Speaker: JeaNette Smith

JeaNette Smith grew up in Salt Lake City but always wanted to live in Florida.  Luckily after living in Oklahoma and Connecticut, her husband took a job in Jacksonville where they have lived for the past 24 years and where they raised their four children.  JeaNette went back to school to earn her master’s degree in counseling at 33 years of age and has been practicing as a Marriage and Family Therapist ever since.

She co-wrote her first book, From Playpens to Proving Grounds, with her father, a child psychiatrist.  Her second book, Side by Side:  Supporting a Spouse in Church Service was written while her husband served as a bishop and prepared her for his current service in a Stake Presidency.  She writes occasionally for New Era and is a frequent contributor to Meridian Magazine.

She began speaking to youth about emotional intimacy in 2002 and has since published a talk on tape, “No More Double Messages:  Helping Adolescents Choose Abstinence,” and two books:  Unsteady:  What Every Parent Absolutely Must Know About Teenage Romance, and Unsteady for Teens which will be published in the spring.   She speaks regularly at Brigham Young University’s Campus Education Week, and Brigham Young University’s Family Expo.  Her talk “No More Double Messages” is regularly broadcast on BYU-TV.  She speaks frequently at LDS youth conferences throughout the United States.