In fact, she writes, that’s what her husband, Josh, says when she worries about how people judge her choices: “Who cares?” So she decided not to care, she writes, ending the chapter. In the end, Naomi says, she solved this problem by just deciding she doesn't care what people think. I would have loved to hear more about how Naomi felt preparing for studying at Juilliard her whole life, only to realize maybe that it wasn’t fulfilling all along (she alludes to feeling “burnout” from dance, but doesn’t elaborate). She explains how judged she felt (she was apparently told multiple times she was the only woman to ever get married in the middle of the prestigious dance program) by professors who thought she was throwing all her hard work and talent away. Take one chapter, entitled “She’s Getting Married.” In it, Naomi describes the judgment and reactions she faced from her peers and teachers at Juilliard when, at age 20 and in the middle of studies for her dance degree, she decided to get married. However, once she introduces them, she essentially cuts herself off from finishing the thought, abruptly ending each chapter with some version of “You can do it, mama!” or “Then I learned to believe in myself!” or another platitude. The most maddening part is that Naomi actually does have good ideas for each chapter, and she explores some interesting topics. The chapters are extremely short, barely a dozen pages long each, and the content is similarly sparse. Rather than get real and vulnerable with her readers, Naomi glosses over her life and feelings to such an extent that it genuinely leaves me confused as to who this book is for. I am pretty disappointed in what the book actually contains. I was excited to see what Naomi would share, in a memoir that promised to contain “all-new intimate and vulnerable essays” about her personal life. Influencer memoirs are rare, and few have revealed in detail what it is actually like to make your family into a brand that can support all of you financially. Besides that though, I also had hoped to get insight into Naomi’s life as an OG blogger. Many followers, myself included, wondered if Naomi would use the book, published about a year later, to offer insight and reflection on this incident. The family has since relocated to Arizona, a huge change for a mom who once made living in Manhattan a core part of her brand, but Naomi has never fully explained that decision either. Not only did her choice, and subsequent sharing on social media, enrage some of her fans, but it also caught the attention of mainstream media like the New York Post, which called her a “runaway blogger.” Besides a brief apology at the time, Naomi has never addressed the incident or the impact it has had on her public perception and career. Last March, Naomi got branded, fairly or unfairly, as a selfish and out-of-touch example of everything wrong with influencer culture when she and her family left New York City in the middle of the city’s intensely scary COVID-19 outbreak. Not only have I followed Naomi and her career for years (she started blogging in 2007), but I also extensively covered one of the biggest hurdles she has had to overcome. I had anticipated reading this book for months. Unfortunately, the book is only surface-level, with so little insight into Naomi’s actual life that I am struggling to understand why she wrote it in the first place. In her newly released first book A Coat of Yellow Paint, Naomi Davis, aka the wildly popular parenting blogger Taza, had a huge chance to show readers a different side of herself and get real about what it is really like raising five kids under the scrutiny of social media.
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