Beyond Beautiful
My second book “Beyond Beautiful: A practical guide to being happy, confident and you in a looks-obsessed world” is OUT!
You can order your copy here:
There is also a German edition called “Beyond Beautiful: Wie wir trotz Schönheitswahn selbstbewusst und zufrieden leben können”. You can order it here.
For me, writing this book was essentially self-therapy. Even though I grew up in the era of female empowerment and body positivity, I spent much of my twenties as a serial-dieter and beauty-fanatic, constantly trying to fix yet another critical “flaw”, researching diets and comparing myself to hot people with cute dogs and millionaire lovers on Instagram.
So when my publisher started hinting at a second book, I told them that (instead of a Curated Closet 2) what I really wanted to do was write a practical, no-BS book on body image. I couldn’t tell them exactly what I’d write about yet though, all I knew is what questions I wanted the book to answer. Things like:
How am I ever supposed to feel good about myself when my culture is making it impossible?
How can I stop feeling like an unhealthy slob whenever I scroll through my Instagram feed?
How do I get over my fear of looking older?
Should I get lip fillers to improve my confidence?
How do I find the confidence to wear less makeup/ stop shaving/wear what I want?
Fortunately, my publisher took a leap of faith, so I got to spend a year talking to some of the smartest people out there—psychologists, sociologists, media and women’s studies experts, confidence coaches, and dieticians—and reading everything there is to read about body image, to see if I could find concrete, non-wishy-washy advice for people (like me and pretty much every single woman I know) who feel like their insecurities are keeping them from living their best life. Everything I learned is in this book.
I know authors always say this, but Beyond Beautiful is the book I wish I’d had ten, fifteen, any amount of years ago. Here’s a shortlist of stuff I no longer do since working on it:
go on one diet after another, chasing one #bodygoal after another
freak out at the sight of an unfortunate photo of myself and instantly doubt my whole existence
research new beauty treatments and beauty products whenever I feel down to get back a sense of control
turn down career opportunities because I don’t feel “camera-ready”
waste a ton of time, energy and money either worrying about the way I look or trying to “fix” myself
It’s pretty cool…
