Girl, Wash Your Face…Girl, Read this book!

Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis…have you read it yet?  Are you following her on social media? Does she not just make you want to stand up and cheer for the power you hold to change your own life?!

If you don’t know who I’m talking about, her name is Rachel Hollis and she is the founder and CEO of TheChicSite.com.  She is also a best-selling author and motivational speaker.  In her latest book, Girl, Wash Your Face, Hollis exposes the lies she used to tell herself and shares how she worked through them to find her truth.  Some of her lies I could relate to and laugh at (mostly about motherhood). Some I could relate to and feel relieved that I am not the only one (also mostly about motherhood).  And some of her lies I could relate to and wanted to take immediate action based on her message.

Girl, Wash Your Face, is an entertaining, enjoyable read, and Hollis provides lots of motivation and inspiration without being too “heavy.”  By that I mean, she tells you her story and thoughts to ponder, but her writing style is light, humorous, and on the topics that cannot be humorous (for example, the story of her brother’s suicide) she explains what she learned from the experience and how even tragedy is not an excuse to keep you from having the life you want.  In fact, Hollis sets the tone for the book in Chapter 1 when she writes, “This is your life.  You are meant to be the hero of your own story.”  And then, “if you’re unhappy, that’s on you.”

To be clear, Hollis is not saying you have to make it on your own, nor does she deny that you may have been the victim of some hardships.  Her message is that you don’t have to remain the victim…of the hardships or of any of the lies you’ve been telling yourself for years. If fact, she seems like the kind of person you wished lived next door so that every morning you’d spring out of bed and rush outside in hopes of getting your daily pep talk before you conquer the world…or drive the kids to school, whatever.

As I previously mentioned, I found her chapters on motherhood to be EXTREMELY relatable.  I especially love when she describes that she is the mom who will buy the shirt for make-your-own-t-shirt day as opposed to the child whose mom will grow her own cotton, spin the cotton into thread and fabric, and sew the shirt herself.  Also, on the topic of motherhood, she gives the advice that moms need to learn to ask for and accept help; it is her answer for “how she does it all.”  And speaking about differences in parenting, Hollis also makes the great point that there is no one way to be a mom…or be a woman with no kids, or have a career, or be retired; it’s about what works for you and the world is better for having that kind of variety.

Two other chapters that hit home for me are Chapter 6 “The Lie: No Is the Final Answer,” and Chapter 10 “The Lie: I Should Be Further Along by Now.” Hollis’ words of experience from Chapter 6 are “I am successful because I refused to take no for an answer.  I am successful because I have never once believed my dreams were someone else’s to manage.”  Pretty powerful.  And then in Chapter 10, she reminded me that goals do not have expiration dates and that God has perfect timing.

There is so much more that I took away from Girl, Wash Your Face, but I don’t want to spoil it for you!  I definitely recommend reading the whole book and following Rachel Hollis on social media.

If you’ve read this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts too!  And if you have any recommendations for other motivational, life-changing, development-type books, please share.  Thank you!