Grans - what advice would you give to your teenage self?

Lucid I second what nannaAnna said. You are lovely, hold your head up high XX

To be fair to my parents, they did not make me leave school, they just said I could do what I liked. I was 15 when I did my 'O' levels - what I liked was buying records and make-up and going out with boys. There was no history of higher education in the family and my mother thought I had really made it when I started work as a secretary. Everyone else had worked in a factory.

When you're thinking of marrying someone, ask yourself if you'll want him to be grandfather to your grandchildren.

Do not be pushed into a rubbish job and use contraception (see post on when is the ideal to tell mum you are pregnant !!!)

Don't get in with the wrong crowd and don't be influenced by others. Do what you think is right and don't be ashamed of being a 'swot'!

Thank you NannaAnna I have the biggest now.

Fight back. Always.

When parents made you leave school after O levels - fight back and insist on staying on because you'll loathe and detest the civil service job they thought was perfect for you.

Having failed to win the fight back, don't tolerate that damn job for the three years you stayed.The pay might have been OK, but the rest was not. Find a way to get to university and study the languages and history you have always loved.

Be as naughty as you want - with NO conscience. All that repression was just the official way of keeping the population down because post war UK was too hard-up to cope with the baby boomers having another baby boom. The pill was invented for you - Use the damn thing.

Enjoy your teenage years - you're young and attractive and slim and fit and full of it. Don't waste a moment.

Oh, and keep up your judo - you never know when you'll need it.

Oh yes, Greatnan, I did that. My children were 11, 6 and 4 when I went back to university. I cannot imagine how I did it!

And Carol, couldn't agree more about the bunions and stiletto heels - but the pointed toe shoes added to the bunion problem too.

But when you're a teenager, older people know nothing of course!

And lucid ... looking at your profile pic, you are still very pretty, and look fantastically youthful!
Perhaps we should remind ourselves right now that we are still gorgeous
Don't want to be looking back at photos when we are 80 and saying "I wish I'd realised how lovely I still was at 55/60/(insert other age as appropriate)"

Oh goldengirl how right you are. And, perhaps, that's how it should be.

None - because I wouldn't have listened

Don't see a husband as an escape route from parents.

NannaAnna I can't agree more, have been looking through old photo's today and found one of myself aged 15...when I felt very un-pretty (everyone said my sister was the pretty one). I was gorgeous at 15......if only I could go back and tell myself that. Although my sister has aged much quicker than me -

You don't have to be grateful for bugger-all.

Don't believe that first love is forever always!

Follow your dream not your heart.

Lose the weight now - it will be much harder to do later on in life.

Don't believe everything he tells you..................

If only someone had said these things to me...............

Know that you are beautiful, because it's a sad thing to look back at photos of your younger self and realise, too late, that you were indeed a beautiful girl. Know it - and believe it!

Have confidence in yourself - in your abilities, your capability and in your looks. Don't believe the people who put you down - they have the problem not you!!!

Don't panic and think just because everyone else is getting married that you have to as well - you will not be left on the shelf!
Go for your dream - respect your parents but having taken their advice on board, do what you want to do.
Don't sit at home wondering 'what if' or 'maybe not' - just go and do it.
You are far more capable than you think you are.

Stay at school and go on to University - it would have been a lot easier than doing a degree with two children under five!
Don't get married unless not doing so is unthinkable (I drifted into it at18).

In my teens I was in a desperate family situation and it often seemed as if life was never going to be good; I told myself to just keep on looking for the positives in life and concentrate on whatever good thing there was. It's been my mantra ever since.

you are not a lanky, skinny, glasses wearing 4 eyes, but like a caterpillar will come out as a lovely butterfly given a few years development and definitely use contraceptives

Focus on a career and go for it. Dont go out with men with no money and certainly dont marry one or even two in my case, poverty isnt romantic and love does not conquer all.

Exactly Supernana and Glammanana and don't be afraid!

Like Annobel I would advise myself not to rush full steam ahead into "growing up." Have more belief in yourself and don't try too hard to be forever fitting in with the crowd. Pay more attention to the pursuit of studies and less to boyfriend chasing. Share aspirations [dream of becoming a designer] with parents...and refuse [politely] to follow their chosen path [career in the civil service and a far too early marriage]...IF only!

Think before you act – not afterwards.