Blogtour and Review: Brave is the New Beautiful by Lee Wolf Blum

Synopsis

In a culture that bombards women with "thinspiration" messages and pressure to "do it all" while wearing the mask of perfection, women are left feeling alone and overwhelmed. How can they stop comparing themselves to others? How can they live out who they really are?

Lee Wolfe Blum offers stories from everyday women who have answered these questions with their lives—and found true beauty in the process. In Brave Is the New Beautiful, Blum weaves reflections from her own journey with inspirational stories from everyday women who chose to take off their masks and live authentically. Through call-to-action questions and ideas, she encourages readers to be brave enough to be who they really are and the beloved that God knows they are.

~ My Review ~

This book got to me. I cried at the stories of these brave women as they battled cancer, their fears, their relationships, and a slew of situations that would make anyone back down, run away, and hide. Reading through Lee Wolfe Blum's own account of depression and feeling unwanted, I saw myself in every bit of her words. I saw the anger resurrect within me. I felt the hug and comfort that emitted from these pages. I know I am loved. I know I am wanted......sometimes, it takes a stranger, or a book to make us believe in those words. 
In my own situation, my parents praised me as the prettiest and the most independent of their daughters. I believed for a long time that it was only my outer appearances that gave me worth. As years and the poundage went on, I felt less of who I was. Who had I become? What was I becoming? And maybe it was also an unconscious shift that I didn't want to be looked at anymore....... It wasn't until my first child and my first bout of Preeclampsia and the NICU experiences that I began to realize that I was more than my appearance. I was tougher and stronger than even I gave myself credit for. 
And so I ugly cried my way through this entire book, but only because I remember my anxious need to fit into a mold. I remember the moment I knew I was loved for being me. I remember that that quiet moment I gave myself to God. 
Blum reminded me that this journey I'm on is not about striving to be perfect, or godly. We're not in competition with each other. She - and the stories of women she told - tells me that it's okay to be messy, to ugly cry, to step back from what we know is hurting us, and taking us away from God....it's okay to be afraid. It's okay to peel away the layers of the falsities we make ourselves up. It's okay to step up and say this is me, and this is who I truly am, because brave is the new beautiful. 

***I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive one. These thoughts and opinions are my own.***

About the Author

Lee Wolfe Blum is an energetic and passionate speaker who loves to help women find hope in healing from perfectionism and addictions. She works as a mental health practitioner in the field of Eating Disorders and Chemical Dependency. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and three boys.
​Find out more about Lee Wolfe at leewolfeblum.com.

For more on this tour and author, click here.