Title: TJ Powar Has Something to Prove
By: Jesmeen Kaur Deo

Summary:
When TJ Powar—a pretty, popular debater—and her cousin Simran become the subject of a meme: with TJ being the “expectation” of dating an Indian girl and her Sikh cousin who does not remove her body hair being the “reality”—TJ decides to take a stand.

She ditches her razors, cancels her waxing appointments, and sets a debate resolution for herself: “This House Believes That TJ Powar can be her hairy self, and still be beautiful.” Only, as she sets about proving her point, she starts to seriously doubt anyone could care about her just the way she is—even when the infuriating boy from a rival debate team seems determined to prove otherwise.

As her carefully crafted sense of self begins to crumble, TJ realizes that winning this debate may cost her far more than the space between her eyebrows. And that the hardest judge to convince of her arguments might just be herself.

Review:
Overall, I thought this was a good book. I thought the romance was cute and the pace a tad slow at times. My favorite part was the character development.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I loved this one so much!! Such a great message.

TJ Powar has Something to Prove follows senior high schooler, Tejindar Powar. When she and her cousin, Simran, become the subject of a hurtful meme, TJ decides to take a stand. She ditches her razors and other hair removal products. She sets a debate resolution for herself: "This House Believes that TJ Powar can be her hairy self and still be beautiful". TJ is tested in ways she didn't know she could be and along the way she realizes the hardest person to convince is herself.

Y'all this book! This was so damn powerful. My own relationship to body hair and gender aside, this book has amazing social commentary on the way that women's bodies (and people perceived as women) are judged. There was one conversation in particular between TJ and her aesthetician that really got me.

"Women, men, nonbinary folks -- of all racial backgrounds, all facing different kinds of expectations -- all having different things they actually want. Here, they can design themselves how they like -- whether to be fitting into society's own standards or their own. ... the world has these ludicrous expectations of how much hair a man or woman is supposed to have. Hardly anyone fits them naturally, but we feel the pressure to, don't we? Some more than others."

I really loved TJ's journey of self-discovery and of how her relationship to her body changed throughout this book. It was so easy to relate to her feelings about her hair, I've had so many of these same thoughts, and it's only been in the last couple years I've started to challenge my own internal biases about hair. I really loved seeing TJ go on this journey. Plus, all of this is set against a huge debate contest and I have found I absolutely love reading debate contests.

"Hair has no gender, darling. It's just hair. Do what you want with it, but it does not make you less of a woman. It does not make you less interesting, less worthy, or less deserving of desire."

TJ also has a very fun rivals to lovers arc with her debate nemesis Charlie Rozencratz. Charlie is literally the sweetest boy ever. As the two spend more time together, Charlie attempts to help TJ with her resolution. He even lets her wax one of his legs. Oh my god, that scene was so funny. I loved seeing these two become friends. Their banter was so much fun. We also learn that Charlie has a stutter. Seeing TJ immediately find ways to accommodate him, made my heart soft.

"Do you think you're the first person to come into my business afraid their partner won't like the way they look? I always tell them the same thing: I can sell you smooth legs, or coochie, or face. Whatever you like. But I don't sell lies. You can't spend your life being afraid no one will love you if you are yourself. If you cannot be yourself with someone, that is not love. That is settling."

Besides the big debate contest and the relationship that develops between TJ and Charlie, there are a bunch of other things she's going through. TJ and her cousin, Simran, who was the other target of the meme, have a distant relationship. We see TJ begin to open up to Simran in the hopes of rekindling their childhood friendship. I loved seeing these two find common ground again, outside of debate. TJ and her two friends, Chandani and Piper, also have some issues to work through after TJ stops shaving. It was so interesting to see how their relationship changed and grew. TJ also makes some new friends during this time and I just really loved seeing her grow into herself and become a better person.

Overall, I loved this book with my whole heart. I wish I had something like this when I was younger and dealing with all the ways society pressures people like me to feel about their bodies. I cannot recommend this book enough!

Rep: Desi Punjabi Indian-Canadian cishet MC, Jewish Canadian cishet male side character, Asian-Canadian trans male side character, Sikh Desi Punjabi Indian-Candia cis female side character, fat cis female side character, various other Indian-Canadian side characters (some Sikh and some not).

CWs: body shaming (specific to body hair), fatphobia, misogyny, sexism, bullying (mainly online harassment), toxic relationship (romantic), ableism. Moderate: side character discusses dysphoria, racism, sexual content, abandonment.

Overall this is a really cute book with a super powerful message. As a woman who has worried about what my boyfriend will thing if I don’t shave, it was nice to see the conclusion was that “the people who care me won’t care”. I think a lot of young women, and men, can take a lot away from this.

The romance was cute. Albeit predictable.

There were certain times I wish the plot would’ve picked up, but overall I’m not upset with the pacing.

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

What an incredible enemies to lovers ya novel!! Gave me all the feels while filling me with energy with how feminist and badass this was. I loved the discussion of body hair, friendship, the representation of nerdy brown kids who for once are the cool ones, and the writing in general. I’m sure every brown kid on the debate team would be thrilled with this!

There was something so refreshingly fierce and female about this contemporary YA that made it a powerful read. This book is for all the young adults who have felt the pressure to fit in, that have been made to feel like they have to hide the things they love most, who struggle to feel seen even by those closest to them.

So much of this book was unlike any other I'd read in this or any genre, and I hope to see many more like it in the future! What I loved most was the witty banter, from how the characters used their words to rise to the occasion when competing, to the behind the scene moments of the debate teams that were so important to the storyline. Beautiful, bold, and brainy, TJ will have you cheering her on in no time as Kaur Deo places us right into the heart and pressures of a busy high schooler looking ahead to the future and trying to manage it all with classes, activities, family and friends.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the ARC copy to read and review, it was such a powerful read about the pressure of popularity and conforming to the normal and I loved reading about TJ's determination and growth as she finds her best self.

TJ Powar has it all: the top spot in her school, a cute boyfriend, a starting position on the soccer team, and most important of all, her reputation as a stellar debater. But when a rude meme circulates comparing her Sikh cousin who doesn’t remove her body hair to the “hairless” TJ, everything TJ has thought about herself is thrown into question. She formulates a new resolution to test: This House Believes That TJ Powar can be her hairy self and still be beautiful.

As a South Asian person, the “issue" of body hair is something I’m intimately familiar with. Before I realized I was nonbinary I would agonize over my hairy legs and my hairier armpits, constantly comparing to my white friends who didn’t have to shave to look hairless. Even after I came out and disconnected hairiness from gender, I would still hesitate to pick strapless shirts, or crop tops, for fear of upsetting people with my hairiness. All this to say that TJ Powar Has Something to Prove was an incredible experience. The book doesn’t present a hard solution to body hair expectations for women, but it does present a nuanced portrayal of it that is real and endearing. The fact of the world is that hairiness does matter and it does affect people's perceptions, which the book doesn’t shy away from, but it also doesn’t have to matter if we don’t let it!

The evolution of TJ’s “thesis” over the course of the book was natural and wonderful to see, and the romance threaded throughout was incorporated perfectly into it. Add to that the genuine chemistry between the love interest and TJ, and I was super invested! There were definite Ben and Devi vibes from the show Never Have I Ever, and I was living for it. The debate scenes also furthered TJ’s personal journey, culminating in a final debate that truly left me reeling from the honesty and poignancy of the arguments presented. This book was wonderfully well-crafted, and I would highly encourage anyone who struggles with body image to give it a read.

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TJ POWAR deserves all the hype and I cannot wait for everyone to read this next year! I knew from reading the blurb that this book would be a fresh, feminist rom-com tackling how society views women with body hair, but what I didn’t know is that it would have incredible rep (some examples: the MC and her cousin are Punjabi & Sikh, the love interest has a stutter, and there is an Asian trans side character, and a plus-sized side character) AND that it would be acadmeic rivals-to-lovers. I felt a hint of it coming on in the first few chapters, but I was unsure if I was just grasping at straws. Then, I went to Jesmeen Kaur Deo’s Twitter, where she tweeted that fans of Devi and Ben from Never Have I Ever would enjoy this book, and as a Team Ban stan, she was not wrong omg. Charlie and TJ’s banter, wit, and tension as debate rivals were immaculate and I lived for every scene they shared together. Also, I love how the theme of debate was present throughout the book as well. Even though I’ve never debated in my life before, I could really feel the determination, adrenaline, and pre-tournament anticipation, all throughout the highs and lows of TJ’s final stretch of her high school debate career.

I also absolutely loved the friendships portrayed in this novel, such as TJ and Simran’s relationship and TJ and Chandani’s relationship. It was honestly so refreshing seeing TJ be the beautiful, confident, cool, popular student at her school while being an Indian girl, something I feel like is rarely depicted in western media. Even though she messed up and made a lot of mistakes throughout the novel, her growth as a character was amazing. I really wish this book existed when I was younger. As a fellow hairy desi girl, seeing two Indian girls be confident in showing their body hair at school and sticking it to the assholes who laughed at them was truly inspiring. I genuinely started tearing up while reading this because of what TJ and Simran’s confidence means to me.

Overall, this gets 4.5 stars from me! I think the only reason why I docked off half a star is because the story is told through third person, present tense POV which is probably my least favorite POV + tense combo. It makes sense given the debate themes of the book, but it did leave me confused a lot of the time as to which pronouns were referring to TJ.

I NEED everyone to read this book when it comes out. It would honestly make SUCH a good teen film. I can’t believe this is a debut from Jesmeen Kaur Deo omfg. GO PRE-ORDER IT RIGHT NOW!!!