Emily has a very visceral voice that brings you into experiencing what she’s writing, with her. Don’t read this book for groundbreaking political and feminist theory — it really isn’t that much of a stretch for a beautiful woman to speak depth about the model & fashion industry — let’s normalise that?? We should all be writing stories and have people read them!! But read this book to understand the thoughts, ideas and emotions of a woman (one with extreme privilege), and what she has to say about living in her body. What I took away from the book: Emily, despite the riches and fame she’s obtained from the monetisation of her body and the appearance of working the system in her favour remains to suffer from the true lack of bodily autonomy and independence of the male gaze and the patriarchy. What does this say, about the rest of us, who are not as privileged as Emily? Bodies are suffering and in pain, “model-y” or not. This system will continue to exploit women’s/wxmen’s bodies for pleasure, entertainment and profit. 

Some essays were more hard-hitting than others. The most memorable ones, for me, are Blurred Lines, K-Spa, Pamela and Releases. In fact, I’d be thinking about Releases for a while.