Girl Wash Your Face | By Clementine Lindley

Have you ever read a book that makes you want to reassess all of your priorities in life? That’s exactly how I felt after I finished “Girl, Wash Your Face.” In this book, Rachel Hollis examines lies that she has believed in her adulthood that would make her more successful, more beautiful and more likable. She lists each lie, then refutes it, explaining how viewpoints can change with just a few cognitive exercises. Even a media mogul can struggle with lies that we all have believed at some point – lies such as “I’ll start tomorrow,” “I don’t know how to be a mom,” “I need to make myself smaller,” “I should be further along by now,” or “I am defined by my weight.”

Each one of these chapters delivers a candid look into Rachel’s life. It’s not the kind of life you’d expect to see on the cover of “Better Homes and Gardens,” but instead the real, down-and-dirty and even intimate versions of what it’s like to live with negative thoughts racing through your head. She focuses on her own experiences in such a way that the reader can easily identify the similarities in their own lives. Because the book is broken out into chapters devoted to each lie, the reader can skip a chapter that doesn’t pertain to them.

This book encouraged, motivated and inspired me not to sit and wait for tomorrow, but to instead see the day for what it is. To paraphrase Rachel: take the time to cry on the bathroom floor, but when you’re done, stand up, wash your face and tackle the mountains ahead of you.