Another great both by Rachel Hollis! I love her writing style and her personal anecdotes. Lots of great information and ideas! ( )

Rachel Hollis is my new best friend. I must have been living under a rock, because I'd never heard of her before her previous book, "Girl, Wash Your Face" (which I haven't yet read) exploded to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list.

I absolutely loved her take on female ambition and guilt-free parenting. I, too, work hard to run a successful business while being an exceptional wife and mother. And while I believe "balance" is a myth, I do think we can have it all. We just need to be aware that our priorities will shift from day to day.

I adore how unapologetic Rachel is about her lifestyle -- and the way her decisions and dreams feed her soul. That's a level of freedom I aspire to as well. I'm so delighted to have found this book. I highlighted the heck out of it! ( )

I've never been keen on self-help books. Tbh, the title intrigued me and I went in as I wanted to just give it a try. I consider myself to be a motivated and a strong person. Not only has this book made me realise that the above things are absolutely true but also that I'm wasting those gifts I have. I now positively want to become more organised and use my time wisely because one take back for me from the book along with several other wonderful things is that, I have it in me and I just have to be willing to put in hardwork towards achieving my goals. One other thing I want to mention is how she talks about the phrase - ' Girl Boss' and urges us to think about why should we add the prefix girl to boss even when boss is a unisexual word. That emphasis is something that crossed my mind but I still went with. Now, I will stop to correct people who use prefixes to gender neutral terms in order to make them specific for women. It's absolutely wrong! And we all need to avoid it. ( )

There is a lot of good advice in this book. I flipped between really appreciating her style and the feeling of someone rubbing fur the wrong way. I like her unapologetic style and her message. I don't agree with all of it, but I do appreciate her vibrancy and stance behind how she sees things. It's also wonderful to see a woman putting herself first and her views out there for others to follow. She's definitely paving a path and I will take some of what I read to heart.

I would recommend this book. Take what you need, but don't get hung up if not everything rings true for you. ( )

Inspirational blueprint for success. I already practice a lot of what she preaches. I only needed a reminder of my inherent "enoughness" to recharge my confidence and enthusiasm on this 10-10-1 journey. ( )

This is not the book for everyone but its not bad. Go into it though knowing that she is an attractive, wealthy, white woman in America and that you can follow what she says but maybe just scale things so they fit your own circumstances.

( )

I'm not a mother and for some reason this time around I couldn't make myself switch the views to being single. I really enjoyed the book and found some good nuggets. I highly recommend. Only 4 because I just couldn't get ahold of all the being a mom talk. Even though I know that is exactly who Rachel is and just at the moment I am not. ( )

2.75*
This wasn't as inspiring to me as Girl, Wash Your Face. Maybe I didn't need this kind of pep talk at this time... There were a couple good anecdotes and slight recognitions that I had, but nothing felt earth shattering or new in thought or theory. ( )

My history with Rachel Hollis & Girl Wash Your Face:

I’ll admit it, I fell down the Rachel Hollis rabbit hole last winter. I read Girl, Wash Your Face in February 2018 and found many parts of it inspiring. As with most self-help or personal growth books, I did not connect with every section but did find some of it to be relatable and helpful and there was a quirky and funny side of Rachel that I connected with during some of her writing.

At the time, I found some of it to be very relatable and I still think about the chapter about not breaking a promise to yourself when it comes to goals and things that are important to you. I had no idea who Rachel Hollis was at the time but I happily followed along on her social media accounts, listened to her podcasts and even went to the Made For More screening at the movie theater this summer which now makes me cringe a little.

My experience with her content over the last year:

Slowly, something started changing. I get that it must be a total mind twister to have your social media following grow so exponentially like it did during this past year, but any humility or relatability has gone right out the window. I think if I read Girl, Wash Your Face again now, I would struggle like I did reading this one. At the time the cutesy phrases seemed like a way to connect with other women who are just trying to reach her goals while also balancing the everyday juggling of having a young family, I feel naive saying that.

I think much of that was a marketing tactic to connect because all of that is gone and Girl, Stop Apologizing is one big humblebrag that lacks so much self-awareness and empathy for other’s situations it is astonishing.

My thoughts on Girl, Stop Apologizing:

I tried going into her new release with an open mind but I most certainly had a different take on it from the experiences and things I have seen over the last year. I talked more about that HERE if you are interested…

Her section about the darkest time of her childhood being when her mom left an unhealthy marriage and she was “forced” to live in a “crappy” apartment left my mouth hanging open. Saying her mom shouldn’t have left an unhealthy marriage if she didn’t have the financial resources to do so was the nail in the coffin for me. As a woman who supposedly wants to “support women,” this is frightening information to be passing along to someone who might be in the same situation. There is little to no perspective in her storytelling and some of it is downright harmful.

I don’t even want to get started on her chapters about her previously (also postpartum) being “overweight” at a size 12-14…or her E for elephant-sized breastfeeding breasts because it was so insulting and out of touch. The average American woman is a size 16-18 and talking about how terrible she looked at the size of 12 is wrong on so many levels.

Her chapter about volunteering at her children’s school became a “do you know how many requests I get as a social media empire, do you think I want to use my time doing a mind-numbing task such as stuffing 1st-grade classroom envelopes?”

Listen, if she doesn’t want to volunteer all the time, I don’t think there is any shame in that but talking about it like this is flat out disrespectful. Let’s be real, I don’t think the teachers or other volunteers enjoy it every second either and it still needs to get done and maybe let’s just appreciate that without talking about the millions of other things you would rather be doing instead?

There is undercurrent during this book that it feels like Hollis is talking down to you as the reader, and we can’t even imagine how busy and demanding her life is. I would imagine many people reading this book are juggling many balls too…

She then went on and on about how much shame other moms gave her if she didn’t volunteer. I don’t live where she lives, but for someone who talks about not caring what other people think, this entire book was filled with all the things people gave her grief about but she was so BRAVE not to do them, such as volunteering at school, or gasp, NOT staying home with her kids.

Maybe she is trying to speak to a different audience but never in my life has someone made me feel badly about working or not doing “all the things” at our children’s school. We live in a liberal state (and one that for many families needs two working parents because of the cost of living)and I have never felt the idea that women needed to stay home with their kids and were shamed if they didn’t…or vice versa!

Everyone is allowed to make their own choices, and maybe Hollis should follow her own advice and surround herself with people that support her dreams because she sure does a lot of contradicting herself in this book.

I am not saying you have to do it all, and I certainly think it is okay to ask for help, but many of the messages I received from this book were alarming. There are many parts of being an adult, parenting, and working that you might not enjoy every second of the time. The idea that if you don’t LOVE something, don’t do it, just put such a bad taste in my mouth.

In Summary:

All in all, this book, was not for me. I don’t think I have ever struggled so much with writing a book review as I have with Girl, Stop Apologizing. There were some messages about goal setting and following your own path that I do think could be helpful but they were so far overshadowed by the other content in this book. I never want to put someone else down, but as a woman, this book has so many dark and unhealthy messages, not just for women but for our society as a whole. I thought it was important to share this review as I have recommended her content in the past and will no longer do so. ( )

I was curious about this author. I saw her books on display in a rather large area at a local _target store when they came out. Basically, it's about herself, girl power, self love, follow your dreams advice... DNF. ( )

I really like Rachel and her books. Not everything she talks about, applies to me, but I think she has a great way of saying things that puts it into perspective for me. As with any self-help book, it’s not for everyone and that’s ok. ( )

I love Rachel Hollis' upbeat and conversational style, using her own real-life experiences to illustrate her points to help women live the lives that they were meant to live. “Girl, Stop Apologizing” is a leadership and goal achievement book that assists women in eliminating the excuses that prevent them from achieving their goals and helps them to adopt productive behaviours and skills to achieve success. ( )

Let's become who we are meant to be ( )

Tries very hard to be relatable and falls short.

Rachel Hollis wants to stop apologizing for working all the time and not volunteering at her children's school. She wants to stop apologizing for the time she had a nanny and staff of 5 people and passed herself off as a mommy blogger, assuming everyone would plainly realize she had loads of help (and being shocked when they didn't). She wants to stop apologizing for referring to herself in the third person as that mom that wanted to get in shape "for her family" and ran a 10K, then half marathon, then full marathon (humble brag). She preaches confidence and not caring what others think, but go ahead and get that boob job (like she did) if you're still insecure and actually really do care.

She makes a good (or maybe I should say "exceptional") point that her husband has never been called out for working hard, even if it means missing the children's school functions.
The advice in the book is simple: overcome excuses, set goals, work really hard, and get a ton of help.

Maybe we can relate to the first 3 steps, yet many moms simply don't have the same level of support in the home and in society to really reach the level of achievement that Hollis has reached. She seems to be trying to change that and hopefully we can (after reading this book, of course) demand the support and time we need to get ourselves to the next level. No apologies. ( )

I read this as a buddy read with my wife so she would have someone to discuss it with. I've never read a self-help book before, so I don't have anything to compare it against. However, I thought she gave some really good advice, and she's had a profound effect on my wife's life.

I will also say that, being a father of 3 girls, the beginning angered me and almost brought me to tears. I don't want my daughters to grow up with those same feelings of doubt and insecurity about themselves and their self-worth. I want them to grow up happy, confident, and not caring what other people think about who they are. I wish they were old enough to comprehend this book to help with that. ( )

This book was so not written for me, and that might be why I felt Hollis was very self-aggrandizing. ( )

I purchased this book from Amazon to read with my sister. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis. This book got me fired up. I felt like I could accomplish anything after reading it! Set your goals, follow your path, succeed! It all sounds so simple until you stumble, but Rachel has a fool-proof plan. Because lets face it there is always that one stumbling block, it doesn't mean you can't reach it, it just means you have to work harder to get that much farther. It's time to quit apologizing for being who you are and embrace who you were meant to be! Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie, and my blog at readsbystacie.com ( )

A special thank you to HarperCollins Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hollis's goal is to help women unpack unpack the crippling mind-sets that destroy their self-confidence and keep them from moving forward and reaching their full potential.

While she may not be the most radical in the self-help field—after all, a lot of what she is saying is common sense—her heart is in the right place. Hollis's message is simple: women spend too much time apologizing for who they are and don't voice what it is that they want. She reminds us to take 'me' time. So often we don't recharge our own batteries and are left bitter, angry, and exhausted because we have sacrificed ourself in order to make everyone else happy. Sound familiar?

As Rachel Hollis says in the book, "Girl, you do you!". If you are finding parts of the book are either not applicable, or simply not your bag, move along. Take what applies to you and your life/situation and listen to what she has to say. Her followers love her no-nonsense approach and bluntness. It's like having a good ol' gab with a girlfriend. A friend that is trying to talk you into buying the dress that looks fab on you when you are doubting yourself. Or the friend that gives it to you straight because they care.

Hollis is unapologetic. You are always going to be too much something for someone, and not enough something for someone else. We only need to be enough for ourselves and more importantly, believe in ourselves.

I did prefer the format better for Girl, Wash Your Face. Hollis started each chapter with an anecdote (often Google-worthy) in the form of a lie that she once believed, followed by things that helped her overcome the lie. This book is a little different in that it is divided into three sections—Excuses, Behaviors (Behaviours if you are in Canada), and Skills. It was a little heavy on the excuse section which is probably why she changed the format, but stick with it because her trademark honestly, cheeky humour, and effort are abundant. ( )