Tough Titties: On Living Your Best Life When You're the F-ing Worst by Laura Belgray is part memoir and part self help book written by an award winning TV writer. Laura relates engaging laugh out loud stories about her childhood and adult years as she tries to navigate her life and find a career she enjoys.
Laura talks about being bullied in 6th grade and then “hate-following” her bully years later on social media. She mentions being self conscious of her body and then questioning her self worth when no boys wanted to kiss her during parties. She struggled with finding friends and fitting in with the popular kids. She didn’t have much of a social life or went out as much as her classmates when she was growing up.
Things didn’t really change for Laura after she graduated from college. She still had no idea what she wanted to do and she seemed to be moving through life listlessly. She moved back home to stay with her parents and she spends her days sleeping in while her nights are reserved for spending time at bars. She hoped to become a bartender but was having a hard time finding a bar that would give her a chance to try out her bartending skills.
She dabbled in unhealthy relationships including a relationship with a married man who bought her no joy but she still found herself obsessed with him. Laura measured her self worth by how many hookups she had with bartenders and other people. She figured if people are willing to sleep with her that she must have been worthy of something. While it wasn’t the best way to spend her time, she admits that she was able to make connections and gain opportunities that she wouldn’t have otherwise.
After a failed stint as a bartender, Laura decided to become an intern at a magazine. She was one of the worst interns there but she succeeded in building industry connections. She did discover that she did like certain parts of her job and that helped serve as a guide for her career path. Laura mentions that when she was let go from the job, she was late to the discovery of the Internet but ended up finding a profitable niche that she was able to build a successful business out of.
The book was a very relatable and laugh out loud read. The book did offer some advice but it wasn’t on the nose or trying to change a habit. Instead, Laura talked about her life and choices and then explained how things worked out for the better (sometimes). I feel like the book shows readers that it’s okay to make mistakes and learn as you go because sometimes that can lead to connections that would help you later in life.
I like that the book encourages readers to be weird and take their time in learning and finding themselves. Sometimes, we are made to feel insufficient or we could be doing more with our lives. And that if we are not on some Forbes list, that we are failures or not good enough. I feel that when Laura was describing her experiences it was encouraging to see that success is not always a straight path. I enjoyed reading about the author’s struggles and her triumphs as it was written in an engaging way.
