How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life

by Lilly Singh

From actress, comedian, and YouTube sensation Lilly Singh (aka ||Superwoman||) comes the definitive guide to being a bawse—a person who exudes confidence, reaches goals, gets hurt efficiently, and smiles genuinely because they’ve fought through it all and made it out the other side.

Told in her hilarious, bold voice that’s inspired over nine million fans, and using stories from her own life to illustrate her message, Lilly proves that there are no shortcuts to success.

WARNING: This book does not include hopeful thoughts, lucky charms, and cute quotes. That’s because success, happiness, and everything else you want in life needs to be fought for—not wished for. In Lilly’s world, there are no escalators, only stairs. Get ready to climb.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Audiobook, Memoir, Business, Biography, Humor

315 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2017

About the author

Lilly Singh is a Canadian YouTuber, comedian, talk show host, writer, and actress, who initially gained fame on social media under the pseudonym IISuperwomanII.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think of discomfort as currency- it's the price you pay to learn some pretty crucial things.

Lilly Singh - YouTuber, Late-night Talk-show host and internet personality - has just exploded onto the literary scene with her how-to book.

Ever wonder how Lilly manages it all?

How she got to the top?

How she keeps herself going despite the incredibly high expectations and stress levels?

Wonder no more.

IF YOU CAN’T CONTROL PEOPLE, THEN CONTROL YOUR REACTION TO THEM. IF YOU CAN’T CONTROL A SITUATION, THEN PREPARE FOR IT

In this book, Lilly dissects her life and talks about what it takes to make it (and stay at) the top.

Don't give up before you even try.

Overall, I enjoyed this book far more than I expected.

It was smart, sassy and above all, fun.

I really enjoyed Lilly's tidbits of advice scattered throughout the book.

Words lie; actions can lie too. Consistency speaks the truth.

And it was cool to get the behind-the-scenes look into her wild life.

I was really enjoyed her take on the transition between her "normal" life and her "YouTube" life and her pep-talks throughout.

Nah, you can do better than that. Stop being wacksauce.

She focuses mainly on the successes she's achieved in the book. She does speak briefly about her life before - including her depression but after a couple of sentences about the lows.

However, there was one thing that threw me out of the book. The telling.

There were several moments where it was so bad that I'd disconnect from the book.

For example, she did this thing in the book where she'd yo-yo from a lonely moment deep into her depression to the highest of highs (everyone applauding, her coming out triumphant, fanfare).

Emotional whiplash.

I think it was (in part) the lack of content and context.

I wanted to connect with her (i.e. what was happening in your life? Why are you feeling so bad? What happened after).

I suppose she doesn't "owe" the audience those deeply private moments... but if you are comfortable enough to put it in your book, I think you should be ok with actually explaining and providing context.

Without, it ended up being a distraction (ie rapid fire - oh she's sad, oh she's bragging about her success) rather than enhancing the novel.


But other than that, this was a really well done how-to book and the tone (and inflection) from the audiobook was really, truly perfect!

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

[Raj · Rating 2 out of 5]

In looking for reviews about this book, I noticed most of the comments are by many of Lilly's passionate fans who admit to not having read the book yet. If you want to hear an honest review about the content of the book, continue reading below:

Overall, this was a quick and simple read. Each of the 50 chapters are short and to the point, maybe 5 pages each at most. However, I also thought this may have been one of the reasons I couldn't give the book a higher rating. Singh offers a lot of great advice and mini pearls of wisdom, but as soon as you start processing the lesson, the chapter ends. Before you know it, the book is over and your head is swirling with just fragments of advice.

In the chapter, "Send the GPS Deep", she states "When it comes to understanding our behavior and why we do the things we do, I believe each of us has a minimum of three layers....the bottom layer consists of the deeply rooted reasons we actually behave the way we do." When Singh first announced her book, I was excited to read it and support her because I have been a long-time fan. However, I assumed the book was going to give us a deeper glimpse of who she is off-camera aside from the unicorns, skittles, and T-shirt references. I hoped she was going to provide the reader more insight into her third layer. At times she did do this, especially in the "Out of The Blue" concluding sections, but other than that the book remained largely surface-level. I can assume this is because she deeply values her privacy, and even alludes to that in the chapter "Be Secretive." But I can't help but feel that if she expanded on her advice over a few more pages per chapter instead of sticking to the strict formula of opening metaphor-real world example-conclusion, and was willing to be a bit more vulnerable, that the overall tone of the book would have felt more substantive and personal. However, I do recognize that this is her first book and applaud her for keeping true to herself and her style.

...and just an FYI: if you are considering buying the book, I would definitely purchase the hardcover version instead of the ebook. Every chapter begins with a wonderfully colorful picture and title page. The ebook version hampers the reading experience in that sense because it just simply doesn't do the layout justice.

[Trang Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK IS GOLD. IT HELPS ME SO MUCH. Just when I needed it the most, reading this book is like having Lilly near you as a friend and a supporter to reassure you and guide you through your life. I believe we all learn best from our own experience and this memoir a personal coach speaking from her own experience and the result is amazing.



The writing? TOTALLY HONEST TO HER STYLE. It’s funny, witty and familiar. She doesn’t need to pretend to be someone else, speaking like Shakespeare or whatever. She goes straight to the point and backs up her advice with her own examples and experience.

It’s like a voyage into yourself that you’ve been delaying for years because you didn’t know where to start. Well you start with this book right here. Lily reminds us that even though she reached stardom, she was still an ordinary person like all of us. She started from the bottom and people tend to forget that. So her problems and tips are easy to relate to. Dealing with your impulse, with hatred and arrogant people, how to not procrastinate, and my favourite thing ever.. SHE MADE A LOT OF GAME OF THRONES REFERENCES :D . She usually uses the characters to describe how they also apply the behaviours and how they overcome it through a fun psychological analysis.

You can read my full review here : https://bookidote.com/2017/03/27/how-...

Trang - Book Blogger
http://bookidote.com

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Punky enough to get to my reading list. Not coherent enough to get a higher rating from me. All the Youtube references soon got irritating (if I want Youtube, I won't be reading a book, I'll switch to Youtube, thank you).
All the graphics were a bit much too much.
Generally, I prefer my books to be more well-rounded and substantial. This book had a hell of a lot of promise and underdelivered in a drastic way. The girl spends entirely too much time on internet and videos. I do realise it's her work but it shows and not in a good way. Initially I kicked myself for not checking the author's age thinking the author is not mature enough, Z-generation, etc. But then I checked the gal's profile and saw she's about 29, which in my opinion should have provided her with enough lifetime to learn how to be coherent.
I loved the book cover, liked the unicorn references, the photo with Malala and Rock, uhhh..., also liked some Q's (pls see those below :))
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of any Youtube stars. I don't even like Youtube and consider it a major waste of time. I just liked the punky stype of the book and decided to give it a try. We didn't click. Too bad.
Q: A Bawse is like a boss, but so epic that I had to change the spelling. Unlike a boss, who is defined as such only within the workplace, a Bawse is someone who excels in both personal and professional settings. A Bawse exudes confidence, turns heads, gets hurt efficiently, communicates effectively, and hustles relentlessly. (c)
Q: I’m not writing about mythical, fairy-tale stuff. I’m telling you what has actually worked in my life, the things that pulled me out of a place of deep depression into a life filled with the kind of success I couldn’t have ever imagined. (c)
Q: Being a Bawse is hard work. It requires an unfathomable amount of dedication and hustle. The following pages do not contain tricks, quick tips, or get-rich-quick schemes. I’m not going to tell you about any shortcuts or good luck charms. Instead, I am going to make your work ethic sweat, your mind expand, your fear dissolve, and your obstacles crumble. (c)
Q: The giant spark I have in me doubles in size. Welcome to the land of dreams. (c)
Q: CHOOSE A FACEBOOK, Twitter, and/or email password that is an affirmation or important reminder. Think about it—you write this password several times a day, so you might as well make it meaningful! Even when you’re in a rush, you’re giving your brain a subliminal message. Some examples: Workhardtoday or Staydetermined or Youdontneedaboyfriendbecauseyourecompletelyfinebyyourselfandifyoueverdoubtthatthenlistentosingleladies (okay, that last one might surpass the character limit). (c)

[Whitney Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this on audiobook over the span of a few days just because it was good clean fun, but it's gonna be something that I won't even remember the message of in 2 months. Lilly's advice is genuine, but nothing new. Her messages also seem to be driven by the fact that *she's* succeeded, so her if everyone just follows in her footsteps and does the things she does, they'll be famous too!! But reading this sometimes felt like she was giving advice to 12 year olds trying to avoid drama rather than adults trying to achieve their goals. I liked a lot of her stories, so I think I would've enjoyed a memoir or book of essays better than a self help book, because I think that part of the book shined better than her mediocre advice. But still, her audiobook was fun and I really love the work she does for women's rights and making wholesome content.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

***I bought the book again***

Freaking loved this book!!!
This is so going to help me throughout my life specially through my weakest moments in the coming years.
There are many self help books and celebrity memoirs/auto/biographical ones to deal with being out there in front of everyone exposing yourself to the public when your profession involves displaying your work or content through all kinds of social media but this one truly speaks to me!
You really don't need to read the whole book to actually appreciate this one. Just read the chapter titles and her pics. This in all will give you the 'I CAN DO IT!' vibes and make you actually at least think about it.
There's nothing complicated about this read. Anybody can just pick it up and read it if he or she wants to do something with his or her life.
Or just to change the way of thinking about ourselves.
Well....as is in our human nature to overthink and complicate things, many books too complicate things and make us overthink.
This one trash it all and actually does make things easier and clearer and show life as it is!
Kudos to Lilly Singh!
She ain't perfect but she is humanly perfect! *Sometimes the too many glossy pictures did tend to hinder the read. But I would still argue that it made the reading pretty entertaining and fun (and I was always thinking like she should be like this on the cover too!) *Most of the content follow a trend of telling her story in each chapter like as any other memoir but hers appears more genuine and has been written with depth. Then follows the things we can actually do and the things she actually did/does. It's like a journal in its truest sense! It gives you that kind of vibes. *I would say it's really glossy like a glamour magazine or a coffee table book at times. But everything clicked. Everything seems to be balanced and not overdone. *As a content creator, she's just full of positive energy and gives you the will to move on when nothing else works. That's her charm. Knowing her story has been a landmark in my life. She's genuine and damn too awesome. Unapologetic at its best.

[Aadhya · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book will not teach you how to conquer life.

I could finish this book in one day because-
1. I was apparently so desperate for any form of motivation that I resorted to an illustrated book filled with platitudes whose targeted audience seems to be teenagers who have way too much money to spare.
2. This book was more like a series of 10 minute YouTube videos than a profound piece of literature.

I didn't learn anything I didn't already know from this book except for the fact that it wasn't written by a ghostwriter because I could hear her annoyingly perky voice in each sentence of the book.
I didn't expect it to be great but I had hoped, and this is what probably made me impulsively pre-order the book, that she would talk more about how she overcame her severe depression and turned into this major internet personality. However, she downplayed this a lot, focusing on making badly placed and framed pop culture references to be #relatable and in doing so severely undermines her readers' intelligence (or maybe not, I guess I deserve the flak I'm getting for bothering to read this book).

[Shruti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5

My admiration for Lilly is represented accurately by the water that gushes out of the doors:



I have loved and looked up to Lilly Singh since I was fifteen years old. To see someone that looked like me, conquering YouTube—an industry which prominently featured white men—made me believe that anything was possible (She is called Superwoman for a reason, duh).

Lilly inspired and continues to inspire me and millions of people around the globe with her sense of humor, kindness and #GirlLove. So it just proved how well my friends know me when they gifted this book to me on my birthday this year.

"Unlike a boss, who is defined as such only within the workplace, a Bawse is someone who excels in both personal and professional settings."

How to Be a Bawse is a motivational book, detailing the fifty rules that Lilly believes will help people conquer life and live it to the fullest. Success comes in different forms and hardwork is the key to every one of them—there are no shortcuts; no escalators. Only stairs.

Lilly talks about her own experience climbing up the rungs of a ladder in Hollywood and the challenging decisions she had to make in order to lead a Bawse life. She offers advice and tips to help you become more productive and avoid distractions. She has chapters dedicated to different real life aspects that I realised I am plagued with almost every other day: "Let go of FOMO", "Exercise self-control", "Don't overthink", "Not everyone hates you", to name a few.

Lilly suffered from depression in her late teenage-early twenties. She started to make YouTube videos as a way to combat said depression. She thought if she could make people laugh, maybe she could be happy. At the end of every section in the book, two pages are dedicated to "Out of the Blue"—the first page highlights a part of her life when she was depressed and the second page highlights her life post-depression in direct contrast, providing motivation to everyone who has battled or is battling mental illness that things can and do get better.

Apart from the content, what I absolutely loved about this book were the pictures of Lilly associated with every chapter and the feel of this book as a whole. It made me happy just holding the book in my hand. It is heavy for a book that's just over 300 pages and is extremely colorful making it really appealing to the eyes.

Having said that, few chapters didn't entirely speak to me. Being an incredibly emotional person, her chapter "Have Few Emotions" which talks about keeping your emotions in check when important work has to be done—basically bottling it up until the task has been finished—did make sense to me at first until it didn't. I understand what she has tried to convey but it did not seem ideal to me.

Still, I really loved this book. Also, this book was published in 2017. Lilly came out as bisexual in 2019 and got her own late-night talk show the same year, called A Little Late With Lilly Singh, making her the only openly LGBTQ person and first person of Indian descent to host an American late-night talk show. That just goes to show how much more Lilly has accomplished since then and after reading her book and realizing how hard she works, I truly hope she gets enough time to write another one.

[Manisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual review: 1.75

This was the kind of book that is entertaining but hollow. The 'pearls of wisdom' are really just a few sayings here and there that seem good when you listen to it in a hilarious voice, but without that element, it falls flat.

The humour was the only (somewhat) redeeming quality of this book that stopped me from giving it a one star review.

It lacks depth and it lacks interest. It makes it seem like barely any effort went into creating this book. It's far from memorable. Even as I write this review, I'm struggling to remember anything about the book I just read.

How does one become a 'bawse' when the 'lessons' are forgettable?

[Brooke · Rating 1 out of 5]

"If your last two boyfriends cheated on you, maybe there is something you are doing to cause that."'

She literally wrote that. Are you kidding me!?!? That is disgusting and I am so sad for all the young women who are going to read that and may be influenced to think they are some how at fault for the actions of an abusive, lying, cheating asshat.

The only reason I finished this book was to help my 2018 Reading Challenge numbers.

[Elsa Rajan Pradhananga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borderline narcissistic. Entire pages dedicated to quotes, the author's pictures and the title of each chapter, probably is what sets this book apart from run of the mill self help books. The saving grace is anecdotes conveyed with the superwoman kind of humor. She is evidently confident about her pearls of wisdom on how to become an epic boss, but they feel rather incoherent, superficial and fragmented.

[Metodi Markov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Особенно жалък боклук, дори и по стандартите на безсмислената като цяло мотивационна литература.

Още в превода на заглавието е допусната неточност, с цел да се привлекат повече купувачи. "Bawse" е всичко друго, но не и супершефка.

Въпросната Сингх е ютюб инфлуенсър, която се занимава със създаването на кретенски видеа, с които се опитва да налива акъл на стадото желаещи да са богати и известни, без да имат качества за това... От човек, който не е работил никога никаква постоянна или съзидателна работа, това определено идва байгън.

Кратък поглед върху творбите в нета на въпросната авторка ме увериха, че или е абсолютно малоумна или няма проблем да се прави на маймуна, заработвайки нелошо от това си поведение. За феновете ѝ не знам какво да кажа, те сигурно живеят в кухата Земя...

Канадско-индийски Емил Конрад, но с пола.

Примерче:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlyuQ...

[Yodamom · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars
Quick too simple chapters. I would have liked a bit more, well a lot more time spent on her advice. It read like a list that I could find online lacking most of her charm. Yes, there was some there, but it was so brief. I bought this for my daughters but ended up reading it after they didn't finish it. All of us were disappointed, it was too little substance and a lot of cheesy lines. Where was the life changing advice ?

[Muse-ic ♬ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay here's the deal:

I love Lilly Singh! I am a big fan of hers and I watch all her videos.

That being said, I do NOT worship the ground she walks on. I'm NOT approaching this book and review as a fangirl and I am NOT approaching it as a biased party. Part of this may have to do with the fact that she stated in a video several years ago that she doesn't believe in global warming. I don't know if this opinion has changed as of late, but it made me lose some respect for her.

I think this book is genuinely a great idea.
In this book, Lilly discusses how to be a BAWSE; a strong confident person who takes charges of their life while at the same time genuinely being a good human.
It's not particularly unique. There are many psychology books out there that discuss the Mindset behind successful people.
Most of those books go into the science behind it all.
Lilly goes into the theory in practice. All the things she discusses are applications in her daily life. She shows the reader that these applications have worked for her and aided her in her successful career that started from virtually nothing.

The other thing to remember is that most of Lilly's fans are all just regular young people. Most of them aren't just gonna go pick up a book on psychology to help them improve their lives. They will turn to YouTube and the internet!
The beauty of this book is that it's written in a very clear fashion that anyone can understand because Lilly uses all kinds of metaphors, specifically social media related metaphors that most of her fans and young readers can relate to.
Also, Lilly has a degree in psychology, so as far as I'm concerned, she is actually qualified to discuss the topics she does in her book because she has the proper education.

Seriously do you expect a young person who spends a lot of time on their phone AND who doesn't like to read to pick up a book on psychology to solve their problems if they need help?

Of course not.

But when it's another young person who is widely loved and has a lot of influence in the online community who writes this book, then they will be more inclined to pick it up. Lilly has a lot of power and she does great things with that power.
So I would argue that this book is going to help a lot of people in their life journies, not just because of what Lilly wrote, but because it was Lilly writing it.

I also loved how How to Be a Bawse has little interactive portions in it. At the end of each chapter, Lilly gives the reader a challenge to complete that acts as a small push in the direction of self-improvement.

Aaaaaaand here are some gifs of Lilly to conclude!

[Jack Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered Lilly Singh (aka iiSuperwomanii) at 14 in December 2013, with her video Things Students Lie About. Ever since then, I've laughed and truly enjoyed watching her content, seeing as she's grown into a powerhouse in the YouTube community. I remember a period of time where I watched a collection of her videos before I went to bed every night because they relaxed me enough to go to sleep. She made me discover the side of YouTube where creators roam and helped me know what to watch in that field (Jenna Marbles, Miranda Sings/Colleen Ballinger, and Grace Helbig are examples).

So when she announced this book, it didn't come as a surprise to me even with getting incredibly overjoyed. I knew this book was going to impress me even if it wasn't the best. So with that in mind (and the help of a gift certificate), I set off on the journey to becoming a full-fledged Bawse.

I'm incredibly happy to say that this book was well worth the wait. With Lilly's charismatic voice and lovely advice, I feel empowered to change some of the aspects of my daily life and make it better. You can tell how much she cares about this project alongside her other endeavors, and I loved hearing about some of her experiences in life. The book design is pretty and organized, plus I appreciated how pretty the layout was. There was even a nice amount of repetition of earlier stated principles that didn't feel annoying!

I do wish some of the individual chapters were longer since they felt a bit too short, but I feel like that's more of a nitpick for a truly wonderful read that I've been anticipating for a good long while now. In the YouTube community or possibly giving us more literature, I'm excited to see where Superwoman will take her magic next.

9/15/16 (Before Reading)

I legit fanboyed SO HARD when I heard about this announcement. Lilly Singh/Superwoman is my favorite Youtuber, and I'm incredibly excited to read this. Because, duh. Superwoman!

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I came across this book. I had never heard of Lilly before but I thought her book looked like fun so I checked it out of the library. I don't think I'm the target audience for this book as she is only 28 years old and I'm old enough to be her mother! Nevertheless I enjoyed Lilly's take on life and how she became so successful as a YouTube star.

The book is full of gorgeous pictures of Lilly. It was a fun read and she does have some good advice to offer.

[Wael Margheni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am proud of myself for managing to finish this book and not throwing it aside!
Frankly, this is not what I expected from Lilly Singh (||Superwoman||)! I really thought that I was going to have a very good time reading this book. But I didn’t! and I am a little bit disappointed.
Like many people who live on Youtube, I happen to be a big fan of Lilly Singh and her videos. She really does make me laugh and I have a very good time watching her videos. And of course, I knew she was releasing a book and that she’s touring to promote it.
The thing is, I didn’t believe it’s an actual guide on how to be a ‘Bawse’. Not until I started reading it anyways. I somehow hoped it’s just the title. And though I did watch some interview where she talked about the book, I still didn’t think it’s an actual goddamn guide.
I like the whole concept of the ‘Bawse’ thing but reading an entire book; this entire book felt like a waste of time. I could’ve just bought one of those guides that people waste their money on. Reading a guide is the last thing I want/ed to do.
I guess the only parts of the book that I really liked were the ‘Out of the Blue’ chapters, where Lilly talks about her life before and post depression. Those are honestly the only chapters that did truly get to me because I could relate to her words and the things she was telling.
I am not saying this is an awful book. But it’s simply not for me. This is not my cup of tea. Or what I want to read while drinking a cup of tea.

[Veronica Morfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an amazing and inspiring and motivational book! I have been a fan of Lilly a.k.a iiSuperwomanii for the past 4 years and listening to her book narrated by her was an amazing experience. Would highly recommend it to people that want to get their lives in order, learn how to focus to achieve their goals, and get their priorities straight. A true guide on how to be a Bawse!

[Mariah Roze · Rating 4 out of 5]

"From actress, comedian, and YouTube sensation Lilly Singh (aka ||Superwoman||) comes the definitive guide to being a bawse—a person who exudes confidence, reaches goals, gets hurt efficiently, and smiles genuinely because they’ve fought through it all and made it out the other side."

I really enjoyed this book and was able to take a lot away from it.

[Jenny Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and inspiring.

[Elpida.Stas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a Fan of Lilly Singh. But that doesn't mean I blindly follow everything she does. And your book Lilly was a huge disappointment.
Just because superwoman is a successful youtuber doesn't also make her a life advisor and it definitely doesn't make her a writer. Her book is the proof.

The entire thing is a "guide " on becoming a bawse a word created by her which basically is a boss but better. There are several steps ,described in 2 pages each and 2 more of a title and a picture. So yeah you guessed it the book is full of titles and pictures. Many things she likes to call 'facts ' are basically her opinion on being a boss. I do agree in some of the steps, I don't agree in most.
Being secretive and getting uncomfortable don't sound so good to me.

Notes :
1)There's a chapter in which she mentions that "you are never truly on top" yet if you look at the back of the book it clearly says "Lilly and her way to the top " umm... what?

2) also, in the chapter 'take the stairs ' she mentiones that she didn't have a team when she started either yet in the acknowledgements God is the first one she thanks for helping her through .So she wasn't actually solo if she had God.

3)Speaking of acknowledgements, she thanks team super (aka her fans) in the 10th place right before Pepsi and extra - buttered popcorn. Thanks for that.


Don't tell me you liked the book just because it's Lillys. The book is trash.
I guess she doesn't have the writing gene.

[chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend went to Lilly's show and got this book. She gave it to me as a birthday gift, and until now I haven't had the time to read it. I finished it in a few days (it was so hard to put down because it's so good!).

Lilly's an amazing YouTuber. She's also an awesome writer. And a great Bawse.

Lilly's a very successful person and she has lots of friends who are super successful as well. In this book, Lilly shares her secrets to success and talks about things that happen in her friends' lives. Lilly mentions that Lindsey Stirling (love her!) still takes violin lessons! I never knew that and I was very surprised.

Lilly used to have depression. If she hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have known! She's always so cheerful and funny in her YouTube videos. I'm really inspired by her story.

One of the things I love most about this book is the length of the chapters. Each is about 5 pages long, which makes is perfect for me, because I'm a very impatient person. When I read books with loooonggg chapters that just go on and on, I get the urge to yell "get to the point"!

AND ALSO. THOSE COLORFUL PHOTOGRAPHS OF LILLY! LOVE 'EM. SHE'S SO GORG.

Read more reviews on my blog here

[Bandita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book as soon as it came out when I was high on Lilly Singh 3 years ago. I mean I just discovered her and became an instant fan, and found out that she has just released a book. So of course I had to buy it.

But after 3 years, now I don't remember a single advice she told in that book. I don't know if it's her book isn't good or it's just that self help books are not for me. I loved seeing some of her personal anecdotes here and there, but the advices? I didn't care that much and can't remember anything now.

[Ritu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Self help book for someone who DOES NOT like Self help books.

Someone like Me.

Lilly Singh is pretty entertaining and one of my favourite YouTuber but I admit that I NEVER expected that I would read her book because -

1. I dont like Self help books, they are just downright boring and I ve noticed that It doesn't really motivate me long enough to follow it through.

2. I never considered Lilly Singh mature enough to be writing a self help book in the first place !

3. I have a Mom ! Who takes that job very seriously, I get lectured every other day .

Why I picked up this book

So coming to why I picked up this book is because I saw it at this bookshop and its got a magazine like appearance with glossy pages and loads of funny pictures inside,the first page of this book intrigued me because it said -

The book is not a survival guide filled with hopeful thoughts,lucky charms or fluffy quotes. There will be no secret schemes to a rewarding life found in these pages. Thats because success, happiness and everything else that feels great in life have no escalators. There are only stairs. This book will be your personal trainer, guiding you up those stairs. Start Stretching .

What I felt about this book

The writing style is very original and Lilly like so much that I pretty much read the whole book in Lilly's voice, Its not pretentious at all but the content isn't very insightful, I loved the examples and real life situations she put up and the way she handled it. The book is meant for someone in their late teens to age thirty because there is a lot of Pop culture reference and Social media fad content which might be hard to relate for someone who isn't updated with any of these.

Conclusion

Most content of this book isn't new , it isn't something you have never heard of before from your Parents,teachers,relatives or even friends but what makes it unique is how Lilly presents it and makes it all motivating and funny at the same time with her quirky ways . It is Immature and the writing style isn't very fancy but then I wouldn't have finished the book ever if it wasn't like that in the first place .

There is zero value added but then there is no shortcut to success as per the book, It has a Practical and a go getter approach rather than the introspect and learn version that most self help books offer.

[Veronique · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Don't give up before you even try.”

So I finished it after almost 2 years of reading. On March 8 it would have been 2 whole years.

I just don’t know how to review this book. I learned quite a bit about myself, however I can’t say I highly enjoyed it or disliked it. It was just okay. A fun read about self development. I can recommend this book if you want to find your inner Bawse.

This book took me the longest to read like seriously 2 years! Girlll what have you been doing this whole dang time... (Reading other books and forgetting this book immensely ooppss. Sorry Lilly).

Still this book made me think about a lot of things I want in my life and things I need to stay far away of in the future so thank you Lilly for your book.

3 star rating for me

[Vanya Prodanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Не съм фен на смешни, забавни и комедийни клипове по принцип и въобще на комедийния жанр като цяло. Не знам защо, но ме напряга и го усещам като да си губя времето. Затова и шансът да попадна на книгата на Лили, че и да реша да я изслушам/прочета си е някаква невероятна случайност и чудо. Да живеят случайностите! :Р

Не бях чувала, нито попадала на клипове на Лили като почнах книгата. Истината е, че това, което тя прави не е в моята сфера на интереси, но книгата е друго нещо, защото аз съм си книжна душа. И съм адски доволна, че Лили е решила да направи книга. Добре, че съществуват различните медийни формати, които да пренасят красотата на една индустрия в друга.

Книгата на Лили е като изповед и напътствия едновременно по пътя да бъдеш успешен и добър човек, защото двете неща вървят ръка за ръка. Изключително положителна книга. Аз съм си песимист, хейтър и какво ли още не чудовище по природа, но книгата на Лили успя чак мен да накара да се чувствам пухкава отвътре и надъхана по един по-различен начин. Никой не ми беше казвал досега, че играенето на компютърни игри е сериозен плюс по пътя на личностното развитие. :Р

Накрая, да си напиша, че да се чете книг��та е удоволствие и смях, но да слушаш Лили на аудиокнига с нейния характерен стил на говорене, е вече отвъд всякаква книжна нирвана., а и не само тя четеше... в един момент имаше Алиша Кийс. Къде? Защо? Ще трябва да я изслушате, за да разберете. :)

[Roxy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the latest publishing trend seems to be having Youtube stars put out their own books now. I haven't read any of them, but I picked up Lily's book because I do watch her channel on occasion.

There is nothing new or life-changing in Lily's book. She gives out some good advice, but the book reads like a Cliff's Notes edition, each chapter is very short and when you start to grasp what she is saying, the chapter is done. If felt like more of a photo shoot with brief stories in between. Yes, the photos were colorful and interesting, but they were fillers for a subpar self-help book.

Her die-hard fans will buy the book to support her, but we're not getting any bookworms out of it.

Perhaps her next book, if there is one, will be a little more substantial.

[Crystal Arizola · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t know anything about Lilly Singh, I was drawn in by her title, the fact that she won Good Reads user vote for nonfiction, and I was looking for some inspiration. All I got was a headache. If you’re between the ages 18-23 read this book, if you’re bored. Otherwise, don’t waste your time, I’d have to agree it was seriously annoying - you read stuff like “you’re a happy unicorn!!” And that’s about when you shut the book, set it on fire and bury the ashes.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED it!

Lilly is such a cool and down to earth person that I just couldn't help but adore her!

[Payal Niharika · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first heard about the book, I was sceptical. It was a self-help/autobiographical book written by an international YouTube star . Neither of the categories enticed me to shell out 700 INR for some random wisdom by a person whose videos I occasionally watched when I was killing time. But then the universe conspired, and a mention of this book would prop up every time I opened my Facebook feed. The cover looked powerful, and Lilly had become successful enough to be a Forbes 30 under 30. The way I had been idling away my vacation, I thought I might as well give it a try. At the worst, I had the free pass to seethe out criticism in my review.

And slowly, as I turned through the pages, Lilly Singh turned out to be my role model. I wanted to be a Bawse in every sense.

The book is a blob of colour in the black and white world of self-helps. The drudgery of the genre has thoroughly been washed away with waves of humour and relatable metaphors. The latter (which includes a lot of Game of Thrones and desserts) not only makes the content interesting, but also makes abstract lessons easy to understand. This isn’t the voice of a writer preaching her sermons through a magnanimous image of herself projected in the pages, instead you find a normal human narrating how she tackled her instinctive, everyday problems to be her best self. She seems very real; her struggles are brought out at intervals, mirrored with the transformation we’ve largely known, that instils the feeling of practicality in the “advices”. That’s probably one of the best things about the book-it is very action oriented; Lilly combines her learnings from her YouTube journey and her psychology major to add credibility to it.

Of course, for a genre that is inundated with books of “how tos” for the minutest of things (of which certain categories have been exploited to death), not everything written in the book is new and innovative. That did not disappoint or unnerve me because somewhere, I was already reading it with such expectations. However, it is not totally redundant either. There are some pearls of new wisdom to be often found in the pages, put forth very nicely; some other pearls of olden rules have been modernized and polished to perfection. To make it easy to follow, the book has been very well structured and is divided into coherent parts.

The other commendable part of the reading experience is the book design itself. It feels like you are reading a magazine or a coffee table book- the pages are glossy and vibrant, with a bright colour theme. Inserted between the chapters are certain quotes written on a coloured background, which could be easily torn and used as a poster. The colours also reflect the mood-e.g. the part where Lilly talks about her depression phase is printed with a blue background, while the subsequent transformation is done on a bright yellow one. Like Lilly Singh herself, every element of the book exudes a contagious enthusiasm and is truly inspiring.

That being said, the book was just near perfect. The jokes sometimes got in between the reading experience or were too bland to sound funny, and some chapters could easily have been shortened. The beginning of each chapter had a divider stating the title on the right and a posed-photograph of Lilly on the left, which I felt went too over the top. While this one did not really spoil the reading experience, it did not add to it either. In my opinion, caricatures could have easily done the job.

The cons, however, weigh just a small fraction against the pros. It takes away from its flawlessness, but does not mar its brilliancy. This is a book that is sitting elegantly on my shelf, a book that I refer sometimes and often recommend, and a book that is somewhere the guideline of my life (Have values, not hobbies being my favourite).

For turning a sceptic into a believer, Lilly, you have done a fabulous job!