Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

“You, and only you, are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are.”

Rachel Hollis – Girl, Wash Your Face

When I look back over a few of my notes on this book, most of them really resonate as a 4-star rating. But when I think about the reading of this text, my mind always says 5, so 5 it is.

I really really should have slowed down and read this with my trusty highlighter and pen. This book earned the right to be devoured and annotated, but by the time that I admitted that to myself, I was already a chapter or two into the book. And although I really wasn’t that far, I just didn’t want to go back. SO, eventually, I will have to read this again and take the copious notes that I didn’t take the first time. Live and learn.

This book is all about Rachel Hollis and the lies that she’s told herself throughout her lifetime. These lies are fairly obvious – I often said to myself, of course she told herself that – we all do, but I guess that is really the point. These lies are things that happen, or are on repeat in our brains and in society that we just don’t really stop and think about. She uses these as a place to correct the negative talk and behaviors that are exhibited because of all that, and she gives really great (and honest!) examples from her own life to support them.

There were a few times that I walked away (mostly in the middle of the book) feeling like she was a little obnoxious with always trying to demonstrate how not perfect she was and how she has experienced it all, by telling us how she fixed that issue to become now, perfect. But I think some of that maybe came from jealousy(??) Like, how can you just tell yourself to be better and then become better? And how can you wake up one morning and commit to running a half marathon and then a full marathon, when you aren’t previously a runner, and then do it? I think when I compare myself to her, that she is just naturally way more competitive than I am, which is why it may take me longer to establish what she can establish in a day.

What this book really is about, is – recognizing that you are the active participant in your life and YOU need to be the one who starts to play in the game. Hopefully something catapults you into that realization sooner rather than later, and maybe it will be Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be. Or … maybe, if I am lucky, part of it will be this very blog (insert *wink emoji* here).

There were some minor elements that I could have done without: the amount of talk she exhibited about faith and her religion, and the repetition of some ideas and stories/examples. I certainly can understand why faith is a big conversation in this book, as that is most of what she bases her life on. But with it not being something that resides in my life, it wasn’t relevant or maybe even helpful, since I am not looking to change that aspect.

There were also times that she mentioned a story that she had already recalled or examples that had already been used, and she said them like we had never heard them before. The idea of reiterating something for support or to really get the point across is okay, but she did it in a way that the information was [seemingly] new, and I didn’t love that, since it was not. It was just a mild irritant, but one that I felt worth mentioning.

All in all, however, the lies really resonated with me. I found myself almost constantly saying, Yes!! True!! and that made for a really engaging and powerful read. Without ever having heard of Rachel Hollis before, I am super glad that I picked this text up and I bet that most people will feel that same way, too.