Title : Unfiltered – No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.
Author : Lily Collins
Publisher : Harper
No. of Pages : 235
It took me about 3 months to finish reading this book. It wasn’t about
the thickness, though. I wasn’t focused on finishing it. In case you don’t know
who Lily Collins is, she is an actress who is famous for her role as Rosie in the
film Love, Rosie. She is also the daughter of Phil Collins, the British singer,
though she didn’t disclose her father’s name in the book.
In this book, Lily shares her darkest secrets especially when she was in
her teenage and young adult years. She writes about having aneroxia and bulimia
during her battle for perfection, abusive relationships, addictions and disappearing
boyfriends. She wrote also about her mom, who is the pillar of her strength and
her dad, who is not there for her most of the time but still play an important
role in her life.
Lily writes about how we should embrace our vulnerability and be the
best version of ourselves, to not be afraid of speaking up and to acknowledge
that things do happen for certain reasons. The first thing she writes is about
accepting herself, all the perfections and the flaws, to love, to be happy and
to be loved; and that it is okay to be different. For her, it’s her bushy
eyebrows. She terms it as ‘quirky’ and that it is not only about physical
characteristics but also personality traits.
She writes about her experience of being in toxic relationships –
staying put for the sake of love, trying to impress the other party and keep
hoping that he will change and hoping that she can change him. That
relationship led her to stay away from her family and friends only because he
didn’t allow her to meet them, he made her feel that she was dependent only on
him. It takes a lot of encouragement from her mom and friends for her to
finally let go of that relationship and find herself again.
She then started to anchor herself with tattoos to inspire herself and
remind her of specific events that represent the different chapters of her
life. Lily also advises us to add some silliness into our lives so that we do
not live a mundane and boring life. Lily reclaims her power by talking about
the problems that she was facing and then sharing it with the public. She holds
a firm belief that everything happens for a reason.
For someone who has experience such a harrowing experience in life at a
tender age, I think that writing this book is a courageous move by Lily. In the
last chapter which she entitles as ‘Daring to Bare’ means that she is not
hiding anything anymore. She has also included some links to her resources such
as eating disorders, dating abuse, bullying and general mental health
resources.
This book will empower teenagers and young adults to take charge of
their own thoughts, value themselves, their bodies, needs and perception and
not to let others overrule them.
This is a light read for me, so I’m giving it a THREE 🌟🌟🌟 stars.
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