How to talk to girls

Call him a child prodigy, but nine-year-old Alec Greven from Colorado is certainly an artist in his own right – he has authored America’s latest self-help book that is now set to become a major Hollywood film How To Talk To Girls. At eight years of age, Alec and his fellow pupils at the Soaring Hawk Elementary School in Castle Rock were asked to write an essay about something they had observed about ordinary life. And it was then that he chose to explore the perils of boys trying to win the attention of girls in the playground, and offered some tips for success. “Boys have a lot of trouble with crushes. I wanted to help the boys with crushes. But I also wanted to say there is a girl for every boy and don’t give up and don’t think girls are gross. They are just girls,” a website quoted him as saying in an interview. And this ‘pint-sized pickup artist’, as he’s popularly called gave some extraordinary nuggets of wisdom, that include combing your hair, cutting down on sugar (to avoid being too hyper), and knowing that while 73 per cent of girls ditch boys, 98 per cent of pretty girls do it. The pretty ones are “like cars that need a lot of oil”. However, it was his teachers who played a major role behind his success – they were so tickled by the essay that they suggested Alec turn it into a stapled pamphlet, which he could sell at the school’s book fair. And soon, the media had got the inkling of the rage the pamphlet had become, and comedian and talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres invited the boy genius on her show. From there Geven set off to a course towards stardom which culminated first in his essay being released as a hardback book. And it was announced this week that a production house had signed the six-figure movie deal. And now, men of all ages can take something from his pages. Some of the facts in the book include: Never seem too keen. “Girls don’t like desperate boys,” he writes. Highlight your best side: “You can also show off a skill, like playing soccer or anything else you’re good at.” If you are spurned, don’t mope: “Sometimes, you get a girl to like you, then she ditches you,” our young romance guru notes. “Life is hard, move on! Or sometimes it just doesn’t work out. I had a crush on a girl in preschool. Then my family had to move, so I had to let her wash out of my mind.”