Annie Downs is an author who loves helping teen girls and young women overcome the challenges that life puts in the way of their spiritual development. Her upcoming book Speak Love: Making Your Words Matter challenges teen girls to end the “mean girl” mentality and become a generation who use their words to build up, not take down.

Annie is also a Bible Gateway fan, and graciously took time to chat with us as part of our 20th anniversary video series. We’ve been talking about the obstacles that keep us from reading the Bible—and so we asked Annie if there are any specific issues and challenges that keep girls and young women from engaging with God’s Word. Here’s what she shared with us:

In Annie’s experience, many young people (boys and girls both) get the false message that the Bible is for adults, not kids and teens, and thus don’t imagine that it has something meaningful to say to them. Is this something you experienced when you were growing up? If you’re a parent or interact with kids a lot, is this something you see?

As the father of a five-year-old girl who loves reading and hearing Bible stories, I’ve wondered about this. How I can encourage my daughter, as she grows up, to nurture her love for the Bible even once she outgrows the “cool stories!” stage of Bible understanding?

Can you relate? What can we do to show the children in our families and communities that the Bible holds meaning for them regardless of their age?