Girl, Wash Your Face

GIRL, DONT READ THIS BOOK

Lifestyle media content (not macrame) is her vehicle for communicating to “her tribe” and I couldn't bail out fast enough. Not for me.

Just wasn't my cup of tea

had some good lessons

Years ago, I really wanted to read this book. Top of my TBR. I couldn't wait to be inspired. But I never got around to picking it up. Then I started hearing the bad reviews of Rachel Hollis and her books. But I really am not someone that likes to just believe everything I hear, even and especially if it's overwhelmingly negative. Cancel culture is so real, and the tiniest misstep can spark it. It's kinda crazy. I wanted to give this book a chance and not start by focusing on those negative opinions so I went into this thinking I was going to prove everyone wrong.

That didn't work out. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. Her personality really shone through in her narration. And frankly, I feel like we wouldn't be friends. And this is really no fault of hers, but our personalities just don't mesh. I'm not a “HEY, GIRL, HEY” type of person. It really seems that Rachel is. I tried to keep an open mind, however. But as it went on, it just became increasingly clear that this was written for one particular audience. The basic middle class Gen X (possibly older milennial) straight white woman. I truly can't imagine anyone else relating to this book. I would LOVE to be proven wrong, seriously.

I didn't realize this was so very Christian before I read it either. I assumed it'd just be your run of the mill “I did this and you can too” self-help book. No. About a million times she mentions faith, Jesus, etc. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you believe, but again, written for a very specific audience and excludes a huge population. This is probably my bad for not researching it more beforehand. No biggie.

At first, I thought people were being too harsh on Hollis in their reviews. But when I got more than 30% in, I understood what they meant when they talked about her incessant humblebragging. This woman invented humblebragging, I think. And I drew the line when she got to the chapter about not taking no for an answer. Like, ok sis, we understand you're persistent. That's a great quality to have. But to full on attribute your success to “not taking no for an answer” and literally nothing else?? And to take a step farther and have the audacity to say that other people aren't successful solely because they “took no for an answer????” Please. It's too much. I really hope I don't need to explain all the things wrong with this because, geez, it's a laundry list. There's also a hint of racism and ableism sprinkled in at the end, just for a little spice.

I'm giving this two stars instead of one because I'm sure it wasn't easy to share the trauma of going through the adoption process. And props to her for that. But yikessssss @ the rest.

There are some bits and pieces of good, non-body-shaming advice in here, and I could see this being particularly helpful for what seems to be Hollis's target audience of conservative stay-at-home moms who maybe aren't getting sex-positive advice from other sources? But most of the parts I thought were good were kind of basic for someone with my general background/sphere.

But I think its biggest flaw is refusal to acknowledge how helpful her rich husband has been in her “success story”?

For much more on this...

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-144-girl-wash-your-face/

If ~Live.Laugh.Love~ wrote a book than this would be it.

I've read a lot of reviews that call this book tone-deaf and I would say that is a perfect description of this. She's not aware of her privilege and I can't stand her #humblebrag for an entire book - I've abandoned this before it got worse.

ALSO how many times does she use tribe in this book?? Honestly it enraged me because this is used the same way white girls use “my spirit animal”.

Hyper-Christian and gender-normative, but a lot of good tips and actionable tricks, even for people that aren't god-fearing.

Rachel Hollis reminded me a little too much of someone I know in my life who doesn't actually match her “behind-the-scenes” life to the one she shares publicly. That's not Rachel's fault though; it was just hard to separate the two.

I can definitely get behind and recommend almost any book that has a core message of, “You are responsible for your life.” This is worthy read overall.

Not for everyone (obviously, given the mixed reviews), but it was perfect for me. Loved it.

So I made the mistake of reading reviews on this book. I had heard so much great feedback on how awesome this book was but then I read some bad reviews and didn't want to read it anymore. But after buying it I decided I was going to read it. And honestly I think a lot of the bad reviews were misguided. Most were “this is by a privileged white woman” “this woman preaches about one thing than describes a scenario in her life showing the opposite” and “this is supposed to be a Christian book but it only talks a little about God”. Well I found all of these, as I've said, misguided. Do not take the book by the woman writing it but by the words. Make each word similar to your life. The premise of this book isn't a rags to riches or a how to save your marriage or a praise Jesus. It's an uber successful woman (and life coach) telling her story in hopes that it helps someone. She's not just preaching...she's giving advice with her personal journey on how she got to that particular revelation. I think that it was very articulately written. I think that it has some wonderful advise (even some that I didn't feel immediately pertained to me). Every well written self help book can be made (in the right mind set) to pertain to your life. I think this was a wonderful book and it made me (after initially judging her by the reviews) very interested in her and her career and family. The motivation in this book is for you to make it happen for YOURSELF and I loved that.

Okay look, I feel bad giving this 1 star, but according to Goodreads, that means “I didn't like it” and that's very true. While I do agree with some of her pieces of advice, she goes way too far with the whole “pull up your bootstraps” schtick.

I really don't understand why this book has been so insanely popular. It was released in February 2018 and has stayed in the top 10 best-selling books in the USA for seven months, holding the No. 1 spot for at least 12 of those weeks. I don't get it.

I agree that we all struggle with believing lies about ourselves and we need to stop comparing ourselves to other people. But this whole “you choose your happiness” ? “you are in control of your own life”? really? because I don't think so. Maybe a little, but not that much. If you are a white, middle-class/comfortable financially woman, maybe this book is perfectly fine for you. Maybe the advice in here is all you need. But if you don't have that much privilege or money, or you've struggled with mental illness, or if you've had any number of other awful things happen in your life that you had no control over, her advice sounds hollow and useless at best.

Other problems:
- There's more than a hint of the ideas of the “prosperity gospel” nonsense.
- The way she talks about weight is problematic (fat-shaming kind of garbage).
- Her tone is very preachy and judgemental.
- Feels more like a book-long humble brag most of the time.

TLDR: I'm glad I borrowed this from the library instead of spending money on it. Read Brené Brown, Anne Lamott, and Barbara Brown Taylor instead.

I technically did not finish this but definitely got the gist. The author is cute and she wrote one really moving chapter about her early relationship with her husband. I don't really recommend it though, you can get everything she has to say from her Instagram.

BLUF: Worthwhile, entertaining, but not for me.

This book had good themes, honest stories, and has reminded me to respect myself enough to reduce self-depreciation, but... it was a little underwhelming. This book was recommended to me by a coworker who swore up and down by it - and I see her life aligning with the concepts - but it wasn't as inspiring or life-changing as she made it out to be.

Thought this would be a fluffy, feminist, you-go-girl self help book. I've already read plenty but thought there might be something special about this one given its wild popularity. Turns out what's special about it is some really disturbing body shaming and ablelist body policing, a heavy layer of Christianity, excusing horrible male behavior with the implication that, well, you have to marry the guy you give your virginity to, and a really long, self-absorbed chapter about how unfair the foster care system is for rich white couples who already have biological children and aren't willing to take an older kid. I haven't hated a book this much in years.

I absolutely needed this book at this time. Thank you, Rachel, for such a powerful book.

I felt so uplifted and I felt so much better after reading these stories and thoughts. We are all doing our best and trying to find our way home. We can help each other, love each other and we can do it!