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A Year Without Make-Up: Tales of a 20-Something Traveler
Have you ever wanted to quit your job and go travel the world?
At 25 years old Stephanie Yoder was already fed up with the monotony of 9-5 life. After much agonizing, she quit her stable desk job to backpack around Asia. During a year of travel through Japan, China and South East Asia she became a minor Chinese celebrity, was attacked by giant parrots and met the love of her life. In A Year Without Make-Up, Yoder chronicles some of her craziest adventures along with providing helpful tips and encouragement for others looking to make a life change.
At 25 years old Stephanie Yoder was already fed up with the monotony of 9-5 life. After much agonizing, she quit her stable desk job to backpack around Asia. During a year of travel through Japan, China and South East Asia she became a minor Chinese celebrity, was attacked by giant parrots and met the love of her life. In A Year Without Make-Up, Yoder chronicles some of her craziest adventures along with providing helpful tips and encouragement for others looking to make a life change.
72 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 14, 2012
19 people are currently reading
1041 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Yoder
10 books5 followersStephanie Yoder is a girl who can’t sit still! Since graduating college in 2007 she has either been traveling or planning to travel. She’s lived on four continents and visited everywhere from the Great Wall of China to the Great Barrier Reef. She now writes and travels full time, blogging about her adventures on Twenty-Something Travel. She also tweets. A lot.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 11, 2015
Skip it.
The cover copy for this book makes it sound like a fun travel memoir. It's not. It's a preachy tract full of impractical advice (save 10k in 8 months? Just toss 1200/month into your bank account!). It demonstrates the author's complete lack of interest in other cultures beyond the most superficial levels (after a pages long description of the Phuket party scene there's one line about how people are living in hovels, still rebuilding from the tsunami). She also clearly needs to force the world into something she can cope with rather than look for a deeper understanding (upset by the portrayal of Americans at a war museum in Viet Nam, she reframes it as pure government propaganda and goes about her life without once researching or studying the Viet Nam war or the US role in it beyond "so we did some bad stuff-so did the Viet Cong!")
I am an American Expat living in Southeast Asia, so I know and have been to many of these locations. The difference is that I'm a decade older than her, actually LIVE here and thus get nuance that flies over the top of her head, and I understand far better the level of racial and class privilege she has in this part of the world (and the level of class privilege she has period).
If you want a fun travel memior set in Southeast Asia, pick up No Touch Monkey by Iris Bahr instead.
The cover copy for this book makes it sound like a fun travel memoir. It's not. It's a preachy tract full of impractical advice (save 10k in 8 months? Just toss 1200/month into your bank account!). It demonstrates the author's complete lack of interest in other cultures beyond the most superficial levels (after a pages long description of the Phuket party scene there's one line about how people are living in hovels, still rebuilding from the tsunami). She also clearly needs to force the world into something she can cope with rather than look for a deeper understanding (upset by the portrayal of Americans at a war museum in Viet Nam, she reframes it as pure government propaganda and goes about her life without once researching or studying the Viet Nam war or the US role in it beyond "so we did some bad stuff-so did the Viet Cong!")
I am an American Expat living in Southeast Asia, so I know and have been to many of these locations. The difference is that I'm a decade older than her, actually LIVE here and thus get nuance that flies over the top of her head, and I understand far better the level of racial and class privilege she has in this part of the world (and the level of class privilege she has period).
If you want a fun travel memior set in Southeast Asia, pick up No Touch Monkey by Iris Bahr instead.
November 7, 2013
First, the positive: the author spends her life doing fairly interesting and out of the ordinary things. Props for that.
Now, what needs work...
The structure. It was choppy and felt disorganized, like a series of blog posts.
Editing. There were enough typos to warrant paying somebody to fix it all.
Overall, it was short and breezy, but lacked substance. I've heard friends that have done less traveling, and to less exotic places, bust out more interesting stories with more striking lessons while sharing beers at a bar. The lifestyle is the perfect pool from which to draw content, and now I'd like to see her develop as a writer with a stronger voice.
Now, what needs work...
The structure. It was choppy and felt disorganized, like a series of blog posts.
Editing. There were enough typos to warrant paying somebody to fix it all.
Overall, it was short and breezy, but lacked substance. I've heard friends that have done less traveling, and to less exotic places, bust out more interesting stories with more striking lessons while sharing beers at a bar. The lifestyle is the perfect pool from which to draw content, and now I'd like to see her develop as a writer with a stronger voice.
February 3, 2016
A short book of bascially blog posts about the author's experiences traveling parts of the world (mainly SE Asia) with some advice thrown in. Some advice isn't particularly practical, such when she recommends you move in with your parents to save rent money, which doesn't seem like a great suggestion for most. The use of the word "anyways" also got very annoying.
If you are "twenty-something" (or older) and need travel advice, check out Yoder's travel blog as it is more informative and interesting than the book.
Not really recommended unless you can get it for free. I've read better travel books, including Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Gelman, and if you want more experiences by twenty-something women partying their way around the world, try The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World. by Jennifer Baggett.
If you are "twenty-something" (or older) and need travel advice, check out Yoder's travel blog as it is more informative and interesting than the book.
Not really recommended unless you can get it for free. I've read better travel books, including Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Gelman, and if you want more experiences by twenty-something women partying their way around the world, try The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World. by Jennifer Baggett.
May 5, 2020
Thought I was getting a memoir. Instead I got a few short stories.
October 28, 2024
Part memoir
Part how to guide
Part philosophy about women’s beauty standards and travel
But skimps on all.
She talks about moving to China for several months but nothing more than a story about seeing a 3D porn. She said she’s writing every day but we are left with a paltry book with almost no anecdotes.
She can hear the eye roll in her writing about young partying backpackers like she isn’t 25 herself.
I’m glad she found herself but definitely needed more substance to be any sort of authority and write this book
Part how to guide
Part philosophy about women’s beauty standards and travel
But skimps on all.
She talks about moving to China for several months but nothing more than a story about seeing a 3D porn. She said she’s writing every day but we are left with a paltry book with almost no anecdotes.
She can hear the eye roll in her writing about young partying backpackers like she isn’t 25 herself.
I’m glad she found herself but definitely needed more substance to be any sort of authority and write this book
January 26, 2022
Having recently quit my job, I chose this book wanting some inspiration about travel. However, I think the fact we are mid-pandemic and I am not a 20 something anymore, meant I didn't really achieve the wunderlust I was chasing. Some nice stories and light entertainment though - the audiobook was well narrated.
March 20, 2020
This didn’t read like the narrative I anticipated. Altogether, it was choppy and felt like her blog.
Still had interesting realizations and accounts of travel, just not in the way I anticipated.
Still had interesting realizations and accounts of travel, just not in the way I anticipated.
June 17, 2020
I wish this book was longer! It offered some real good insight for traveling. The only reason I’m giving 4 stars is because it seemed too short.
April 14, 2025
I think my 20s, I would've loved this book.
May 5, 2017
The description of this book on any seller's site might lead you to believe you are getting a well thought out, well organized, and cohesive books. This just isn't the case.
While some of the stories included in the book are interesting and some of the travel tips are good (but also obvious even to those of us who only travel 2 - 4 weeks a year), the book mainly reads as if the author pulled blog posts from her blog and pasted them together without so much as a thought to how well they flowed together. One moment she's telling you that she met a hot guy and that her travel would now involve him... and in the next section she's reintroducing the topic of having met a guy via explaining some thought process as... it's always about a guy... as if you didn't already know from the last section that she met a guy and she needs to explain it all agian.
This book could have been really well done if she had only taken those blog posts, ordered them topically, and then edited them so that they weren't redundant, so that they transitioned well, and maybe to add some more information... such as... After explaining all of the party places in Thailand that are exhausting, where in Thailand might I go for a more relaxing stay?
But beyond this, she really only talks about her specific experiences in travel in terms of food she ate, the boy she's now getting engaged to, and a few of the "harder" days she had abroad. There's not much depth in the way of actually discussing the culture in the places that she visits, though I think she attempts to get there when discussing culture shock and Vietnam. Unfortunately, most of the discussion is, again, short lived, but also shallow and very American-centric. It's less a thoughtful discussion of interesting facets of other cultures and more of a list of things like spitting and trash and discomfort being in a museum that isn't focused on American exceptionalism and victory.
Everything in this book feels too short lived, as if it stops just when it starts to get engaging. And a lot of it is redundant, shallow, or lacking in transition.
Quick read, but honestly not all that worth it.
While some of the stories included in the book are interesting and some of the travel tips are good (but also obvious even to those of us who only travel 2 - 4 weeks a year), the book mainly reads as if the author pulled blog posts from her blog and pasted them together without so much as a thought to how well they flowed together. One moment she's telling you that she met a hot guy and that her travel would now involve him... and in the next section she's reintroducing the topic of having met a guy via explaining some thought process as... it's always about a guy... as if you didn't already know from the last section that she met a guy and she needs to explain it all agian.
This book could have been really well done if she had only taken those blog posts, ordered them topically, and then edited them so that they weren't redundant, so that they transitioned well, and maybe to add some more information... such as... After explaining all of the party places in Thailand that are exhausting, where in Thailand might I go for a more relaxing stay?
But beyond this, she really only talks about her specific experiences in travel in terms of food she ate, the boy she's now getting engaged to, and a few of the "harder" days she had abroad. There's not much depth in the way of actually discussing the culture in the places that she visits, though I think she attempts to get there when discussing culture shock and Vietnam. Unfortunately, most of the discussion is, again, short lived, but also shallow and very American-centric. It's less a thoughtful discussion of interesting facets of other cultures and more of a list of things like spitting and trash and discomfort being in a museum that isn't focused on American exceptionalism and victory.
Everything in this book feels too short lived, as if it stops just when it starts to get engaging. And a lot of it is redundant, shallow, or lacking in transition.
Quick read, but honestly not all that worth it.
June 8, 2015
Pointless and Uninformative
This is another series of blog posts masquerading as a book. The last chapter seems to have been tacked on to match the only partially clever thing about this book, the title. (Spoiler alert: Girls who travel with only a backpack and who sleep in hostels don't wear a lot of makeup! I'm sure the denizens of the universe collectively spit out their morning coffee reading that fascinating fact.)
These self-published travel books seem to fit a type--solipsistic, uninformative, poorly written, and overall useless. She spent an entire chapter describing a movie she saw in Hong Kong. The entire book is a mixture of her repeating that you shouldn't be scared to travel alone, just do it! and waxing on about how travel changed her life, but never explaining how it did so.
This pseudo-travel guide also annoyed me in terms of money. The author is clearly from a well-off family, so her advice on trip funding is laughable by the average person. How many newly-minted B.A. college graduates have $10,000 of their own money saved? How many have a job paying $37,000 a year? She's advocating a level and length of travel experience which, despite her presentation that she worked and saved the money herself, could only have been done by supplements from relatively well-to-do parents. (The more typical travel-living abroad experience for 20-somethings involves earning money along the way by working abroad, such as teaching English.) As a former non-wealthy 20-something who traveled and struggled to pay for it, it still pisses me off to hear/read wealthy 20-somethings yap about traveling, completely unconscious that their lifestyles are ultimately funded by their parents. STFU already--you're fortunate, and that's nice for you, but at least acknowledge it.
This is another series of blog posts masquerading as a book. The last chapter seems to have been tacked on to match the only partially clever thing about this book, the title. (Spoiler alert: Girls who travel with only a backpack and who sleep in hostels don't wear a lot of makeup! I'm sure the denizens of the universe collectively spit out their morning coffee reading that fascinating fact.)
These self-published travel books seem to fit a type--solipsistic, uninformative, poorly written, and overall useless. She spent an entire chapter describing a movie she saw in Hong Kong. The entire book is a mixture of her repeating that you shouldn't be scared to travel alone, just do it! and waxing on about how travel changed her life, but never explaining how it did so.
This pseudo-travel guide also annoyed me in terms of money. The author is clearly from a well-off family, so her advice on trip funding is laughable by the average person. How many newly-minted B.A. college graduates have $10,000 of their own money saved? How many have a job paying $37,000 a year? She's advocating a level and length of travel experience which, despite her presentation that she worked and saved the money herself, could only have been done by supplements from relatively well-to-do parents. (The more typical travel-living abroad experience for 20-somethings involves earning money along the way by working abroad, such as teaching English.) As a former non-wealthy 20-something who traveled and struggled to pay for it, it still pisses me off to hear/read wealthy 20-somethings yap about traveling, completely unconscious that their lifestyles are ultimately funded by their parents. STFU already--you're fortunate, and that's nice for you, but at least acknowledge it.
February 20, 2017
I dont know what I was expecting. Some of the stories were alright, i laughed. I love hearing about anything far away. But sometimes I was left wanting with her writing style.
Also I think she was kinda a mediocre traveler...
Also I think she was kinda a mediocre traveler...
April 12, 2015
This was a very quick read and I have mixed feelings about the book. I love the idea of quitting your job and leaving everything you know behind to visit the unknown. I also was interested in the notion that the author was traveling alone as a 20 something female, because that's what I am and this is what I want to do. She wasn't alone the whole time though, she had met a guy before leaving, and she spent time traveling with him and staying with him in China. I have no issues with traveling with people except I was under the impression, due to the summary of the story, that she was traveling solo. I realize she did do trips on her own too.
Another thing was she didn't paint a picture. When I read a book I want to feel like I am there, and while I had been to some of the places she had, I still couldn't see everything.
Overall I think it's a good story for those who need the inspiration to just leave and venture into the world unknown. Traveling is exciting but can also be terrifying, especially in a foreign country, but stories like these help qualm the nerves when you read about other people doing it.
Another thing was she didn't paint a picture. When I read a book I want to feel like I am there, and while I had been to some of the places she had, I still couldn't see everything.
Overall I think it's a good story for those who need the inspiration to just leave and venture into the world unknown. Traveling is exciting but can also be terrifying, especially in a foreign country, but stories like these help qualm the nerves when you read about other people doing it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2015
A quick, fun, and insightful read
I feel like I just spent several hours curled up on comfy chairs and listened to a friend tell me all about her travel adventures over drinks. Which I love! She tells you how she felt, honestly, and let's you in on the good and the bad of the places where she's been. The good parts are told in a way that makes you want to jump up and go there, with just enough detail to give you an idea of where to start without sounding like a list or an itinerary. And she doesn't really complain about the not-so-good things, rather she made me want to still see some things on my own, but I feel I would be able to observe and quickly move on to things that are more my style. She definitely inspired me to think of long-term traveling as a possibility and not a far-off fantasy.
I feel like I just spent several hours curled up on comfy chairs and listened to a friend tell me all about her travel adventures over drinks. Which I love! She tells you how she felt, honestly, and let's you in on the good and the bad of the places where she's been. The good parts are told in a way that makes you want to jump up and go there, with just enough detail to give you an idea of where to start without sounding like a list or an itinerary. And she doesn't really complain about the not-so-good things, rather she made me want to still see some things on my own, but I feel I would be able to observe and quickly move on to things that are more my style. She definitely inspired me to think of long-term traveling as a possibility and not a far-off fantasy.
January 1, 2017
This is a quick read...Easily finished in one sitting of about an hour and a half. I was hoping to get the "flavor" of a year of travel and how her experiences connected with each other. It was pretty choppy and disconnected, going into it with that lens. However, she does share some interesting tid bits and her love of travel. she intrigued me enough that I looked up her blog where I read that she recently had a baby...might be interesting to check back in with her to see how her thoughts on travel and her methods change now that she has a child. I bet there won't be dormitory and hostel rooms or all day and all night bus rides to travel 500 miles with a little one in tow!
January 31, 2015
It's hard for me to dislike any book written about a travel experience, so Stephanie gets points just for the topic. I loved getting to hear about her experience as a solo female traveller, and I picked up travel tips in general as well. She talked even a little bit about the psychology in traveling, and I haven't heard much of traveling talked about like that. The book could have been a lot better if it wasn't so choppy. I feel like Stephanie had really good thoughts and points, but just as I got really into a travel experience, she would conclude her point.
March 19, 2016
I listened to the audiobook instead of reading (for once) and it was fairly easy to follow. The text was very much alike blog posts, so listening to the audio version was strange at times. There was some advice offered regarding traveling, but mostly there were many stories about the author's personal experience. I did learn something about traveling, but I also learned some things about myself in this process without going anywhere and that's a plus in this case. Anyway, one thing to remember is that each person lives these experiences in different ways and the outcomes can vary.
December 30, 2014
If you want a quick read to get you inspired to live your 20s to the fullest, then this will give you a spark but not a full flame. I enjoyed the travel stories and her ability to embrace that in our 20s we don't have to know what we want. I did however notice a few grammatical errors and spelling issues, so if you are picky about that, I would avoid this book. I definitely feel like there could have been more, but for what was given it was fine.
November 12, 2015
Part how-to and part journey recap, this book does not have enough of their to distinguish itself from basic travel writing noise. The author's voice shows promise and she had some unique, and probably very funny and memorable experiences. Sadly, this thin volume rushes through each, almost as if it is trying to remind you of a story you already know. Of course, if you knew the story, you would hardly need, or be reading, the book.
May 9, 2016
This book popped up on Amazon as I was searching for a good travel memoir. I didn't realize how short it was upon ordering it. There were some good tidbits of advice that I may apply to travels in the future, but other than that this book was felt pretty un-organized, rushed, and sloppy. Found quite a few grammar and spelling errors as well. Waste of ten bucks honestly, I would have rather just read her blog. My bad for not looking into the book more before I bought it, though.
June 16, 2013
Bought the book to support the blogger, but it still read as separate blog posts rather than as a book. Some separate chapters would mention things (the boyfriend, for example) as if it were the first time that thing (he) was mentioned (when it was actually introduced/discussed in the previous chapter). A few typos found, too. Will continue to read the blog and support Stephanie though!
January 6, 2015
It was a slow start, but then I got into it! Extremely quick read (it's pretty short) and good if you just want a few pieces of blanket advice on backpacking/traveling in South East Asia. I didn't know it would be in South East Asia, but it was and that was perfect for me. In the end, it was a good mix of lifestyle, travel & personal anecdotal advice. Recommend for wanderlusting 20-somethings
August 26, 2013
While the writing itself is inspiring and the book has some good moments, overall it was a very short book and quite a bit of the content has been taken from the author's blog posts. I was happy to support an aspiring author and travel blogger, and I hope she writes more books in the future, so that her writing really has the chance to transform from the casual blog post style into a full novel.
October 21, 2013
This little book is short, sweet, and useful. I like how it covers some things most people wonder about but most travel books/blogs don't really talk about (i.e: safety tips, how to actually go about saving for this trip, e.c.t) and some other realities of travel. Overall I think this is a good book to read for anyone considering travel, especially if you're in your twenties.
November 15, 2013
A Year Without Makeup: Tales of a 20-Something Traveler has good first-person point of view of seeing and experiencing the world. However, the writing leaves much to be desired. Yoder could have added more sensory details, more sophisticated diction and syntax, and provided more details to spice up her book.
March 11, 2015
I didn't care so much for this book. I was looking forward to detailed descriptions of places she traveled...author was more intent to let us know about her love life. I guess the take home message is to be flexible with your travel plans, & keep your eyes on the goal while saving money to travel.
October 12, 2015
There are some interesting and enjoyable chapters in this book, but it feels completely unnecessary for it to be a book. It's written by a travel blogger, and the book is made up of previous blog posts. They work as blog posts, but not as a book. It is very fragmented, and just doesn't work as a whole. I would say read the blog (Twenty-Something Travel), and don't bother with the book.
March 5, 2016
Inspiring
As a 23 year old who loves to travel as much as I can, I found this book to be really insightful! I've been to one other continent and reading about a girl that is young and independent travelling all over the world for extended periods of time has me wanting to quit my job, cash out my stocks, sell everything and just go.
As a 23 year old who loves to travel as much as I can, I found this book to be really insightful! I've been to one other continent and reading about a girl that is young and independent travelling all over the world for extended periods of time has me wanting to quit my job, cash out my stocks, sell everything and just go.
February 26, 2017
Could resonate to a great extent!
"While your twenties are tough and emotionally exhausting, they are also pretty intense, fun and awesome. That’s the reason I’m so keen on people traveling in their twenties. It’s such an intense time, when you learn so much about yourself, and travel just accelerates the process. And that’s what I wanted you to know."
"While your twenties are tough and emotionally exhausting, they are also pretty intense, fun and awesome. That’s the reason I’m so keen on people traveling in their twenties. It’s such an intense time, when you learn so much about yourself, and travel just accelerates the process. And that’s what I wanted you to know."
February 29, 2020
Not the best, honestly. I’m also a big traveler and read lots of travel memoirs and this one is meh. It’s so short (read it in an hour waiting to board a plane), the writing is messy and choppy, lots of typos (hire a new editor). The advice is fine but nothing new. I’m glad she’s enjoying her travels and I like reading about like-minded individuals but wish I hadn’t spent the money on this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews