Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

I feel conflicted about this book. I really enjoyed most of it while I was listening, and I loved hearing the author reading it and feeling like I was getting to know her personality. She seems like she is super funny and awesome and like someone who I'd want to be friends with (but I'd never be able to keep up with, honestly). And I loved how she wasn't so coddling with her advice and opinions like so many articles and things are that we read these days. I feel like most things that are written for moms say things just like, "Mama, you're doing amazing. Just remember how amazing you are," but it's kind of disingenuous because yeah, we are amazing, but everyone can be better, and some people just flat out AREN'T doing amazing so reading stuff like that isn't that helpful. Hollis had much more of a "tough love" approach, like "Sure, you're amazing--so do better. Don't just sit there and watch Netflix in your free time--do something more useful that can help you achieve your dreams that you keep giving up on." etc. I feel like this is pretty awesome and she got me thinking a little bit about what some of my goals and dreams are--which I still haven't really identified, but she at least got me thinking about how to make concrete steps towards my goals.

But, on the other hand, I kind of disagreed with some of the things she was saying. She liked to go on and on and on about how awesome and hardworking and amazingly successful and confident she was in herself--which is really great, but it ended up getting old throughout the book. (I'd never heard of her or her blog or her amazingly successful company that she kept talking about and which she made it sound like she was everywhere.) She said over and over again that she was the hardest working person EVER, and the toughest and strongest and best at XY and Z. I am sure that I was just being influenced by our culture that says that women have to be humble and unassuming and that's why it was bothering me, but it did. One of her chapters was all about how she had the goal to buy a $1000 Louis Vuitton bag, and how she was able to visualize that goal and how that goal motivated her to work as hard as she could until she could achieve it. I liked the message behind it, but I can't get behind that specific example, and I can't help think how different her life must be from mine (or most people's) if that's something she really can buy.

However, it was definitely worth a listen. These issues that I have with it were definitely not as important as I'm making them, because I enjoyed it while I was listening to it. I feel like I'd even buy this book to come back to it later, because there were some really great parts. I just don't want to feel like I have to take advice from someone who's pretty much my own age but who is making her career based off of a lifestyle blog.