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Book Review: "Dear Girls" Ali Wong

I look up to a lot of people whose creative endeavor differs from mine. Ali Wong is a comedian but to me she is an artist. I was curious about her book. I found it to be a whimsical and honest. It's a discussion about her life and her wisdom gained through experiences. I love that she is brutally honest about many things about her life such as experiences with dating, navigating life as an Asian American. I found myself relating to many of her struggles. To the ones I couldn't relate to I want to keep in mind as advice to implement in my life as needed.

Also, I like that she talks about her experiences working as a comedian on the road, she talks not only about successes but her struggles along the way. Most of the time when we see celebrities all we see is there highlight reel so I am glad she talks about her struggles. We are all only human and we all experience a range of emotion, I think sometimes we can forget that people who we idolize or see as having "made it" in their lives are human and aren't always experiencing elated emotions. I think we do this to our friends who display only a highlight reel on social media and for celebrities it can be even worse. My favorite chapter was when she talks about how to discern an authentic Asian restaurants. She would be happy to know I have never been to PF Chang but she would be disappointed to know I have been to Panda Express.

Basically I do recommend this book! I love learning about other creative people and their lives. By reading it I hope to learn from them and implement things to help shape my own life in my creative endeavors. The biggest take away from her in this book was to hustle and not be afraid of failing and to laugh at yourself when you fail. It was humbling to read about her moments as a comedian that didn't go well. The important thing was that she never gave up and kept doing sets and learned about what material worked and didn't work depending on her audiences. I think reading these stories helps to ground me and they help me understand there isn't as big of a dichotomy of the creative people I admire's lives and mine. The difference is that I still have yet to fully put myself out there yet. Reading her book was encouragement to be bold and rack up more successes and failures.


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