Victoria T. (justicepirate) reviewed on 7/6/2016 + 350 more book reviews

I am so disappointed in this book.

If you are a young girl wanting to know how you can make a difference, then yes, read this. It is a cute story that you might enjoy. It can inspire you to want to make a difference in some way. Good work! You can do it!

Bethany is a sweet girl. I like her. I don't really like her book though.

Here's my issue with this book:
Bethany is inspired by Elaini Garfield (well, she doesn't say Elaini's last name - which you think she would when writing about her inspiration, but I have been good internet friends with Elaini for a few years now). The way Bethany talked about Elaini, it seems like she didn't really get much information about what she was doing). Elaini has an actual health issue with her muscles that keeps her from being able to travel (but she barely ever mentioned it at all because she is a very humble person). She wanted to be able to do missions work in India to help the Dalit children there. She raised $100,000 in four years for Kinship United (formerly known as Warm Blankets Orphan Care). She regularly talks with the children that she raised money for through Skype, building relationships and bonds with them which is why she calls them "her kids." Bethany mentioned the "her kids" without explaining much of why she calls them that. Elaini wore the same dress for 100 days styled uniquely each time also to promote modesty and because she loves fashion. Most of the kids she helped were trafficked, but Bethany has vague information about it and doesn't even mention that some of these kids came out of trafficking, but then again, perhaps she doesn't know that either.

This brings me to my point. It is one thing to feel inspired, but it is another thing to imitate and get so upset when things don't go the way you planned. Bethany, being 16 at the time, figured she could do the same thing as Eliani, but for various organizations. She talks about how upset she is all the time about not getting her goal of $100,000 in one year. She raised a few thousand dollars which is still an accomplishment and not something to be sad about. Elaini's original goal was $50,000 and she kept lifting her goal and didn't stop until it reached $100,000 four years later. Bethany made nearly the same type of dress that Elaini wore. If anything, I know that if Elaini instead wrote a book about her 100 days of wearing a dress, she'd talk less about herself and way more about the individual children that her heart cares for. She has a lot of stories about them. Bethany just talks about herself the whole time. It is a bit weird to read.

Bethany barely explains a thing about each of these organizations and why they tug at her heart and what they specifically do. Example: She mentions Love 146 and how they started when explaining about their video that she shared at a small get together to raise money, but she doesn't talk about how they have a safe house in the Philippines or that they even work with young boys as well. . .she is vague. Each chapter ends with a little blurb about human trafficking, but it is too brief. If this is your passion, express it way more in depth.

Here's what I gather from reading this book. Bethany doesn't like her appearance which is obvious throughout the whole book. She has a low self image. Perhaps she saw the kind and lovely comments that were left on Elaini's blog and maybe part of the reason she wanted to blog about herself in a dress is because Bethany wanted to have some encouraging words and compliments too. This is a normal teenage girl thing to want, but I don't know. Her hardest day of wearing the dress had nothing to do with human trafficking and was about the hair growing on her face that someone mocked. Don't let someone's negative comment break you down. You are beautiful as you are and beauty fades anyway, even if you do have some facial hair. Please stop shaving though! Use wax or Nair. Shaving makes the hair follicles stay on your face to look like a 5 o'clock shadow! You probably have it all lasered off by now though.

I just felt like I was in pain reading about this girl's plight of self worth. She talks about all these amazing encouraging people in her life from great friends, wonderfully involved parents, a kind brother, youth pastors and leaders who have her back, and Bob Goff on the phone. She literally has to explain to us HOW they put her on the spot at times to talk about her dress and how yes, it wasn't easy because she didn't really know what she was doing anymore. The whole thing became focused on her instead of on her passion against human trafficking. With all that encouragement she still felt so down about herself. She is way more blessed than I can imagine compared to these girls who are brutally raped each day for profit and beat up and forced into drug addiction to ease their pain. Instead of saying stuff like that, she'd say, "compared to what they go through." What if a reader has no idea what they go through? What if a reader doesn't know much about human trafficking and what is going on? Tell about these women's stories along with your dress!

It seems like a lot of people lately only do things to get something out of it. You wear a dress to feel better about yourself and feel like you are doing something important and as if you did something for someone, but there is barely a notion of what connections you made with these people other than Bob Goff. Did he tell you any stories about the people that he started a safe house for? I want to know that. I want to know about the people who were affected by the raising of funds for your dress, not about how you played hide and seek with some younger kids and ripped your dress while hiding under a bed. What about the girls who have their bodies ripped apart and resewn up again and again to be sold as "virgins" to go with that story?

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