An empowering little book for those who seek a first encounter with feminism. Nothing too special or mind-blowing and due to the controversy with Chidera Eggerue's book, "Women Don't Owe You Pretty" wouldn't be my first choice.

<i>"There is enough room for all women to be whole without tearing each other down."</i>

This book was a good reminder of many of the things I tend to forget. Although I knew a lot of it or it didn't apply, I think this book would be good for some that are younger (like the author's age). The fun cover and interesting storytelling style, I think it would work well for many that don't like "self help" or nonfiction books as much.

And I love the above line. I think we forget, often as people (but also as women), that we aren't in competition. My happy family doesn't reflect on you, your happy one doesn't reflect on me. It's something I'm constantly trying to remind myself and others. We live in weird times right now.

<i>Stop breaking yourself down into bite-sized pieces. Stay whole and let them choke."</i>

And we have to stop making ourselves small, to fit whatever space we're given. Be big, make them choke.

<i>Thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with an Ebook via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.</i>

I had really been looking forward to this book but some parts were just a little too much. It was alright but nothing really stuck with me. I also became less interested when I realized how young she is...

This novel is more of a guide to being a feminist. I was expecting a collection of feminist essays since that is what I am personally interested in nonetheless, this was still a pleasant change to what I usually read. The art, the colour and the quote pages are an eye-catching and lovely edition to the novel. There are some great information and some important points were made.

Overall, however, this seems to be more for people who are still being introduced to feminism and are still learning about the topic. It's very easy to understand and basic, but there is not a lot of in-depth analysis and discussions. This isn't for me, but it's still a good introductory novel for people who are just starting to learn about feminism.

I very much enjoyed the writing style throughout this book! However, this book hit me so hard but I struggled getting through the middle of it as I just felt the same things were said over and over again which ultimately made me lose interest halfway through and then again, the last part really got me and now I’m so glad I finished it!
Thanks to NetGalley for supplying this read.

I think this book covers a lot of very great ideas and concepts however, I don't personally think that it was great for me at this time in my life; I could see it being more useful for a teenager or young adult.

I found the tone of the book to be very young, it was extremely black and white with no shades of grey at all and it was pretty judgemental with basically zero room for understanding or imperfections. Do not do this, do not think like that, if you are this than you are not ready for that. I personally think that the book would be a bit better if it was more idea based and less this is the way you should be. I think everyone is an individual and needs to look inside themselves and see what is missing or making them unhappy, as what is needed or true for one person may not be for another.

It spent a lot of time talking about the fact that if someone can't accept you for who you are, just cut them out of your life but also talked a lot about the fact that if the people in your life are not willing to be the exact person you think they should be, then you should cut them out of your life as well. We need to love ourselves but we also need to remeber that the people we love are not perfect and are human as well. We shouldn't let people hurt us but we also need to be forgiving. It's not just black and white. A pretty basic example was a statement saying that if someone is always late they don't care about you at all and you need to cut them out of your life now. I don't agree with this. I have an amazing friend who is chronically late for everything. It drives me insane as I am the exact opposite and am literally never late but I also know she loves me very much and it is just who she is. Organization is just not a top skill or priority for her, it is who she is and I accept that. This is just one small example but the book is full of set rules like that. It was also very heavily focused on dating so I didn't really relate with a lot of it.

Unfortunately this book was not for me.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I sadly can´t open the book. I downloaded it thinking I could open it on my phone but it isn´t possible for me since my phone is too old. I will try to get access to this book differently.

Publish Date: April 6, 2021

This is an informative and fun feminist book. The illustrations are excellent and I love the aesthetic of the whole thing. Given covers a number of topics in an inclusive way from the super serious to the mundane. She has a lively voice, one that's empowering and fresh. I look forward to following her work in the years to come.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.

The books was stylish and presented in a fairly fun way but I’m not sure this book was for me.

The author is clearly someone attractive and young and talked about feminism from this perspective only. Black, fat, disabled perspectives were dropped in occasionally for good measure but little though to what happens to women who aren’t young pretty white and have economic privilege. It was good the author acknowledged her privilege but it’s very easy to have clear boundaries when you aren’t on minimum wage, in an abusive relationship, have a larger body or are from a minority background. I didn’t really get much from the content other than the pictures tbh.

Nice for young teens as a bit of an intro but little else

So inspiring. So much real talk here. Especially great for younger women who may need this wisdom. Even at 35, I needed to hear a lot of this. So good.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have very mixed feelings about this book, I think largely because it wasn’t what I had expected it to be. It covers many aspects of intersectional feminism briefly, with briefly being the operative word. I imagine this would be a good book for someone new to feminism, or perhaps for a teenager, but I think anyone who is not a straight cis man and who has been on the internet in recent years will have likely already come across all of the content of this book. Of course, these are important topics which can definitely stand to be reiterated, but I was still disappointed overall by the book’s simplicity.

I also hadn’t been expecting the self-help tone that much of the book was written in, which I found a bit strange. It fluctuates between being a self help/advice book, to memoir (and memoirs written by people in their twenties always make me cringe a bit - as someone in their twenties). Obviously using personal experiences can be a useful way to ground feminism and make it more easily understandable, but in this aspect I was almost left frustrated that Given didn’t commit fully to sharing more of her story in order to contextualise her points. *Obviously* this is not me saying that she is obliged to share her trauma for the benefit of readers, as she certainly isn’t, but the frequent allusions to the undisclosed trauma she has experienced made me wonder if this book would have been better fleshed out if she had perhaps interviewed other women and non-gender-conforming people in order to expand upon the topics she covers? Idk, just a thought.

Another gripe I had with this book was that the discussion of class was incredibly limited; whilst other forms of prejudice are discussed at length (as they should be), the discussion of class is pretty much limited to one page in one of the final chapters. This was disappointing as I personally feel that an understanding of class is crucial to intersectional feminism. Also, Given uses the word ‘abuse’ so frequently and to describe such a number of different things that it almost loses all meaning and significance. Obviously abuse can be all manner of things, and can differ depending on individual circumstance, but I just thought this messy application of the term ending up causing confusion about what Given considered to be abusive.

The art in this book is lovely, and so has bumped up my rating by one star. Overall this book does present important points about feminism, just don’t expect anything earth-shattering or revolutionary.

I love a self-help book that can teach a thing or two. This book was super eye-opening about gender inequality and feminism. My favorite aspect of the book was the section titled "Check Your Privilege." This contained checklists that you could look at to see if you experience privilege. It was really enlightening and gave me a new perspective on how lucky I am in so many ways.

Given's humor and honesty makes this a quick, fun read (even though she touches on a lot of really important issues, such as homophobia and sexual assault). I was shocked to learn she was only 21-years-old; I don't want to be ageist, but a lot of young people don't have this much insight and empathy. I also loved her artwork, which was edgy and fun. I'd definitely be interested to see what Givens writes next.

Women Don't Owe You Pretty provides an introduction to feminist perspectives on beauty and life as a woman navigating life in general. There wasn't a lot of originality, but important issues were covered nonetheless.

This felt a bit like self-help, but it was a kind of compilation of ideas and concepts I'd seen around for years. Maybe helpful for beginners.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the moment I read the introduction to this book, I knew I was going to love it. It's such an eye-opening book, even for someone like myself, who considers themself to be a feminist.

Firstly, because it's what attracted me to this book in the first place, the cover is STUNNING. As is the rest of the artwork within the book. I couldn't help but think how much I wanted all of the artwork and quotes to be downloadable and used a phone backgrounds or printables. The perfect tie in to make this book very enjoyable.

The writing is easy to understand and gripping. There was so much that I could relate to and understand but also many things that I hadn't considered like the idea of pretty privilege and how society has raised girls to believe in the narrative so strongly that not wanting kids or to get married, or to even be in a relationship, is deemed weird.

I loved that this book had a glossary of terms, so even those not as engrained in feminism or 'woke' culture can read, understand and learn.

I enjoyed this book so much and I highly recommend it. I'm planning on gifting this to my 16 year old sister because all I could think while reading this was "I wish I knew this when I was younger."

An amazing, beautiful, stunning visual primer on feminism! This book is easy to read, fun, but also thought-provoking.

You need to actually address the controversy of the plagiarism allegations.
Chidera wrote a book - not the first book on feminism. But the way the whole thing has been handled has been terrible.

Reach out to Chidera. Stop using her book to promote Florence's.

MAYBE I WOULD HAVE ENJOYED THIS IF I HAD BEEN NEW TO FEMINISM 🤷‍♀️🤔

But as it is, I am no - so I didn't enjoy this one bit. It just felt like an amalgamation of other feminist theories interspersed with 'feminist' self help tips. Nothing new or useful for me, but perhaps that's because I have spent years educating myself in this regard? Maybe, if I knew nothing about feminism, this would have appealed to me more? But as it is, that was not the case.

👎 What I Disliked 👎

Unoriginal: This was just one big soup of everything slightly feminist. It really didn't bring anything new to the table. It drew on different theories, self-help tips and sayings. I think it was meant to be inspirational and eye opening - and it might have been. If I hadn't read all of this somewhere else (and better written at that, too).

Self-help: Honestly, this felt, most of all, like a self-help book. Meant to help you realise your full potential. Not a bad aim, sure. Just not what I wanted at all from this book. And it was not what I needed either, so it just didn't hit me in any profound way.

Repetitive: There were just too few points that were re-worded and repeated time and time again throughout this book. It felt like reading the same mantra over and over.

I couldn't spend any more time on this book unfortunately. The author makes comments about her own privilege but never really credits the correct people in the feminist movement. There are no new ideas from what I've read and from the introduction, where the author implies that "pretty" people are more likely to be sexually harassed, I just felt uncomfortable.

Pretty good. Written with young adult women in mind. Not really the feminist manifesto I expected, but rather a girlfriends guide to gaining self awareness, and self confidence with a few older sister nuggets re: sex, boundaries and body positivity all with a feminist bent.

I'm pretty easy to please, but this was wholly unoriginal. I'm extremely disappointed, especially given the premise and the title.