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Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis Published by Thomas Nelson on February 6, 2018
Genres: Self Help, Non-Fiction, Christian
Pages: 241
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With wry wit and hard-earned wisdom, popular online personality and founder of TheChicSite.com founder Rachel Hollis helps readers break free from the lies keeping them from the joy-filled and exuberant life they are meant to have.
Founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and CEO of her own media company, Chic Media, Rachel Hollis has created an online fan base of hundreds of thousands of fans by sharing tips for living a better life while fearlessly revealing the messiness of her own. Now comes her highly anticipated first book featuring her signature combination of honesty, humor, and direct, no-nonsense advice.
Each chapter of Girl, Wash Your Face begins with a specific lie Hollis once believed that left her feeling overwhelmed, unworthy, or ready to give up. As a working mother, a former foster parent, and a woman who has dealt with insecurities about her body and relationships, she speaks with the insight and kindness of a BFF, helping women unpack the limiting mind-sets that destroy their self-confidence and keep them from moving forward.
From her temporary obsession with marrying Matt Damon to a daydream involving hypnotic iguanas to her son’s request that she buy a necklace to “be like the other moms,” Hollis holds nothing back. With unflinching faith and tenacity, Hollis spurs other women to live with passion and hustle and to awaken their slumbering goals.
I want to start this one off by saying that I wanted to love this book because of the buzz around it. That, and because I always want to support other bloggers and the author of Girl, Wash Your Face is a blogger. We’ve gotta stick together and support each other!
Don’t get me wrong I did like it, I just didn’t love it.
I get what she was trying to do here and I am with her on the overall message. She talks about the lies we tell ourselves and how to overcome the issues with them. I think a lot of these things are very important. Believing in yourself and your worth, doing things that make you happy, giving yourself a break sometimes, taking care of your mental health. All great messages, especially for a young woman who is struggling to find herself.
At times I loved the tone. It often felt like I was sitting with a friend because of the informal language. Other times it felt patronizing and almost condescending. Sometimes I couldn’t decide which. I also wasn’t aware that it was an overly Christian book but it definitely is. That’s fine, it just would have been good to know ahead of time. I wouldn’t have read it had I known how preachy it would be.
I appreciate the spirit in which this book was written. I know that Girl, Wash Your Face was truly intended to help women find their voice, passion or purpose and learn to love themselves. I just feel like it missed the mark a little. It was written from the perspective of an affluent white woman so it can really alienate women from other walks of life. At times she seems arrogant and self absorbed, however I can imagine that this is in part due to the self-love that she preaches.
While the intent was totally there, the execution was off. I do think that this book would be helpful and uplifting for the right person, I just wasn’t that person.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
This one is really polarizing. My Facebook reading group mostly hates it, but I’ve seen a lot of (mostly) positive reviews from bloggers. I haven’t read it, and I don’t plan to, mostly because I feel like I would fall into your camp about it. Definitely some good points and themes in there, but I feel like I won’t care for the way it’s executed; the preachy vibe is definitely a turn-off for me, and I don’t like haughtiness too much, either. Thanks for your honest review of this one!
I wanted to like it so bad! I’m sure it’s perfect for someone out there though.
I think you’ve given a really balanced and fair review here, great job. I’ve been seeing this book EVERYWHERE all year (or at least it feels that way), and I thought I might read it to see what the fuss is about… but now I’ve seen a couple of reviews (including yours) that just raise red flags for me. Firstly, any affluent white woman talking about overcoming life obstacles with a “get off your butt and believe in yourself” kind of attitude really irks me (is a WOC refugee whose child has been removed and placed in detention REALLY going to fix all her problems by being more determined and confident? nuh-uh). And I just can’t get down with faith-preach-y books; it’s one thing to say “believing in my God has helped me”, but another entirely to say “you should believe in God and it’ll help you”. Thank you for sharing your honest thoughts, a big time/space saver for me now I know I can give this one a miss! 😁❤️
I’m so glad you found it useful! I used to be so on the fence about posting “negative” reviews. This isn’t necessarily negative but it’s not exactly glowing either. I feel like there’s no point in posting a review if it’s not an honest one!
Spot on! I actually generally find “negative” reviews (or should we call them “critical” maybe?) more valuable than glowing positive ones. I get nervous posting them too, but every time someone will reach out and say “that really helped, thanks” or “I feel the same”. It’s an old cliche, but honesty is the best policy, definitely 😉❤️
I loved your detailed review. I honestly have been seeing this book everywhere especially at Target. I didn’t plan on reading it but wanted to know others thoughts on it. I am always curious to see how bloggers write and how their books develop. But, your review definitely showed me different sides to this book and I am glad that I came across your blog!
Thanks so much!