A confessional, uplifting memoir from the beloved YouTube personality. It’s not where you begin that matters. It's where you end up. Twenty-three year old Joey Graceffa has captured the hearts of millions of teens and young adults through his playful, sweet, and inspirational YouTube presence (not to mention his sparkling eyes and perfect hair). Yet, Joey wasn’t always comfortable in his skin, and in this candid memoir, he thoughtfully looks back on his journey from pain to pride, self-doubt to self-acceptance. To his fans, Joey is that best friend who always captures the brighter side of life but also isn’t afraid to get real. In the pages of his first book, he opens up about his years of struggling with family hardships and troubles at school, with cruel bullying and the sting of rejection. He tells of first loves and losses, embarrassing moments and surprising discoveries, loneliness, laughter, and life-changing forks in the road, showing us the incalculable value of finally finding and following your true passion in this world. Funny, warm-hearted, and inspiring, Joey Graceffa’s story is a welcome reminder that it’s not where you begin that matters, but where you end up.
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I am a massive fan of YouTube and (shamelessly) admit to spending a good half hour (perhaps more) watching videos about such things as a Japanese cat called Maru as well as the clever and funny content from BuzzFeed, not to mention repeatedly watching Charlie's finger biting skills, so naturally I stumble across Joey Graceffa and it appears that he's written a book no less!
I identified with a lot of what Joey has written about - less so with his family life, but definitely with the other aspects mentioned - the bullying and loneliness, his personal life issues and dating life, to perhaps the most drastic tactic of uprooting yourself and going on a journey to follow a passion as I'm doing that soon! It did feel at times like I could have written parts of this myself, which is scary...
Though the chapters do end with some life advice clearly aimed at people (dare I say a generation) much younger than myself, apparently autobiographies by people who produce online videos do work because I finished reading it within a week.
The message we're to take away from this is that it's not about where you begin or where you've come from but about where you end up.
To quote Joey himself: “If you don't spread your wings you won't discover how far you can fly.”
