Thoughts on “Girl, Wash Your Face” (Rachel Hollis) // Part 1

Hi all,

I thought I would change up my content to bring you a review on the book, “Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis. I saw the cover of the book, a smiling lifestyle blogger, and immediately thought it would be a book that I would never read. Alas, here we are. A friend and I wanted to start a book club and I got roped into reading this one.

For the record, there are many things that I disliked reading, disagreed with, etc. However, there were certainly some points that really resonated with me that I would like to share in this “Part 1” blog post. A part 2 with all of the nitty gritty things that I really dislike about this book will be coming soon after this one. So here are a few points from the book that struck me and I would love to share with you all:

1. She is constantly emphasizing how we are responsible owners of our own lives, wellbeing, happiness, success, and failure. We should stop blaming our past hurts, our geography, our obstacles, things we feel obligated to do when we really don’t want to, and just work in order to see progress in our lives. No matter if a goal takes a short period of time or a lifetime, we should keep after it and smack down those excuses. (Typical, but always welcome, motivational chat, right?)
2. Remove judgment from your mouth and thoughts. I thought as a Christian author with a lot of influence, this was a great point. So many times, I see church folk really struggling with this one, which made me very grateful this was included in her book. There are so many rewards that come with cheering on others, instead of isolating yourself due to your judgment of others. For one thing, you miss out on creating friends or “your tribe” as she calls it.
3. I appreciate her candid manner that she describes her relationship. She tells the story of how she meets her husband and the rockiness that it experienced in the dating phase. I think that many people have this fairy tale idea of love because people often leave out the messy details of their love story. It was refreshing to have this very genuine chapter of how her husband wasn’t technically the knight in shining armor that women dream of. But hey, that’s okay. We’re all human and we need to have expectations that are full of grace and understanding.
4. She talks about feminism. This was also a great part of the book where I found myself nodding along. She discusses her life of being a mom, wife, and entrepreneur. She doesn’t fit that stay at home mom mold and that’s perfectly okay. She discourages women from making themselves feel small and quiet just to make others feel comfortable.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. My next post will be part 2, featuring all of the negative concepts that I disagree with regarding the book.