Hannah Brown (3)

2, maybe a 2.5 but not sure I can round it up to 3 (still higher than what I gave[b:It's Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After|25986991|It's Not Okay Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After|Andi Dorfman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456443711l/25986991._SY75_.jpg|45899691] though lol)

I generally feel a little suspicious when someone young writes a memoir, especially when they're younger than me. That's not to say young people can't do amazing things, but it feels a little weird for youth to impart wisdom from experience (even if it IS from the hot house environment of putting your feelings on display via national television).

I've read a few Bachelor-adjacent books but not all, and I did like this more than Andi Dorfman's tell-all/empowerment books, possibly a combination of familiarity (I've watched the seasons Hannah describes but Andi was before I started following the franchise) and the vulnerability on display by Hannah Brown. I don't generally read faith-based memoirs/self-help, so I couldn't tell you how well this holds up to the genre.

Mostly though, my main takeaway is that we should place as high a priority on mental health as we do physical, and instead of "toughing it out" or challenging yourself to prove something, it's 100% okay and even necessary to go to therapy to unpack trauma and anxiety with a trained professional. I feel like Rachel Lindsay's [b:Miss Me With That: Hot Takes, Helpful Tidbits and a Few Hard Truths|57895042|Miss Me With That Hot Takes, Helpful Tidbits and a Few Hard Truths|Rachel Lindsay|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619725929l/57895042._SY75_.jpg|90699022] was a bit more self-reflective, especially thinking about the broader impacts of putting yourself on display and what you may represent, and Hannah's whoopsie with the N word gets a couple pages but ma'am, if you spent time doing the homework why did I not see MORE of it at the time and since?? Hannah interests me as a Bachelor Nation archetype of a lot of girls I knew in college- the GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) who had the space to figure out who they were for the first time in college but clung to the familiar because it was safe, whether that be the good ol' boys or the antebellum-soaked traditions they'd never thought to question before. The Bachelor-DWTS period was a harsh instructor, and I hope she gets the space and privacy to do discover herself and grow away from the camera.… (más)

I came expecting gossip or dirt about the Bachelorette franchise. And instead, I found so so much more.

I enjoyed Hannah Brown's season of the Bachelorette. Girl was REAL and HONEST....or so it seemed. Let me put it this way, she had a personality (unlike many who are on the ABC reality dating show). However, often underneath the happy, bubbly exterior, Hannah was battling her demons. Demons that I could actually relate to.

Sure, not the beauty pageant stuff and being told she was fat. (When sorry she is the furthest thing from fat). But anxiety and depression, wanting people's approval, struggles in her faith and relationship with God, desiring perfection of herself, not feeling good enough or deserving enough. THOSE are life experiences that I understand.

Hannah talks bluntly. I don't know why other reviews on here think it's poorly written. I felt like Hannah was having her confessional moments. I also did the audiobook and hearing everything in her own words.....I felt in her living room with a glass of wine.

I think these is a thing to be learned in the book. (Beyond JUST how many times she and Tyler did communicate after the Bachelorette [he had been my pick for her] OR how obsessed with her Pilot Pete seemed to be.....) Finding our center, finding grace to BE in Christ....
So very pleasantly surprised with this read.… (más)