Book Review

Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown Up Book Review

22:18

Hey guys so today I am going to be giving you a review of Grace Helbig's book. I have been meaning to write this book review for about 2 weeks now and I apologise that it has taken me so long to sit down and write it.



The first thing I would like to comment on is the name of the book. It is very long. I don't really have a problem with that other than when you try to post something on the internet talking about the book you usually have to shorten the title to "Grace's guidebook". Which is kind of sad because the full title of the book is one of the main reasons the book appealed to me.
For those of you who don't know I am currently 17, in my last year of secondary school and currently have no idea what I am doing with my life. So the fact that one of the YouTubers I watch has released a self-help book on how to pretend to be an adult seems kind of perfect. I don't know if it's the best advice in the world but I think that it can be useful for the future. 
Anyway, you might think that it's weird to read a self-help book all in one go, especially Grace's which is split up into different sections. I have to say it was a lot of advice and information to take in at once but I wanted to get an idea of the type of advice she could give me so that if I ever did need advice on a particular subject I knew that Grace would be able to help.



Overall I would say that Grace actually did provide me with some helpful advice for the future. I mean I didn't think she would give bad advice but at the same time I didn't know if the advice would be suitable for me. Some of the topics Grace covered in her books I have yet to experience in my life and so I can't put that advice into effect until these things happen to me for example, how to do the walk of shame.
Most of the advice that Grace gives in the book is actually quite simple. They are little things that you often forget while you are going through life and it is really nice to be reminded about them. For example when you are on the internet, don't post your personal information such as your address, social security number, bank details...that kind of thing. 
To be honest I wasn't expecting life changing advice from this book, if you know Grace then you know she isn't a very serious person and she tends not to like to get too deep and meaningful - a perfect example of this is her podcast "Not Too Deep". Not that I minded if the advice wasn't that good. I was more interested in buying the book to support Grace (as a YouTube fangirl I will support YouTubers by buying their merchandise if it appeals to me even a little) and to learn more about her.
While the advice wasn't completely life changing it was very helpful. As someone who is socially awkward and avoids being in public a lot I found Grace's tips on how to host parties very useful. There are some things that she mentions in her book that you wouldn't even begin to consider when you are preparing to do something, like when you are going for a job interview it is important to ask questions back rather than just answer your questions that way you seem more invested. I would never do that, but thanks to Grace's book I will do it in the future.
As I mentioned before Grace covers a lot of aspects of being an adult in her book and at the beginning of each section of the book she will write an introduction and share a story or two of her experience regarding that particular topic. I really enjoyed these introductions as they allowed me to learn a lot more about Grace as a person which was really nice. It was nice to learn more about her real life and not just the YouTuber personality we see in her videos. Although as you read the book you discover that Grace doesn't really have a YouTube personality and that the person you see in her videos is the real deal.
Another thing I really enjoyed about Grace's book were the photographs, because who doesn't love a book with pictures? They were very funny and adorable and just very "Grace". Below are some of the photos within Grace's book so that you can see what they are like:






Another enjoyable thing about Grace's book is that at the end of each section she would have made an acronym for all of the advice that she gave on a topic. This means that it would be easier to remember her advice as well as produce random funny words at the end of the book sections. I have no idea how she came up with those acronyms but they are definitely memorable which means I won't be forgetting any of the tips and tricks on how to decorate like an adult anytime soon.



And with that I think I have said everything that I want to say. The only thing to say is that the writing style is very casual and easy to understand, I noticed that the style of writing is in the style of how Grace would speak naturally so reading her book is just like watching one of her YouTube videos which I think made the whole book more enjoyable. It is surprising how well Grace's sarcasm can come across based on the style of her writing. That or I have been watching so many of her videos that I can always tell when she is being sarcastic, even through written language.
Oh! That's another thing that I enjoyed, Grace's sense of humour. I don't know if everyone enjoys Grace's puns and bad jokes but I do. I might not laugh out loud at them but I do appreciate them and I imagine that if the book didn't contain these puns or jokes that it wouldn't have been Grace that wrote it.
And now I think that I have said everything I wanted to say. Overall I really did enjoy Grace's book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Grace Helbig's videos or is struggling to become an adult like myself haha. Will I ever use her advice in real life? I think I will. I might not follow it exactly to the letter but I will definitely think about it because like I said it can be useful. I just think it depends on the type of person you are and if you can apply the advice to your life.
And so yeah...I never really know how to end my blog posts. I just sort of drift off at the end and stop writing haha. I need to think of a better way to end them. But until then I hope you guys liked my thoughts on Grace's book. Let me know in the comments below if you have read Graces book and what you think of it and I hope you will come back for the next blog post! Whatever that may be...
~ Courtney x


YouTube

Failing at Being a YouTuber

23:14

So I guess there is no right or wrong way to be a YouTuber. But lately I have been feeling that I have not been doing my best and so I thought it would be best to make a video explaining why...apart from the fact when I tried to film the video I could not talk properly and explain what I wanted to say very clearly. And so after take 105 (give or take one or two) I decided to give up and make a blog post about it.
Sometimes things are easier to express through written word rather than spoken word. Especially if you are having a day like me.
And so...below is what is going on with me and my YouTube channel right now. I hope you understand.

My Let's Plays
The first video I posted on YouTube was a Let's Play video. That was how I wanted to start making YouTube videos. I thought if I became confident with that I could go on to make other types of videos. And while I have been making new content, I have always stuck by my Let's Plays. Until now it seems.
I know I haven't posted a new Let's Play in over a month and for that I really feel bad about. It's always in the back of my mind as something I should do but lately I haven't had the time or energy....
I don't know if anyone else has tried to film a Let's Play but the way that I do it, I usually play for about an hour to 40 minutes...and then I spend about twice as long editing.
I have to admit there's not a lot of editing involved in my Let's Plays but it is still a lot of work. Especially when you are trying to do school work at the same time and you don't actually sleep very much because you're addicted to the internet.
Also I am a bit hesitant to go back to my Let's Plays as my computer has recently been having issues and had to be reset to its factory settings. I did do a backup of everything before this took place and everything has been reinstalled but I have a horrible feeling that I didn't backup my save games correctly which could mean restarting.
This isn't such a huge thing for my Sims 4 Let's Play but it is for my Animal Crossing one...
I guess we'll find out soon as I plan to get back on my Let's Plays as soon as possible. Hopefully I backed everything up correctly. I wouldn't want to be starting from scratch.

Birchbox Unboxing
I would just like to put it out there that my next Birchbox Unboxing will be my last. I have decided to cancel my Birchbox subscription due to the fact that recently the products they have been sending me I don't actually use. I usually end up giving them to my sister and so it doesn't really benefit me. And because I have been paying it with my own money I think it would be better to stop the service if I am not getting anything out of it anymore.
I will miss getting a package every month and not knowing what's inside but I really just don't think I need it....But it was nice while it lasted. :)

Everything Else
So I know I haven't been consistently posting videos at all...and while I like to think I have some sort of schedule in my head I really don't. My ideal would be that I could post 5 videos a week like I did over summer but I know that's not realistic. Other than that I don't really have plans for a schedule.
I think the reason I don't like to schedule my videos is because I don't want to be posting loads of pre-recorded videos. I like to have my videos going up as soon as I film them or a few days after. Otherwise I feel like they are no longer relevant...
As for my Let's Play schedule of only posting them on Monday...I feel like that's just out the window. I haven't been posting Let's Plays on Monday for a long time now and I've come to realise that I will probably never get them up when I say they should go up.
I just don't think I'm the type of person to do scheduled videos....
Sometimes I'll feel like filming a bunch of videos, sometimes I can barely get two words out before I am stumbling over my words and struggling think of what to say next. There really is no in between.
So I hope that you enjoy the random times I choose to post videos.
I think that only a few people can actually get away with posting randomly whenever they want but I hope I can be one of them. I don't want to be limited to a schedule. Especially one I know I won't stick to...

And so yeah...I think that's everything. If you have been following me on Twitter you have probably been learning more about these things as they have been happening but I know it's kind of hard to follow my actual life between my fangirl tweets. But I hope this cleared some things up.
Like I said this would have been a YouTube video but I really struggled to film it so I decided to it this way instead.
If you guys like this type of blog post let me know and maybe I'll do more. Sometimes I think it's a lot easier to write a blog post rather than trying to film a video. At least this way my hair doesn't have to look good, the lighting can be terrible and I could be in my pyjamas for all you know haha.
Still, I promise that there are more videos to come, I still have some pre-recorded to share with you and this will allow me to film some more videos.
So yeah, thanks again for hearing me out on these things. I promise I won't make excuses like this all the time but I feel like there were just some things that needed explaining.
If you guys have any more questions or queries feel free to leave me a comment or tweet me or something, I do read everything. And until next time, I'll see you in my next blog post. :)
~ Courtney x

New Blog!

20:00

Hello world,
I have decided to start a new blog.
This isn't news.
I mean it is but it's not big news. I start new blogs all the time. Mainly just because I can never decide what vibe I am going for with it. But I think this one will be here to stay. My last blogspot blog was created to talk about all of my fangirl things which I still want to talk about but that isn't all I am.
I feel like the way I made that blog was very limited and so I am making this one.
This will be my main blog where I post everything and anything. I will keep the old blog around because I posted there for a year and I feel like it should still be there to be seen.
I did think about transferring the blog posts to this new blog but I don't feel like that would work out in the best way.
So I'm here, with a new blog and a new year...so many possibilities.
I don't know if I will be able to post here regularly but I hope that I make time to. Blogging is something I have loved to do ever since I was younger, and I feel like I tell this story a lot, so I'm not going to tell it again, but basically blogging has been a great way for me to express how I feel for a long time and I don't want to give it up.
Anyway...I think I should introduce myself, for the thousandth time on the internet haha.
My name's Courtney Shek, I'm currently 17 and live in the UK. I am on my last year of a levels in secondary school and when I am not studying I spend a majority of the time on the internet.
And I think that's all you need to know about me. If that isn't enough then maybe you should stick around and learn more about me through my blog. Or you can go to any one of my other social media websites and learn more about me there.
I am a very active person on the internet and I pretty much have every social network out there so if you are looking to know more about me there are plenty of ways to do that. Including here now.
I'm not sure where I am taking this blog but I think I will just write about whatever I want. I think if I confine myself to a certain thing that I won't like it and I'll want to change it. Which is often a problem with me specifically with blogs...it's amazing I've been able to keep my Tumblr blogs running for as long as I have.
And so yeah. I think that's everything. I just thought I should try really hard with the blogging thing because when I have blogged before it's never stuck that long...my very first blog was around for a long time but after that I just kind of stopped. So I am looking to pick blogging back up again because it does help to share your thoughts sometimes, even if that is out on the internet. The chances of someone relating to you is much higher and I feel like that's why I'm so comfortable putting my thoughts out there. So that's what I do.
Now just to wait to see if anyone finds my thoughts interesting enough to read.....
~ Courtney x