Girl, Wash Your Face is the bestselling book by blogger Rachel Hollis and, to put it plainly, it has taken the world by storm. Hollis is a self-professed Christian, and her book is considered to be a “Christian” self-help book, published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher. Her message, on the surface, is one that many women, and moms especially, need to hear: Love yourself. Put yourself first. Make yourself a priority. It’s become massively successful, spending 33 weeks on Amazon’s non-fiction most-read list.
It must be said that Hollis is a fantastic writer; she writes in a conversational style that makes you feel like she’s your best friend. In many ways, she tackles issues that people might be too afraid to discuss: weight, sex, relationships. But is it really a positive message for women? Or is it just more damaging rhetoric wrapped in a pretty package?
Just be happy, mama!
Hollis repeatedly writes about how women need to understand that they are responsible for their own happiness, and that true happiness can only come about when you let go of the lies that society tells you. On its face, this may not seem bad. Her whole argument is that we’re all strong enough to overcome any obstacle, and if you can’t be happy, then just try, try again, and try harder until you are. That can certainly seem motivating — until you stop and take a second to think about it.
It’s easy for someone like Hollis (more on that later) to preach this kind of message, but for most people, it’s not as simple as pushing yourself to be happy. Not everyone led the kind of overly privileged life Hollis had. Here in the real world, where we aren’t all wealthy and entitled, we get stressed over bills. We worry about feeding our kids. We get frustrated because we can’t afford nannies to step in when we’re in over our heads or babysitters to give us a break, and our kids are wearing on our last nerves. We get lonely because we don’t have the time to see our friends as often as we’d like, and so our days are filled with little-to-no adult conversation. We have a hard time accepting our new post-baby bodies. We’re tired and stressed and frustrated, and so maybe we pick a fight with our spouse. And on and on it goes.
Is it possible to work past these things? Of course it is! But it’s also normal to be sad. Or angry. Or tired. Or stressed. Or frustrated. Sometimes people go through difficult times. Sometimes they have a mental health disorder, and can’t just make themselves be happy, no matter how hard they try. The point is, vapid encouragements to simply “be happy!” are shallow nonsense that ignores the realities of the world — that not everyone has the money or ability to change their job, change their spouse, go on a dream vacation, get therapy, or even afford decent health care.
Drop the fat friends?
One of the most offensive sections in her book involves weight. She slams women for being overweight, making a failure to lose weight, saying it’s not just a health issue, but also a moral failure. Consider how she describes a friend she asks the reader to imagine who loses weight, but then gains it back:
Y’all, would you respect her? Would you count on Pam or the friend who keeps blowing you off for stupid reasons? Would you trust them when they committed to something? Would you believe them when they committed to you? No.
Or how about when she calls being overweight equivalent to settling for a “half-lived life”?
Humans were not made to be out of shape and severely overweight. You can choose to continue to abuse your body because it’s all you know … You can choose to settle for a half-lived life because you don’t even know there’s another way … But please, please stop making excuses for the whys.
She glibly writes about how she “revokes permission” for women to lose track of a goal, a diet, anything, and even goes so far as to say that she doesn’t trust these people. What kind of friend is that?! Hollis conveniently ignores that, yet again, not everyone has led such a privileged life. Some women are mourning the life of a baby they lost before they even had the chance to hold them. Others had a child that got cancer and died. Still others are survivors of domestic abuse, cancer, sexual assault. And Hollis just hand-waves that away. You have no excuse for gaining weight after starting a diet, and if you do, you’re literally an untrustworthy human being who she would drop from her life.
Ignore my privilege
The worst part of Hollis’ book is how utterly and completely tone-deaf this woman is. Let’s be clear: This is someone who (as she repeatedly reminds us) was on the Forbes “40 Under 40” list. She runs a multi-million dollar company, she’s published numerous books, she sells weekend couples’ seminars which cost almost $2,000 (yes, really). She sells an image of authenticity that, in actuality, is very fake. (Those perfectly messy photos of her on Instagram in perfectly sloppy sweats with a perfectly messy bun is not real — it’s manufactured.) She talks about dreams like owning a vacation home in Hawaii and buying a $1,000 purse. She has a full-time nanny that allows her to travel and work and do what she pleases. And these are all perfectly fine things! It is not bad that she is wealthy and successful, has had to endure limited trauma in her life, and has accomplished all that she has.
But the problem is, that’s not attainable for most people. And it’s not an experience most people will ever be able to have. Her mantra that if you just work hard enough, hope enough, try enough, you can accomplish anything is straight out of prosperity gospel-doctrine, which I suppose is where the “Christian” part of her book comes in. But in real life, for people who aren’t white, thin, insanely wealthy, or able to afford nannies, you can’t necessarily just will things into being. You can’t always make yourself be happy. You can’t always make yourself be thin. You can’t always make yourself overcome infertility. You can’t always make your marriage happy. You can’t always make yourself become wealthy. It’s the fact that Hollis is utterly clueless to the reality that so many people live an existence so different from the life she leads that perhaps is so galling.
So really, if there’s anything Hollis needs to hear, it’s this: Girl, take a seat.
Read Cassy’s take on Rachel Hollis and her latest book, Didn’t See That Coming, here, as well as her perspective on the backlash surrounding Rachel’s recent controversial comments.
Your little review, I’m sorry to say, displays plainly that you didn’t get her book or her message at all. She did not come from privilege! Did you even read the first chapters? She few up in a small “Texas in California” town that was lower income, religious, and conservative. Her parents had an unhappy, conflict-filled marriage. Her brother killed himself and she found his body. She left home at 17 and was poor in LA, trying to make a living. She built her entire brand from scratch. What privilege are you talking about? Are you jealous of her success? Because she is absolutely successful at what she does. And she worked hard for it, so she has every right to feel good about it.
Her message is NOT that you should be like her. It is, very simply, that you should try your hardest to obtain what you want and to be the person you want. She offers a ton of real advice, and talks candidly about her traumas and her failures. She wants people to know that they can be more than victims of their situations. They can hope and dream for more. Why are you making it out to be a bad thing?
By the way: humans ARE BETTER OFF HEALTHY. This isn’t even something you can validly debate. Of course this is true! The fact that you even mention THAT in your narrow-minded critique of her work, kinda says everything about you. You are upset because she says PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE CARE OF THEIR BODIES. Yikes, lady. Examine yourself.
😂 your comment is horribly written and incoherent. Ignorant wyt women gonna stick together I guess. P.S. Rachel is trash
You would think that if she came from the circumstances you’re describing, she might have developed a great deal of compassion towards other women’s struggles. Not centering her entire brand on imposing her privilege on other women through shaming. It all feels like ego to me. All I have to do is scroll through her Instagram pics to get that. Manufactured imaging. It saddens me that so many women buy into this toxic positivity and enrich her in the process. It’s 2021. It’s time for marketing to center compassion and humility.
Thanks for writing this.
Thanks for this! I am in the middle of chapter 6, of the girl wash your face book, and once I got to the line “my family connections” I had to Google her because really I had no idea who she was. I found this book at a thrift store for $2 right before quarantine. I agree with what you wrote, I’m still going to try to finish the book… I just will take it with a much bigger grain of salt.
My husband went to church with her. Her few paragraphs at church camp peeing her pants… yeah didn’t happen. Her family, was the talk of the church because of their entitled attitudes. Her husband was a producer at Disney, of course she ended up successful with the type of connections he had.
Thank you for writing this! I could not agree with your assessment more.
It’s weird how all the people attacking you for your opinion are saying the EXACT SAME THING. Like it’s one person who is just SO mad and needs to tell you over and over again. Imagine that.
Well this aged really well.
It’s really to bad you didn’t get the point of the book, sounds like you might need it the most. You also sound like a person who plays victim to their circumstances. No thanks. Everything she said is on point and anyone that made that into a negative should maybe read it ten more times. Your defeated and y’all need help.
I tried to read her book and she sounded so entitled and very into herself. I think people who are defending her are pretty delusional of how helpful she is.
Her message is very much “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” Some of us don’t have bootstraps. We have mental illness, live in poverty, healing from traumas, etc. Her message isn’t all inclusive. Her message is for women in very specific lifestyle.