Scarlet Hiltibidal: He Numbered the Pores on My Face

Amy and Mike interview Scarlet Hiltibidal about her book for tweens/teens: He Numbered the Pores on My Face. When Scarlet Hiltibidal was a teenager, plastic butterfly clips were all the rage. She couldn’t understand why they didn’t look the same in her “frizzy, bulbous hair” as they did on the blonde whose mom was a professional hair stylist. Back then, she would have sanctioned the destruction of scores of actual butterflies just to own the label "pretty butterfly clips girl." And so it goes for many girls like Scarlet who strive for self-worth yet struggle to find it.  He Numbered the Pores on My Face is for teens who long for beauty, love, and rest. Any labels you long for today might as well be “looks good in butterfly clips” if you are not rooted in who Jesus says you are, because any self­-centered identity is going to leave you in the same place: unfulfilled and unhappy. Girls will relate to Scarlet’s stories as she discusses hottie lists, eating disorders, and haphazard beauty in a way that is both humorous and thought provoking. Through it all, she describes how she found peace by learning to see life not through a mirror but through a Savior who shapes who we were, who we are, and who we will be.