer?
Star Trek or Star Wars?
If you had to throw away your T.V or your computer which would you choose? (Pfft, what a question!!)
If someone gave you a brand new Yacht, what would you call it?
Would you rather be a famous singer or a famous actress?

When answering questions you also have the option of posting your question and answer on Facebook or/and Twitter, but is it as harmless as everyone thinks?

You see, not only can you post questions as yourself, you can also post them anonymously, making it potentially a new, easier way for teens to anonymously bully and insult eachother. The deaths of at least three teens last year were linked to Formspring.

There is a way to block anonymous questions in the settings panel, but they don’t tell you this when you sign up, and there isn’t anything that tells you it once you’re using it either. So how many people have no idea and continue to recieve abusive messages and strange questions from Mr/Mrs anonymous?

Formspring has been called ‘A new way for teens to connect and express theirselves ‘, ‘A new way to start drama and ruin lives’ and ‘a stalkers paradise’

In my opinion, it sounds like it would probably start off as a bit of a laugh with friends and family. But I think the anonymous questions would bother me, especially if they got a bit strange or offensive. I don’t think I’d like the fact that once I’d answered a question, my answer would be right there for the world to see if they wanted to. I do think that this could, for some turn into a dangerous thing – by asking a few harmless questions you could potentially find out a lot about someone without them even realising – what happens when people start finding out the town people live in, and what colour their front door is?! Of course, us teenagers have to be careful, but what about the people who don’t see/think about the harm in telling anonymous people those kinds of things?

They could end up getting themselves into real trouble.

What do YOU think?

Filed Under: Leigh Quantrill Tagged With: Facebook, Formspring, Online Communities, Quora, Social network, Star Wars, Twitter

Miley Cyrus – A parents worst nightmare?

February 1, 2011 By Leigh Quantrill

Anyone who knows me, knows I have a bit of a problem with Miley Cyrus.

So I couldn’t help but smile to myself when I read that she was voted ‘Worst role model for young girls’ by young girls themselves.
Miley started out as Hannah in the disney series “Hannah Montana” – the story of a girl who was normal by day but a secret popstar by night. This was followed by two films and two albums.

When Hannah Montana was done with, she decided to start making music and acting under her own name, as anyone would have.
All sounds good so far right? So why, you might be asking has she been top of the “Worst role models for young girls” for two years running now, despite being up against people with drug problems?!

Well, aparently somewhere along the way Miley forgot that there were millions of young girls looking up to her, and decided to rebel against the good-girl image she started with.

5 days after her birthday a video was released of her smoking a bong filled with salvia, a legal drug in California which causes visual distortions, hallucinations, physical or visual impairment and disorientation. The video was clearly filmed by a friend of hers, although how it was leaked onto the internet is not known.

Aside from that, there was also the leaked photos which are all over google, plus the video of her dirty dancing with her director ! , all

of this before she turned 18!

Luckily, I’m not the kind of person who’s easily influenced by what famous people do, whether I like them or not. Unfortunatley there are always going to be young teenage girls who think that posting half naked pictures of themselves all over the internet and smoking bongs is the cool thing to do because Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana does it!

I hope the young girls in my family don’t think that because Miley’s doing it that it’s the normal thing to to, and I certainly hope that the teenage stars out there when I have children are a little more careful and remember that they are looked up to, no matter what they do!

So does Miley deserve the accolade of the worst role model for kids? I’m not sure, but she definitely deserves no awards for being a positive influence on the youth of today…

Leigh