Absolutely stunning book about Michelle's journey with her own body and becoming self loving. The book completely envelopes you into her life story and how her health problems have only lead her to becoming more self accepting and inspired her to fight against the world's unrealistic beauty standards. Inspirational, raw and honest.

Am I Ugly? by Michelle Elman is a memoir about illness and body positivity and dealing with physical and emotional scars.

Michelle Elman has had a long road to accepting her body, and all that she’s been through with it. From the time she was a small child, Elman has had to go through a large amount of surgeries, and this continued into her early teens and again in her college years. Through it all, Elman had to struggle to accept her body, her scars and allowing herself to believe others could like her just the way she was.

This was an enjoyable read for me - most part because of Elman’s relatable writing style, and her great sense of humour that definitely shone throughout the writing. One of the weird reasons I enjoyed the first half of this book immensely is also because Elman spent a large part of her childhood in boarding school, and I lobe hearing about life in boarding schools!

Elman’s ability to tell her story despite how obviously difficult it must be for her- explaining the amount of PTSD she suffered because of the amount of trauma she had to suffer because of her ill-health - is really awe-inspiring and she seems like an amazing person.

I’m not a follower of Elman’s body positivity accounts (though I will be now) and I found this book more on the side of self-acceptance thorough health issues and scars of the body positivity sphere more so on the fat positive side - though Elman does dive into loving your fat body near the end. I felt by the time we got to the fat positive side of the story, the book was almost over and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Elman eventually brings out another book about being fat and proud because I feel like she could talk a lot more about it. This book just focused more so on her health and scars, and her childhood.

I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions whilst reading this memoir by Michelle Elman. A story of immense courage and resilience, but the author wasn't afraid to show the other side of chronic illness - the anger, the tears, the 'why me?'. Her bewilderment at returning to school and her classmates being not one whit interested in what had happened, and her initial worry about how her scars would be judged, were two instances which really struck a chord. Anyone who has lived with a chronic health condition from a young age should read this book. You're not alone.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Head of Zeus, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

This is the book anyone with a chronic illness has been waiting for. It describes not only personal pain that, for some, made me hard to explain, it allows people to feel a little less alone.

As some of my recent posts have indicated, I have a bit of a body positivity journey under way. So, when I noticed that Net Galley had Michelle Elman's book available, I had to request it right away, and thank goodness the request was accepted.

It's easy to think about body positivity as entirely about weight and fatness, but of course that's not true. It's about any characteristic that your body might have, and Michelle's book is an excellent reminder of that as the central characteristic being discussed is scars as a result of multiple operations across her life.

Her story is amazing, and thought-provoking, and honestly, one I'm not sure I could have come out of so positively, and I'm enormously impressed by her for having done so.

Of course, it also gave plenty to think about. How our early experiences in life can impact us later on. How hard it can be to share the most vulnerable part of our histories with new people - and how amazing when they are simply accepted. The people you meet in life who manage to completely change your outlook.

And how has this book impacted my own body positivity thinking? It's given some wonderful insight into body positivity beyond weight/fatness. It's one thing to intellectually understand that body positivity isn't just about being fat in a thin obsessed world, but it's another to actually read about what that looks like for someone else, which is important, and wonderful. Because really, body positivity is about being "real" (read, whatever you are) in a world obsessed with a perfection that does not actually exist, whether we're talking body shape, colour, texture, ability etc etc etc.

It also gave me a bit of a boost to continue with my anti-diet stance at a time when I have some health things going on that every statistic available says would be improved if I weighed less. And I'm prepared to believe it, but I'm holding tight to the notion that effectively starving myself is not going to improve any health indicator beyond my weight - and that only temporarily. If I happen to lose weight by listening to my body, then awesome, if not, then I need to trust my body that this is where it needs to be right now. Which is hard. But I'm determined.

Michelle's book really reminded me too how important it is to trust friends and family. Sometimes they can't or won't give us the exact support we need, but sometimes they will surprise us, and when dealing with your relationship with your body, remembering that people love us, even if we can't always love ourselves, is a big deal.

I have a suspicion that this is a book I'll come back to, that will bubble around in my brain and continue to make me think and reflect. Which I love! In the meantime, I highly, highly recommend this book. It comes out on the 12th of July 2018. WHSmith have signed copies. This book is one I'll need a physical copy of, and so I'll be getting one for myself!

I absolutely devoured Am I Ugly in two sittings over 24 hours. It is the definition of powerful and un put downable!

Michelle tells her story from age 11 onwards of how she suffered multiple illnesses and underwent several surgeries throughout her life. Intertwined with her experience at boarding school (which I always find fascinating) and then on to her uni years. Michelle is such a strong and powerful woman in the bopo movement and has inspired and encouraged me immensely.

I highly recommend this book and will be purchasing it for myself and our teen library!

I was hooked to story straight away. It is both a heartbreaking story and yet its inspirational all in one. I’m in total awe of Michelle Elman and her journey through her illness and how she dealt with all the obstacles that she came across. Also how she over came adversity.
This book for me teaches about lessons in life and how to learn from our life experiences.
I shall be following Michelle journey through social media.