We all know that growing up is hard to do, and sometimes the only thing that makes it better are the reassuring words of someone who has walked that bumpy road just a few steps ahead of you and somehow ended up as a fully-functioning adult. Carrie Hope Fletcher is that person. Thanks to her phenomenally popular YouTube videos, Carrie has become an 'honorary big sister' to hundreds of thousands of young people who turn to her for advice, friendship and, most of all, the knowledge that things will get better.
Carrie has created a safe and positive space for young people to connect and share their hopes and concerns online, and now she will share her most personal thoughts and experiences in her first book, All I Know Now. Part memoir, part advice guide, it will include Carrie's thoughts on some of the topics she's asked about most regularly: bullying, body image, relationships and perhaps the scariest question of all: what does the future hold for me? With warmth, wit and a sprinkling of hard-won wisdom, Carrie will provide the essential tools for growing up gracefully...most of the time. Although she did recently post a video about how to pee in a onesie. So the definition of 'adult' is a bit flexible here...(Source)
I've been watching Carrie's YouTube videos for a couple of years now and she's pretty much the ideal big sister that her viewers as well as me see her as.
This book doesn't just give fun anecdotes about Carrie but its one of the biggest comfort reads I've ever had the blessing to read. After finishing this book this evening I felt all warm and fuzzy with the sense that the world is my oyster or lobster whatever you want!
She made me acknowledge my past mistakes that I perhaps could have dealt with better and how to appreciate life to the full. I guess it was a kind of self help guide with relevant references to films and musicals like Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, The Sound of Music and of course Harry Potter! If you're not somehow familiar with these then perhaps you may not quite get Carrie's wonderful charm in this book. Not only quotes, but the way Carrie laid out the book with each section nicknamed an "Act" just like a theatre show was unique and brilliant- including the "Interval" page in the middle to let me know I was half way through- simply genius!
I would say due to Carrie's viewers being younger than me, the sort of fifteen year old age mark is perhaps the average and more suitable age to read this book. She discusses her luck and loss with love as well as her struggles in school with bullying and being accepted as someone who is different. If anything Carrie made me feel that I wasn't so different as I may have thought I was when I was in school, I felt with this book that I was the "normal" one. Despite me being twenty years old I found all of Carrie's advice and thoughts to be very useful to myself and later on in my life. It was bold of Carrie to take on sensitive topics such as body image and depression, it was tactfully done and with the "Props" section at the end giving helplines was a very thoughtful and clever idea! Overall I don't have any hate towards this book at all, I'm not sure you could hate it at all. It holds so much hope and positive attitude towards life, she conveys that life isn't as bad as it can be made out to be. You just need to be brave and take life as it comes, treat others how you want to be treated and make every moment count- the good and the bad! A truly blissful read, I recommend this to anyone who needs an internet big sister to guide you through life's most challenging times. :-)
