Almost Adulting + You'll Grow Out of It

Almost Adulting by Arden Rose

If you're unfamiliar with the YouTube community, you might not know of dear, dear Arden Rose. I've been watching Arden since she first started on YouTube, which was about eight or so years ago. Yikes. I feel super ridiculously old now. I digress, Arden is a lifestyle YouTuber. She does fashion, travel, beauty, advice, all sorts of videos. She's like your big sister on YouTube, which beautifully translated into her first book Almost Adulting. It's a collection of essays laced with personal anecdotes and light-hearted advice. Instead of feeling stuffy and impersonal though, it feels like you're sitting down with a cup of tea across from Arden while you two gab on about anything and everything.


Admittedly, I might've enjoyed this book more than some of the other readers because I've been a fan of Arden's content for years and understand her voice. I have to appreciate her wit and sense of humor and ability to cover taboo topics, such as sex, mental health, and internet friendships (just kidding...kind of). This is a cute read for anyone in their late teens and early 20s. It's an entertaining take on a self-help book for millennials. It's fairly short and a quick read, but I can guarantee you'll be snickering the whole time. I'd highly recommend watching some of Arden's videos before reading just so you can get the sense of her personality and see how well it shines through her writing!

Favorite chapters: My Mom Isn't Going to Grocery Shop for Me Anymore?, That Time I Literally Started Pulling Out My Hair, An Ode to My Butt, Dad's Not Feeling Great Guys (I cried reading this one), and It's Okay to Feel Sad, Or Happy, Or Both at the Exact Same Time.

You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein

Jessi Klein is a stand-up comedian and former writer for our favorite sketch comedy show Saturday Night Life. You'll Grow Out of It is a book of 24 personal essays, showing off her sense of humor and trials and tribulations of, well, life. It isn't quite an advice based book like Almost Adulting, but you can almost feel yourself learning from her mistakes and successes. Klein talks candidly about her transition into "womanhood" through clever and hilarious essays that had me giggling in public one too many times when I read.

Klein discusses in detail growing up as a tom-boy and continuing into adulthood carrying on the same trait. She talks about the difference between poodles and wolves, which you can see and hear about in more detail from Jessi Klein yourself in this video. She covered her hatred for baths, the acronym FOMO, past relationships, and how you should avoid men who do not wear socks with loafers (noted). The book isn't told chronologically and covers a large span of time, which gives you a taste of Klein's life across her personal timeline. If you're in the mood for a book you could read in a few sittings or pick up to read a chapter at a time, this one's a fun choice! And come on, how aesthetically pleasing is that cover?

Favorite chapters: The Bath, Bar Method and the Secrets of Beautiful Women, Poodle vs. Wolf, Anthropologie (MY FAVORITE), The Bachelor, and The Lingerie Dilemma.

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