Does My Head Look Big In This?

The question is, does my head look big in what? Actually we're talking about Amal's head, and if it looks big in a hijab, or a traditional Muslim headscarf.
You see, Amal has decided it's time to start wearing the hijab fulltime to her public school and everywhere else to take the next step in her religious life. The thing is, in Australia people don't always appreciate you for who you are, especially if you've got your head wrapped up and you have to pray five times a day. Amal has to deal with all the prejudice and racism coming from her classmates and community (who are sadly misunderstood) and she also has to deal with the everyday pressures of a teen life: getting away from overprotective parents, dealing with a crush when she can't date before marriage, helping insecure friends, keeping up in school, and all the other teenage drama in a girl's life. Because as most of us know very well, there's a lot of it.
Amal's story does have a happy ending and a bright side: be yourself, that's all that you can be. I'm pretty sure that's an Audioslave song lyric, too, but whatever, it's a good message and it's found in this book.
My favorite part of the book, however, were not about Amal exactly but about her friends. First there was Leila, who was also Muslim, except her mother was REALLY overprotective. Like she wouldn't let Leila go out after dark for fear that she would "bring shame upon the family." Amal has to help Leila live her life in spite of her mother, and eventually they have to figure out a permanent solution or their family could fall apart. The other friend with the big problem was Simone, Amal's slightly chubby friend from school. Simone was really insecure about her weight, and she tried every diet in the book even though she had this great body that she couldn't see in herself because she thought she was too fat. Simone keeps trying to diet and then binges until finally she's decided she's had enough and starts smoking. She also is the other one in this book with a love interest, besides Amal.
The last thing I liked about this book was the authentic Australianism. I have an Australian friend and he explained how they get American pop culture stuff a bit later than we see it, so they're watching Friends and Big Brother for fun and thinking it's just great! instead of crap TV like some people do. So Amal is always making allusions (vocab word!) to Friends, Big Brother, Celine Dion, etc. It's really funny and brightens up the book, making it very teenager-understandable.
People have been telling me to read this book for a while and I neglected because I thought it looked too chick-flicky, but it was really good and I'm sad I put this off for so long because I liked it a lot. ♠♠♠♠