The Goddess Effect Quotes

“But the conventions of social media had infiltrated my offline life to the degree that my internal monologue frequently devolved into hashtags and potential captions, each one quippier, more potentially likable, than the last. Who was I doing this for? I wondered. Whose validation did I crave? Was I that desperate to be liked?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Jesus. To be a white guy with generational wealth. I hope I come back as that in my next life.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Gabrielle Bernstein’s latest book: A Toke of Hope: How to Ditch What Drags You Down and Get High on Your Own Supply.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“I had wanted a tribe, a girl gang, a thing to which to belong, as if that association would magically make me a more secure person. Alas. But the nice thing about taking down your idols is that you realize that no one actually has it figured out. Everyone is a hot mess, even, perhaps especially, the people who seem to have it all together.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“That was the wellness industry, in a nutshell: various entities looking to make a buck off your insecurities, revenue-generating companies with a vested interest in getting you to subscribe, try the treatment, get the special, charge it to the card on file, renew your subscription, come to the pop-up, attend the retreat, bring a friend, open a franchise, spread the gospel.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“I understood that you tell the whole truth to some people, others . . . It wasn’t that they couldn’t handle the truth, it was that they didn’t want to. They liked their bubble. Sometimes it was best to let them linger in it for as long as you could.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“I didn’t know if she would share my outrage about what Venus and Ophelia were doing. She swore by The Goddess Effect. What would she do if it no longer existed? Pilates?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Pretty much nothing I’d encountered in Los Angeles was as it seemed. Maybe that was why people avoided this place, the world capital of smoke and mirrors.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“The effect was Scarlett Johansson meets Harley Quinn.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“You couldn’t win as a woman of color. First they ignored you, then they sought you out, then you became the enemy, and the cycle started all over again.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“In retrospect, I was up there with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as the worst wedding guest of all time.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“there was also something drawing me to The Goddess Effect that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, or maybe I felt shallow for putting my finger on it. It was aspirational.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“She smelled like jasmine and generational wealth. I wondered if she’d had some advanced type of plastic surgery that made her pituitary glands produce sweat that could be bottled and sold at Le Labo.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“What I thought: Like Hinduism? You’re comparing this boutique fitness class to a four-thousand-year-old religion that you appropriated for your wall art? What I said: “Oh my gosh, totally. I can totally see that. So, I was wondering, do you have any promos for new clients?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“He knew what to do to distract me, to make me feel, for a few hours, like a normal, bumbling millennial.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Had I fucked up? Women talked about the importance of being honest, open, and vulnerable, but it was also possible to be too much of all of those things and simply be a hot mess. No one wanted to associate with a hot mess.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“All of which was fine, as long as you didn’t seek some deep meaning in an inherently capitalist enterprise. In retrospect, it’s embarrassing that it took so long for me to see The Goddess Effect for what it always was: a business.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“A fair point. But a bunch of women telling you what to do with your body wasn’t necessarily better. That was the wellness industry,”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Look, The Goddess Effect—and Bebe, of course—are the only ones with access to thermotherapy. All the collagen in the gummies? It’s coming from us, from women that I’ve vetted, women whose collagen we’d want. Adil wants to open it up to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to lose a rib or two. Not on my watch. We built this tribe, we determine who gets access.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Oh, honey,” said Venus, “that’s for the plebes. We make the rules, so we get to break them.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“In Effected, Venus called chips “Walmart’s heroin” and said that women who guzzled rosé needed to “take a hard look at what that buzz drowns out.” What was this?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Her words buzzed around me. Rib removal. That plastic surgery freak who wanted the same waist-to-hip ratio as Barbie. That rumor about Marilyn Manson, back in the day. “Doesn’t that require intense plastic surgery?” I asked.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“actress. So she had never worked in finance. Why did she feel the need to lie about it? Was a company not worthy if its founder didn’t have some vendetta against the patriarchy?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“guess I was kind of desperate.” I sighed. “Desperate and misguided.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“What mattered was that Ophelia and Venus were collecting pieces of content that could be used to blackmail their regulars if we ever decided to leave, which was, of course, our right. It was a boutique fitness studio.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Very interesting. But was that all it took to get women to admit their insecurities? Artisanal alcohol and sister-wives vibes?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Stacy seemed the same as always, just with a tiny waist. If you didn’t know her before, you’d just think, Wow, that woman is genetically blessed but possibly confined to wearing SKIMS and Fashion Nova unless she eats a Big Mac or eleven.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“She had a massive case of privileged-white-person guilt. Not only was I her token brown friend, I was her token brown beneficiary. Is a transactional relationship bad if both parties get something they want?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“I decided, recently, that if our government isn’t going to entertain the idea of reparations, I’m going to do what I can to make up the difference,” she said.”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect

“Because he was Indian, and, whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not, deep down, I wanted to be liked by other Indians?”
― Sheila Yasmin Marikar, The Goddess Effect