by Abbie Walker
“Do you ever suspect that everyone else has life figured out and you don’t have a clue?”
If you’re anything like me, you answered “Yes” to that question. And if so, Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis might be the book for you.
Hollis is best known for her lifestyle website, The Chic Site, where she offers tips on motherhood, homemaking, career life, and more to her millions of followers. She’s also the CEO of her own media company.
In this book, Hollis lays out 21 lies that women often believe about themselves, lies such as “I’m Not Good Enough,” “I’m Not a Good Mom,” “I Am Defined by My Weight,” and other struggles that keep many women from living joyful, productive lives. Dishing out the same honest advice that her online community loves so much, Hollis combats these lies with truths she’s learned over the years, using her own examples of mistakes and faith to encourage and inspire.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t know who Rachel Hollis was before I picked up this book. But when I kept hearing her name crop up among podcasters, bloggers, and other women I admire, I decided to check it out. And I’m so glad I did!
What I love about this book is how refreshingly honest and real Hollis is. Instead of the fluffy, surface-level content that I unfortunately see from many Christian women authors, this book is packed with a lot of humor and wisdom. She covers a variety of topics: marriage, motherhood, comparison, rejection, addiction, and loss. Each chapter had something that hit home with me, and even though I’m not a wife or mother, the parts where Hollis talked about her struggles in those areas addressed a lot of fears I didn’t realize I had. Some of my favorite chapters were “I Should Be Further Along by Now” and “I’m a Terrible Writer.”
Hollis is a relatable and entertaining narrator who you can’t help but love. I laughed with her as she recounted peeing her pants as a grown woman, empathized with her through her painful adoption journey, and gave her a mental fist pump when she talked about training for a half-marathon.
The advice in this book is extremely practical. Each chapter ends with three tips that Hollis calls, “Things That Helped Me.” It’s reassuring to hear someone older than me talk about their journey so I don’t feel so alone in where I am now and to have a better sense of how to navigate what’s ahead.
Girl, Wash Your Face is for women of any age or life stage who want to face the lies and insecurities head on and start taking charge of the narrative. I’ve already been recommending or gifting this book to all my closest girlfriends.
“Get up, right now. Rise up from where you’ve been, scrub away the tears and the pain of yesterday, and start again . . . Girl, wash your face!”
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