6 Things You Need to Know about Rachel Hollis’ New Book.

A review of Rachel Hollis’ Girl Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan For Embracing and Achieving Your Goals.

If you’ve paid any attention to the personal growth world lately, you’ve probably noticed the name Rachel Hollis and her special best friend brand of making her audience confront their own B.S.  Her first book Girl, Wash Your Face is a New York Times Bestseller.  She has a sold out personal development conference and a successful company she runs with her husband.  But does this new book Girl, Stop Apologizing hold up the hype? Here are six things to consider before buying/reading this book….

Girl, listen to your older sister!

Rachel Hollis is known for her engaging and straight-talking style.  She truly feels like an older, wiser, sister who’s sitting down to dish with a bowl of ice cream or a mimosa at brunch.  This makes the writing approachable and fun to read! There were many times I found myself laughing out loud and smiling.  This kept me wanting to read more.

Girl, do your research!

Recently, Hollis has been accused of stealing quotes from others and passing them off as her own on her Instagram.  She seems to that in her book as well. If she does reference something that isn’t her own, she says “A wise person once said…” or something like that.  Instead of doing the research and actually trying to figure where the quote came from or the context it came from.  This comes off as lazy at worst or at best like a 20 somethings “INSPO” board on Pinterest.  For as long as Hollis has been creating content, she should know better.

Girl, this is good marketing!

Rachel Hollis is a New York Times Best Selling author.  But does she deserve to be there?  This book is published under the Religion & Spirituality category, and on this date is #1 on Amazon in this category.  However, this book really doesn’t fit in this category at all.  Yes, Hollis is a Christian. But I think there is a pretty big difference between an author who is a Christian versus a Christian author.  She refers to God less than a handful of times.  She doesn’t specifically reference the Bible.  Now, by no means does that make this bad a book. It just seems more like a marketing scheme that they would choose to put her in the Religion & Spirituality category.

Girl, don’t repeat yourself.

If you have followed Hollis at all in the last six months to a year, most of the content in GSA has appeared across her social in one way or another.  Some of the stories she tells in the book are told in her “Made for More” documentary now on  Amazon Prime. She has read from the book on both her Rise Podcast and on her daily live Facebook shows.  So, in some ways it’s amazing she’s been giving this content away for free. However, at the same time it leaves the reader feeling a little bummed out to read things they’ve already heard a million times before and didn’t have to pay for.

Girl, know your audience!

A lot of Hollis’ success has to do with her ability to pinpoint her niche and create content that specifically speaks to that audience.  If you are not part of this audience, some of the material might be hard to relate to.  Primarily, Hollis speaks to the 30-40-year-old, married, white woman, from at least a middle-class background.  Women in MLMs follow her in droves, as proven by the companies (Lularoe, DoTerra, ThirtyOne, Beachbody) that have asked her to speak at their conferences.  If you don’t have a few kids at home, a business, a husband….this might not be the book for you or you might have a hard time relating. 

Girl, take the advice!

There are a lot of different pieces of advice in this book.  But the thing I love about personal development books is how the reader can decide what they take from them.  There are parts of this book that really spoke to me because of my life journey.  If you read this book, something totally different might resonate with you.  That’s not bad!  This book offers lots of moments you can add to your own self-improvement toolbox.

Girl, should you read it?

Do I think Rachel Hollis is the queen-bee of personal development that many of her followers believe she is?  No.  Do I think the book is worth a read?  Yes.  If you haven’t read or followed Hollis before most of the information will be new to you, and you’ll probably walk away learning more about yourself. That’s an opportunity no one should walk away from.  Girl, get reading!!

What’s your favorite personal development book?  Do you agree with my review?  Let’s hear it in the comments below!