Rachel Hollis, author of ‘Girl, Wash Your Face,’ compared herself to Harriett Tubman

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Rachel Hollis is a self help author, influencer and motivational speaker. Several of her books, including Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing, are bestsellers. I tried to read Girl, Stop Apologizing and found it preachy and self obsessed without being interesting or useful. Rachel has a podcast all about becoming your best self or something. My physical therapist recommended it, and I’ve never listened to it. While researching for this story, I found an article in Buzzfeed that summed up my issues with Rachel’s book and her branding. She tells women to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps without recognizing her privilege as a CIS white woman. Her message is targeted to middle class straight white women and completely ignores the circumstances of women of color and women without safety nets. This is white non-intersectional “feminism” and it discounts the experiences of women who don’t fit that mold. (For more on white feminism, read Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall.)

Well Rachel recently hammered that point home in an obnoxious video rant on Instagram defending herself against being “unrelatable.” She made this six days ago, including a caption mentioning women in history like Frida Kahlo, Malala Yousafzai, and Harriet Tubman as similarly “unrelatable” like she is. The backstory is that a commenter called her “privileged AF.” Rachel defended herself, writing that she works hard. In response that person called Rachel “unrelatable.” Then Rachel went on a rant, which she left up for over five days. She deleted it sometime between last night when I last checked and this morning. It’s posted below and here’s a transcript in case you don’t want to listen. It was only a minute but it was painful to watch. (I would say you owe me but Kaiser watched the whole Piers Morgan interview.)

I was doing a livestream and I mentioned there was this sweet woman who comes twice a week to my house and cleans. She’s my housecleaner, she cleans the toilets. Someone commented and said “you are privileged AF.” You’re right, I’m super freaking privileged but also, I work my ass off to have the money to have someone come twice a week to come and clean my toilets.

And then she said “you’re unrelatable.” What is it about me that made you think I want to be relatable? No, sis, literally everything I do in my life is to live a life that most people can’t relate to. Most people won’t work this hard. Most people won’t get up at 4 a.m. Most people won’t fail publicly again and again just to reach the top of the mountain. Literally, every woman I admire in history was unrelatable. If my life is relatable to most people, I’m doing it wrong.

[From Instagram via Twitter]

Wow, she just said “sis” and gave an obnoxious lecture that’s almost textbook white woman bullsh-t. She did eventually delete this, but it took her over five days and so many outlets picked it up in the mean time. She’s also not responding to very valid criticism of what she’s saying. She may work hard but so does her cleaning person! Her cleaning person probably works harder than she does. What about the people waiting on her at the store or in a restaurant? They work their asses off too.

At first Rachel just wrote a follow up post saying this is who she is. That means she’s an a-hole who doubles down and doesn’t listen to women of color I guess. Here’s her weird follow up, which she posted sometime yesterday. She’s since deleted it.

What you find on my social feeds, is me. For better or worse, it’s all me. And because it’s me, what you’re seeing is sometimes great and sometimes the fumbling’s of being human.

Because it’s me, and not a perfectly polished statement written by a publicist, I’m going to get it wrong. But I’d rather get it wrong, and learn from it (painfully and publicly) then not show up at all.

I’m so disappointed in myself that I let y’all down. I’m so angry that I still haven’t learned this lesson. I’m going to get it at some point and unfortunately, you have a front row seat for how many times I’m going to make shitty mistakes along the way.

[From Instagram, now deleted]

Did she learn from this though? I don’t see where she said she understands her privilege or that she needs to sit and listen. She’s just saying she’s moved on already.

After all that she posted a follow up saying she’s sorry. It’s finally sort of OK, but the fact that it took her so long says volumes.

Luvvie Ajayi Jones made some comments on Rachel’s now deleted posts. She sums this up better than I can.

Comments on original post:
luvvie: This should have been deleted yesterday. The level of tone deafness is off the charts and to see that comments are being deleted is really ridiculous. Rachel, you have to do better.

luvvie: I just came back to say WOW. It’s really been 4 days since this has been up. And Rachel is posting IG stories, not addressing this. The audacity is what is most stunning. We all fail from time to time but to do this type of harm and stand in it. Mannn… the audacity of caucasity is really real. ALLTheYIKES

Comments on follow-up non-apology:
luvvie: Rachel, I’m astounded that you missed the point so hard. I’m actually shocked that 5 days went by and you still don’t understand why what you said was so deeply problematic. If you will invoke my name, at least do the work of understanding why you failed loudly and why you have to take accountability. But here you are blaming your team. This lacks integrity and is shameful.

luvvie: A lot of you are now following me because of my comments here (and because Rachel tagged me). My audience is full of THOUGHTFUL GROWNUPS who can be challenged and have tough conversations. If this is not you, do not follow me or bring fragility to my side of the internet.

[From Instagram Comments]

The responses to Luvvie’s comments were typical of the particular kind of white woman that Rachel markets to. They involved things like “thanks you’re proving her point” and “what does color have to do with it?” Rachel hasn’t changed, she just finally realized she was jeopardizing her brand. Now everyone has seen exactly who she is.

Here’s her post:

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124 Responses to “Rachel Hollis, author of ‘Girl, Wash Your Face,’ compared herself to Harriett Tubman”

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  1. Rapunzel says:

    Girl, get a brain.

    • Em says:

      This is all painful. I will never support her again and will publicly stand against her should she ever be mentioned near me. What a tart. Who does she think she is? The books were garbage and she is no one to be offering life advice. She’s unrelatable because few of us can not relate to someone so clueless.

    • Concern Fae says:

      She got her start working for Harvey Weinstein. Why should anyone listen to her after that?

      • Exactly says:

        @Concern Fae, Are you serious????!!!! No wonder I threw that book away as soon as it was gifted to me! I could sense the ignorance a mile away!

  2. Chris says:

    What a sack of shit. My cousin drinks her kool-aid and tried to get me to. Hard pass. I don’t get how people fall for this but I guess it speaks to a very particular kind of person who is clueless about how the world works and won’t question this woman and her tone deaf beliefs.

  3. Linabear says:

    Isn’t this woman well known for having plagiarized much of the content in her best sellers? Can’t say I’m surprised by her actions.

    • osito says:

      Yep, and posted a whole line of a Maya Angelou poem without a single line of credit or attribution as though no one would notice. She blamed that stunningly brazen act of intellectual thievery on her “team,” just as she recently tried to do with her current scandal. This woman is a real piece of work.

    • MissMarierose says:

      Yes. And someone pointed out that the list of women she was comparing herself to (like Harriet Tubman etc) all come from a book about extraordinary women written by HRC and Chelsea Clinton.
      So, even in her little privileged rant, she was still plagiarizing.

      • Mac says:

        A good life rule is to never compare yourself to someone who has schools and buildings named after them.

      • Kebbie says:

        @Mac This is so funny to me. That *anyone* would think to compare themselves favorably to these icons and revolutionary historical figures 😅

        Who has this woman surrounded herself with to not immediately be told she’s a moron for saying such a thing?!

    • Pixelated says:

      I mean…she speaks at MLM conventions. That’s her crowd *boss babe*

  4. Andrea says:

    She is a despicable human being. The manner in which she said toilet like it was somehow work beneath her. She is rotten to the core. I feel badly for the individual who has to go into her home and clean up after her. I also want to remind everyone: “There’s no shame in an honest days work.”

    • Original Jenns says:

      This exactly. The woman who has a job in house cleaning and is paid by you to do it, is reduced to the woman who cleans my toilets. Literally a sh!t job. That tells me everything I need to know about a person.

      And yes, she was called out for using so many quotes without citation and then whined that she just didn’t know where they came from.

    • Hellohello says:

      I first learned about her last week when @nowhitesaviors took her to task on Instagram over this rant of hers. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNS5M6eMxXW/

      Despicable is the perfect word to describe her. Such a perfect storm of racist, classist self-righteousness. I hope the person who cleans her toilets gets 100 new job offers and leaves her sorry ass.

    • paranormalgirl says:

      Right? I have a “housekeeper,” Rose, who comes in once a week to undo the mess I made trying to keep my house presentable. She is exalted in my world. She is a goddess and must be treated with all manner of respect. She is a hard working woman who deserves every good thing that comes her way. She is more than the woman who “cleans my toilets.” She is an amazing woman. She makes my life more manageable. And yes, I have privilege to be able to afford to hire assistance. But I also have the privilege of knowing Rose. And that makes me lucky, as well.

      • Izzy says:

        AMEN. Every time my housekeeper says I’m running low on something I am all “tell me what you need, you’re in charge.” My housekeeper holds an exalted position here. It requires enormous trust. My dog ADORES her and that tells me everything I need to know. Pets know these things.

      • Green Desert says:

        So well-said, @paranormalgirl and @Izzy. Thanks for sharing these words.

    • I'm With The Band says:

      Even the way she described her cleaner as a “sweet” woman was condescending AF.

  5. Becks1 says:

    Ahhhhh I was wondering who Luvvie was talking about. This seems about right for Rachel based on the book Girl Wash Your Face (I read it and thought it was a huge waste of time, ha.) Luvvie’s Do Better was good though (I have her Professional Troublemaker on my TBR pile.) I also really recommend Hood Feminism, the poster bluesky on here recommended it to me maybe early summer last year? and I found it very interesting and enlightening, as a white woman who has always identified as a feminist.

    Anyway, I like that Luvvie called her out on her audacity and tone-deafness. HOW on earth do you compare yourself to someone like HARRIET TUBMAN. I mean…..I just can’t. And I also hate the whole “I’m successful because I work hard and get up at 4 am.” Lots of people do that. And they still worry about paying the rent.

    • BlueSky says:

      I’m glad you enjoyed the book! Luvvie also has a podcast called Professional troublemaker.
      I saw this story on her timeline and people were accusing her of bullying this poor white woman and basically saying it was her job to educate her. FOH.

  6. Doodle says:

    Ummmm lots of people work that hard, but lots of people aren’t given the same upper class white woman opportunities she has gotten. Her being bitchy about it to a bunch of strangers on the internet isn’t going to make me want to buy her books, it’s just going to make her privilege shine that much brighter.

    • June-O says:

      That’s exactly the point. She should have just stopped at admitting she is privileged. She thinks that her success and ability to hire a housecleaner is a result of “working hard”, but her housecleaner works her ass off and could probably not afford to pay someone to clean her house twice a week. Hard work ≠ privilege. That myth needs to die.

  7. Izzy says:

    First, bish, sit ALL THE WAY DOWN. I also have a housekeeper. I work hard, I get up early. In no way am I like Harriet Tubman. WT actual F even is that???

    Second, what the hell happened to her eyebrows in that video???

  8. girl_ninja says:

    “Cleans my toilets”, “sis” and the “If my life is relatable to most people, I’m doing it wrong.” was all so nauseatingly arrogant. She has done nothing in her life to advance the lives of others. She is a whyte christian grifter and should go away for-EVER.

    • Annaloo. says:

      And THIS is why I also love TikTok. The dragging is exquisite there too, and Gen Z does not put up with or excuse any bad behavior from entitled or racist people, and they do it fast. Rachel Hollis and what she said seemingly spawned a week’s worth of response of tiktoks dragging her to the level of filth she is. Both platforms had rightfully dragged her by calling out her arrogance. Goop just joined, and I have a feeling, there’s going to be a Gen Z drag on her too. They’re already telling her that she’s not welcome. No one wants to hear about privilege on that app. No one. The kids are alright.

    • Lemon says:

      The classism in “clean my toilets” made me barf.

      First, there’s an assumption that it’s a “beneath me” job when in fact 1) it’s an honest job 2) people of different backgrounds clean toilets. It’s an easy, flexible job.

      My middle class mother in law does (did: covid) housecleaning in retirement. They have decent retirement money, she just enjoys getting out and likes her clients.

      I was a custodian in college and the cleaners were 1) college kids 3) working class, some single moms some immigrants 4) temps, usually taking a second job to pay debts. They were a ethnically diverse bunch. For some it was a full time job with benefits.

      I would say all if those people were pretty boot-strappy, they didn’t need to be told to wash their faces by a life-coach influencer 🙄 Many were taking classes or working on their lives in some way, or just providing health insurance for their kids.

    • Coo Coo Catchoo says:

      Please, white women – stop throwing “girl” and “sis” around. Throughout the history of this country, white people have called black women “girl” as a way to demean them. “Sis” is a term of endearment that signifies a shared experience among members of the black community. We white people need to stop co-opting these words – they carry generations of emotional meaning that we can’t and will never fully understand.

      • Anna says:

        This x 100000 @Coo Coo I spoke to this further down the thread. Agreed 100% This is needs to stop. No “girl”, no “sis”. Just stop it, white women.

  9. Liz version 700 says:

    Someone has started believing her own PR. Not a great hill to die on “Sis”

  10. Case says:

    I don’t follow this woman on social media because I listened to the audiobook for “Girl, Wash Your Face” thinking it would be cute and I ended it thinking she was a terrible, judgmental person who had no business writing self-help books. Honestly, I’m not sure why most self-help authors feel they’re qualified. It seems so obnoxious to me unless you’ve studied/researched something that can help improve people’s lives. I don’t want anecdotal self-help nonsense.

    But I did see the drama from this, and WOW. One, it’s hilarious that she says she’s TRYING to live a life that’s “unrelatable” when her whole damn brand is getting middle-class white women to relate to her. That’s really the route she wants to take? Two, and I know I don’t need to say this here, but there are SO MANY PEOPLE who work hard their entire lives and never see even a quarter of the wealth Rachel has. No Rachel, nobody gives a sh!t that you have a cleaning person. We care that you think you’re better and work harder than other people because you can afford to pay one, though. We care that you think being a glorified mom blogger makes you Harriet Tubman (which she later denied, saying ‘oh no I’m not comparing myself to those women’ but she WAS. Gaslighting, oh my!).

    Somehow, her “apology” was even worse than the original post.

    • Keats says:

      Same! I think it was maybe a free Audible download, and I kind of like self help books to have on in the background.
      That being said, her whole thing reeks of prosperity gospel nonsense. Very “Jesus wants you to have nice things” which offends me on a cellular level and is also just wildly vapid. So yeah. Definitely overpaid despite the free price tag.

    • Betsy says:

      I wouldn’t mind reading more “self help” biographies from people, just average people and how they dealt with situations, their philosophy on life, eating, charity, faith…. I would really love to read a well-edited book like that.

      I would not like to read too positivity from someone who has the white privilege, doesn’t understand that, and has no empathy.

  11. Erin says:

    While everything she says is problematic, obnoxious and tone deaf, the fact that she repeatedly say “cleans my toilets” rubs be the completely wrong way. It’s so f*cking demeaning. She could just I have a housekeeper. The fact that she intentionally and specifically brings up cleaning the toilets reeks of *ssholeness.

    • Jenns says:

      Exactly. Her choice of words are deliberate. This woman is helping her run her household and yet Rachel dismisses her and her work by referring to her as the toilet cleaner.

    • Abby says:

      I hated that the most of her entire rant. I had never even heard of her before today, but now I think she’s horrible, whoever she is.

    • paranormalgirl says:

      That was the part that chafed my tush as well. We ALL have to get out the brush and scrubbing bubbles at some point in our lives. Build a bridge and get over yourself, “girl.”

    • Turtledove says:

      Honestly, preCovid I had housekeepers. They were a married couple that came 2x a month and cleaned every inch of my small house to perfection. I work full time with what can at times be a 3 hour round trip commute and I really like a very clean house. I don’t mind cleaning, but I have a family and trying to keep my house spotless with my work schedule took a lot of time away from them. So this hire was the ultimate luxury for me. I didn’t hire them because cleaning was beneath me, I hired them because the alternative was me taking up an entire weekend day to do a job that wasn’t as good as theirs. Anyway, the reason I am posting? The days they were due to come, I always did a quick clean up of the toilet myself. i wonder what Rachel would think of that.

      • Erin says:

        I’m aware I sound like a privileged a-hole right now. I never realized how lucky I had it. Until the age or 16, my sister and I were in charge of cleaning the house and doing the yard. After that, my dad got a promotion and we were able to hire a housekeeper. I loved her and considered her family. I still send her Christmas cards (20 years later). However, I have no idea how she would categorize the relationship. That makes me sad that I never thought of it during the time.

        Anyway, not once would I ever describe what she did for my family as “cleaning toilets.” She made it possible for my mom to take care of her dying parents, my dad to focus on his career and for us to focus on school, extra curricular activities, applying for college, etc .

        Again.. I now recognize our privilege, but none of us would have been where we were without her. So, f*cking saying the cleaning toilets comment, just p*sses me right off

  12. OriginalLala says:

    Can influencer culture die with COVID? they are so entitled, nearly always white cis-women, deeply unintelligent and ignorant. It’s painful.

  13. Frida_K says:

    I really dislike it when adult female persons call themselves “Girl.” I’m not a girl. I am a fully-fledged adult WOMAN.

    The infantilizing “girl” is bad enough, but it’s even worse when it’s a white woman who is trying to be edgy and co-opt the way Black women may use this word. In Spanish, the equivalent is “nena” (so you maybe say, “Ay, nena…” for “Gurrrrl” kind of thing, depending on context). But for this one, such as “Girl, wash your face” it seems an uncomfortable conflation of infantilizing and trying to be “edgy” with her “slang.”

    I don’t like it. But I don’t relate to boring güeras like this one, either. Yes, she is “unrelatable.” Just not for the reasons she imagines, but yes, she is that.

    • osito says:

      “But I don’t relate to boring güeras like this one, either.”

      Um…can we be friends? Honestly, this made me giggle snort.

  14. Phillyperson says:

    There was something so utterly unsettling in the tone she used in the video that can’t be conveyed in text. Contempt layered with hate and vitriol. It will haunt me for months!! I hope she gets the help she needs away from the public eye and may we not hear from her for a very very long time.

    • Hell Nah! says:

      100% Amen!

    • Elo says:

      YES!
      It was unsettling. The vitriol and contempt in her eyes when she says – “What about me makes you think I want to be relateable.” honestly chilled me.
      I was so bothered by the toilet cleaning remarks – I’ve cleaned, my mom cleaned. It was offensive, classist, and could definitely be considered racist too, but it didn’t chill me like the look on her face when she was talking about being relatable. It was hatred on her face.
      “Girl” has some deep-seated issues.

  15. salmonpuff says:

    I listened to 20 minutes of the audiobook for Girl, Wash Your Face on a friend’s recommendation, and was appalled (and re-thinking my friendship!). I grew up in a wealthy white suburb, and I can see this schtick coming a mile away. This lady is a prosperity gospel grifter. I am fairly confident the only thing she’s learned from this episode is that the rest of us are big fat whiners who are just jelly of all her hard work and success.

  16. Water Bearer 💧 says:

    This is exhausting. What people don’t get about privilege is that without it your life would be harder.

    You know being white, cis, female and middle class might have given her some advantages in achieving success in America. That doesn’t mean she didn’t work hard but she would be in denial if she thinks it didn’t make it easier for her to succeed.

    • osito says:

      Beyond an upbringing which she tries to make sound really lean, but in fact seems more average than anything, she began dating and then married a *Disney executive* as a really young woman. I’m not mentioning that to say she didn’t work hard to build her business — I’m sure she did. But she had the *luxury* to build a business while not having to choose between her business and paying rent, or feeding her children, or working two other jobs to fund the earliest, non-profitable days of said business. If that isn’t the definition of privilege, I don’t know what is.

  17. chimes@midnight says:

    Just want to say that the whole “I geT uP at FouR AM” is such a weird flex. Like, a mom who gets up at 4am to poop in peace and take a shower before getting the kids up (or a Dad doing the same), or someone who actually has a shift starting at 4am is one thing. But rich self-employed people bragging that they work so hard they *have* to get up at 4 am?….. work smarter, not harder.

    • mellie says:

      No $hit, my husband and I raised 3 girls and we marvel at the people on social media these days who act like they are out there killing themselves because they are making dinner and taking care of their own kids at the same time….wow, yeah, it’s hard, but you’ve got this…..put down the phone, my God.

    • Mle428 says:

      I get up at 4am to read Celebitchy (West Coast) and have my coffee in peace before my 4yo gets up anywhere between 5am and 630. No sleeping in here.

  18. lucky says:

    I will say that, perhaps an unpopular opinion, the amount of TIME it takes someone to have something sink in is not a demerit for me. We all take different amounts of time to understand different things in life, and the important part is that we get there, not how quickly we get there. I am not directing this completely to this story (although it is a point you made, so it does apply), but overall ‘we’ want this immediate and perfect mea culpa, but the reality of how our brains and bodies work in stressful situations is that to truly understand, engage, and be open, it takes time, and they shouldn’t be something we hold against someone.

    • Case says:

      I understand what you’re saying. But I think part of the problem is that in the original video she was like “what, is it a problem that someone cleans my house?” and people explained in great detail how she was missing the point. And then in her apology she comes back with “what, is it a problem that someone cleans my house?” I understand that not everyone “gets it” right away, but she took no time to actually absorb the feedback she was getting. All the comments rightly pointed out the issues with what happened and she ignored all of it, acting like she’s being accosted for having a housekeeper.

      • lucky says:

        totally agree on that, which is why it doesn’t apply to all parts of this story, but the idea that it takes some 5 days to reflect (and that is a negative) is what is problematic for me. If someone (not her specifically) falls of the radar for a week/month people often seem to villainize them for not getting it ‘right’ immediately, and that is what I am trying to get at.

      • Grey says:

        @Lucky, I see the point you are trying to make and I think in most situations it is very important to think about that. If I understand with Rachel though, this is not the first time that she has so publicly erred and I would think that at this point, she would have a better understanding of how to stay away from acting this way, or would have a better understanding of how to own up to something that was done wrong.

      • Case says:

        @Lucky I definitely agree with that. In a lot of cases, the internet is so ridiculously unforgiving and expects people to have all the answers right away.

    • lucky says:

      also, to be clear, this woman seems like an a-hole. I am speaking more generally although if she genuinely goes away, reflects and comes back a better person, then good on her.

    • MissMarierose says:

      Yeah, but the video rant we’re talking about is itself a response to a prior criticism from a commenter.

      She didn’t reflect on the commenter’s criticism at all and instead doubled down with this privileged crap about her housecleaner and Harriet Tubman.

      Then she showed no real reflection in her “apology” statement 5 days later.

      This isn’t a matter of being to slow to catch on. She’s just an a**hole.

      • Sarah says:

        It’s also not the first, or even the tenth time this has happened with her specifically. She’s just an asshole.

    • salmonpuff says:

      I agree with you 100% and hate the way Internet outrage culture gives people 5 minutes to learn things that often take years of deprogramming. We could stand to give people more grace>

      This lady, though, has made this mistake repeatedly for years. In fact, she’s made a boatload of money perpetuating this mistake to a segment of the white middle class that is desperate to NOT learn. I hope she does pipe down and do the work, but I’m not holding my breath.

  19. Sandy says:

    Rachel Hollis married a Disney Executive – I am certain that contributed to her success, but she never mentions it. Must hurt the grift.

    • Midge says:

      Because of course.

    • FYI says:

      They are now divorced.

      • Lucy says:

        And her ex went Instagram official with an age appropriate fitness model who has for kids of her own on Valentine’s day. I don’t know when their divorce went through, and she apparently was the one who asked for it, but that has to sting.
        That said, I followed this over the weekend because watching social media drama and consequences is so entertaining to me. I’ve never read her stuff or listened to anything prior, she seemed icky before it got confirmed.
        Off to go see her second apology attempt.

  20. Layla Beans says:

    Is she the one who also shilled her great marriage into some books and works the MLM speaking circuit?

    • Chris says:

      Yupppppp. She’s been problematic since go. Somehow she’s qualified to give marriage and life advice? With so many upper class white people selling self-help, there is zero self awareness in their privilege and resources. I think it’s a general problem with that population where someone thinks a tiny amount of experience makes them an expert. I tried to read that chrissy teigen endorsed book on quitting drinking for women and it was not great. It was clear that the author was new agey and blind to the lack of resources many women have. She also cites juice cleanses which have been disproven by health experts. She leans against the concept of addiction as a biological issue.

  21. Onomo says:

    Hope her books are used as toilet paper honestly.

  22. Nina Simone says:

    I don’t know. I have an unpopular opinion but hear me out. If Rachel, as a white woman doesnt feel like her brand intersects and should intersect with mom white cis women, then I am fine with that. Of course it is her arrogance and ignorance in after she’s called out that is the issue here. However, I as a black woman choose to support and participate with brands that see me, that include me, that uplift me. Rachel’s doesn’t. And I accept that. I’m just at a point where I can’t even expend them energy dealing with the Rachel’s of the world. If she wants to be exclusionary, fine. Let her deal with the consequences. But why push for it when she clearly doesn’t want it?

    • Goldie says:

      I get what you’re saying. I’m a woman of color and read one of her books. I thought it was ok, but I never followed her on social media or listened to her podcasts etc., because I didn’t feel that her community was for me. And that was fine.
      I think the issue here though, is that she spoke about her housekeeper in such a dehumanizing way. AND she actually pissed off a lot of her white fan-base. Most of them are just middle-class women who are not nearly as affluent as her, and she basically stated that they weren’t working hard enough. That’s probably the main reason why she apologized. It was also incredibly arrogant and tone-deaf to compare herself to women like Harriet Tubman. The whole thing was just a gigantic mess, and she kept making it worse.

      • Sam the Pink says:

        People forget that housekeeping and cleaning, up until fairly recently, were often professions done by lower to middle class white women (my grandmother did it for years), including huge numbers of immigrants – Irish, Italian, etc. Even her fan base of white women took umbrage at it because many of them likely have a mother or grandmother who did it at one point. Crapping on domestic workers is a terrible look for anybody, but she really, really did not read her audience in this case.

      • Elizabeth says:

        Sam, domestic workers in the past were often women of color especially Black women. I understand a lot of white women of lower socioeconomic status worked in that profession as well. But there’s a very long history of women of color in this country performing domestic labor dating back to the times of slavery.

    • MissMarierose says:

      Because allowing her to wallow in her privilege tells other white women that it’s ok to be a Karen and that, in the end, is what will cause real harm out in the world. Harm that Hollis will never see as she lounges in her gated-community bubble.

  23. Amelie says:

    I actually thought this article was about Kristin Cavallari in the thumbnail picture until I read the title. Never heard of Rachel Hollis but I really detest self-help/lifestyle gurus and find very few people who are in that space helpful. I don’t hate all influencers, I follow a bunch of ASMR people on Instagram that I watch on Youtube and Yoga with Adrienne and some cooking blog people. But i don’t follow people like Rachel Hollis or Liz Gilbert and I never will. The fact that Liz Gilbert starts her Facebook posts with “Dear Ones” is so grating to me I can’t even get through the rest of it lol. And I may be white but I am not surprised to see someone like Rachel Hollis completely misunderstand her white privilege and how no, not everyone can do what she does.

  24. Kalana says:

    “You had good choices.”

    If only the -I wake up at 4 am!- people would admit this because it’s not like we can’t see it.

  25. Midge says:

    Having a housekeeper is a completely normal way of life in many parts of the world and not necessarily a measure of success or wealth or privilege. In Central America, the cost is about $20 and the work is an honest day’s work and not reduced to “cleaning my toilet”.

    Rachel fails to realize that most working class people probably work harder than her and for much, much less pay. She fails to see that people do backbreaking, low paying work. She’s such an asshole. Could not believe she thought that rant made her look good and left it up for so long. I know so many women like her in NY, and men, who work “hard” as in long hours, and truly think they deserve every penny of their inflated, overpaid, overvalued work – very wealthy people who do not understand the role that privilege, background, and luck played in their lives. Born on 3rd base and think they hit a home run.

  26. ChloeCat says:

    OMG, not only is she a garbage person but she is really hard to look at! What is going on with those eyebrows & those horse teeth? Girl, Mr. Ed called, he wants his teeth back!

  27. Charissa says:

    She’s not sorry about anything but being spotlighted for being awful.

  28. Celia456 says:

    She’s working that nonsensical myth of US being a level-playing-field meritocracy where hard work always leads to success. It’s a terrible myth that allows privileged people to believe they deserve all they have, and ignore (or worse, exploit) poor and disenfranchised people who “must be lazy.”

  29. Lemons says:

    I just want ugly on the inside people to stop influencing. I want to hear more from Rachel’s housekeeper and less about how hard Rachel works. Clearly, she feels she works TOO hard to clean toilets, so she can leave that type of work to someone else.

    We need different, more compassionate voices influencing us. We need less people preaching about how hard work equals wealth, and more about how living a fulfilling life should not be defined by a salary or a job or babies, etc. When there is so much material wealth in our country alone, there should be no talk of working hard to get rich which, for many, is working hard for survival. We need new voices, y’all.

    • Mabs A'Mabbin says:

      Hear hear.

      Somebody locate her housekeeper’s online venue of choice. It’s past time. Let’s start giving attention to those who actually deserve it.

  30. Gah says:

    Yikes I always hated the title of her book but that Instagram rant was objectively terrible. She seems like an angry sad person who got in trouble publicly and can’t take it.

    Run away!!

  31. Sam the Pink says:

    She is acting like everything is a personal attack, when it is not. One of my friends is a hard-working attorney and her husband is a judge. They put in serious hard work and are proud of what they do. They also have a cleaning person, use a meal service, a landscaper, child care, etc. None of those things diminish their own hard work. The difference is that both of them openly acknowledge that if they did not have that help, they could not have the careers that they do. It’s all inter-related – there’s a whole sector of the economy that props up another sector. Rachael is not getting criticized for hiring a cleaning person – hell, I’m sure the cleaning person is thrilled to be employed. As long as Rachael pays her a fair wage, that’s not something I critique. The problem is that Rachael can’t recognize that 1.) being able to pay for that puts her in a position most women are not and 2.) that woman enables Rachael to have the career she wants.

    • Lemons says:

      This! There’s nothing wrong with getting help. Just recognize you are getting help. If your audience is people who can’t get the same help, tailor your message and be clear that YOU are privileged enough to have the extra hands that frees up her time to do her #girlboss thing or w/e. And thank them for doing all of that! Not just “she cleans my toilets” which equals “she cleans my sh–t”

  32. Cerise says:

    Girl, STFU and take a seat

  33. Sarah says:

    The situation with this trash woman is wholly unsurprising.

    Hood Feminism is an excellent book to start interrogating your feminism and unpacking your privilege. I highly recommend it to all the white folks on this site.

  34. Giddy says:

    She doesn’t want to be relatable because she is a gold plated snob. In her mind, if we look at or listen to her and see any part of ourselves and relate to her, that’s a big AF problem. Because she’s special. She’s so damn special that she has the nerve to compare herself to Harriet Tubman. She believes that she is so far above us that she actually feels insulted at the thought that any of us might relate to her. All I can think is who wants to relate to this out of control snobbish, elitist, bitch?

  35. Kristen says:

    One of the many problems with white people like Rachel acknowledging or understanding their own privilege is that so many of us think that having privilege means we haven’t worked hard. Like, saying I am white and grew up in a wealthy home and was well-educated doesn’t mean I’m lazy. It means some pretty major parts of my life were far easier than major parts of other people’s lives; I had fewer obstacles to overcome, and the obstacles I did encounter weren’t due to my skin color, family of origin, generational poverty, etc. I had a head start.

    Also, SHE IS VERY RELATABLE to other privileged white women. So her desire to not be relatable, to be this unique unicorn because she gets up at 4 AM is such bullshit. She has a brand because of her privileged relatability. Ugh, she’s just the worst.

  36. kat says:

    Rachel has really done a great job of talking around the fact that her former husband (Dave) was PRESIDENT of Theatrical Distribution at Walt Disney Studios(!) before leaving to work on her brand full-time.

    So..sure she “works hard” – but she didn’t build this BS empire from scratch. The obvious $$ and connections they had are conveniently omitted from ALL of her explanations and origin stories of her “RISE community”.

    And yes, I tried to read the first book and hated it.

    • Valerie says:

      What does she even “work hard” at, though? I know she has an Instagram account and has had a few books go out with her name on them. She probably outsources her IG captions too, like most other influencers. They put in very little work themselves and then put up a scheduled 6 AM post about the grind.

      The way I see it, she’s also taking a dig at her followers, who haven’t quite managed to reach her level of success. It’s very “thank you to all the little people” and “maybe one day, you’ll get there too!” So condescending.

      • Starkille says:

        She’s not “working hard” at anything. Loads of Americans seem to think that “hard work” = long hours, which is not the case. It can be—waking at 4 am to work a 12 hour day doing manual labour is hard work. Waking at 4 am to sit on your arse and post on Instagram for 12 hours is not hard work.

  37. Coji says:

    I really hate when successful people credit their success solely on working hard with the implication that everyone else is super lazy. Their inability to see the roll of privilege and blind luck in their success is stunningly arrogant. I am highly confident that none of them puts in more hard work than people working multiple jobs, relying on public transportation, sometimes while also going to school and/or raising a family.

    I read about a chapter of this twit’s book and recognized that she’s a self-satisfied bitch with her head do far up her own ass that she can see out of her esophagus.

    • Valerie says:

      LOL at the last sentence. And yeah, as I said above, I feel like that’s a big “fuck you” and a head-pat to her followers. How lucky they are that she condescends to speak to them, the lazy and unknown.

  38. Valerie says:

    I am so tired of this jar of mayo with a mouth. She’s right about one thing, though: She is really good at failing publicly!

  39. Chicken says:

    Yeah, she sounds like a privileged a-hole who’s not willing to center anything other than herself. Also, how does someone who doesn’t know the difference between “then”and “than” and who sticks unnecessary apostrophes into plurals have two bestsellers??

  40. Sarcasm101 says:

    Pretentious, millennial, white girls are the dumbest things on the planet. It’s embarrassing.

  41. ABritGuest says:

    The caucasity

  42. Dillesca says:

    I am waiting for someone on TikTok to come along and parody that ‘relatable’ bs.

  43. Susan says:

    I just cannot stand this woman. Her face, her voice, she just radiates conservative churchy negativity to me.

  44. Rise_Above says:

    Her tone reminded me of someone I used to see on a near daily basis (years ago) asking people in a class “So what do you think about this duck dynasty thing?” Before I could open my mouth she shushed me and loudly exclaimed “Yeah yeah we all know what you think. I want to know everyone else’s opinion”. That exchange was a master class in middle aged surface woke privileged af white woman feminism bs. Being the only poc in a sea of Caucasians it hit me then that I would always be diminished, shushed and otherized. This social media influencer has the exact same tone of voice, mannerisms, and an attitude that’s Caucasian levels of the art of the non apology, the in your face utter lack of decency when you’re unwilling to take responsibility for the shitty lacking the most basic self awareness person that you proudly pass for on social media or irl. These kinds of women double down because their peers enable and guard each other’s privilege and reward each other for “taking a stand”. A shitty stand but one that’s I’ve come to recognize as the hallmark of their very being. Now whenever I remotely sense anyone outing themselves out to be an a-hole, I run from them with a very simple “K, thanks, Bye!” which by the way is coded language for the white woman equivalent of you’re dismissed. Begone! 😂

  45. Faye G says:

    She’s always given me super bad vibes, so I have ignored her and her books. And now I know why. What a scumbag, these white women need to keep BIPOC names out of their mouths for real. SMDH.

  46. emu says:

    OOF that tone of voice. I could not listen to that. I hate these self-titled “entrepreneurs” who just hype all the time how HAARRDDD they work. Ugh. I will never read her books. She looks basic.

  47. Alexis says:

    Everything wrong with Rachel Hollis:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IxICfpi9IFg

  48. Joy says:

    First off I hate her guts and her liver and I have no clue what her appeal is. Secondly as someone who had cleaned toilets, she’s offensive all around. I 100% can tell you that her nonsense is just stuff she spews to basic B***h white ladies who also think their cleaning lady is beneath them. I don’t clean toilets any more, but doing it made me a better worker and better person.

  49. Anna says:

    Also, white women need to stop using the term “sis” or “girl” to anyone but each other. They fought in the early 70s for white feminism to stop being called “girl” amongst other things of course, but now use this term constantly to Black women in the workplace and otherwise. If I don’t know you, you don’t get to call me “sis” or “girl”. Only my closest Black girlfriends get that privilege. And some of you know the shock and horror that white women respond with when you tell them, please don’t call me girl, or I’m not your girl. I’ve even had an upper-level white cis male admin–my boss essentially–call me that in a large meeting and then completely cut me off from support once I gently suggested that I prefer not to have that term used in a professional environment. Even students used that term with me in class so now I include this when we do first-day introductions and discuss pronouns and preferred names. It doesn’t stop it–especially one in particular POC who practically screamed it at me at the end of the semester and when I reminded her, said, “the semester is over” as if that gave her some right. Co-opting Black vernacular and in particular language that is used amongst family and kin groups such as Black queer folks, that is not acceptable.

    • Darla says:

      I honestly don’t know how you put up with this isht. I’ll keep my ears open so I can say something if I hear it. I cannot believe how awful, stupid, and vicious so many white women are.

    • Coo Coo Catchoo says:

      I agree with your viewpoint. Completely.

    • Andrea says:

      I refer to my daughter as sis all the time. As a white person, please, please, please tell me I’m not making some sort of cultural flub. I just don’t want to be that person.

  50. Lava says:

    Fumblings doesn’t need an apostrophe in her sentence. More fumblings, I guess.

  51. Em says:

    Oh but she is relatable. To 20-40 year old white women who surround themselves with other white women nearly exclusively. She doesn’t want to be relatable to people outside of that group because they are beneath her. That’s the vibe I get.

    Also, just to be clear, what is it that she has really accomplished? Did she excel in her education? Is she helping people in any real way? She’s an Instagram personality. Don’t really see her as some impressive benchmark of success? I had never heard of her before this though.

  52. Ella says:

    I assumed she was a Karen from the picture, then I read the article and she is indeed one.

  53. Kricket says:

    She referred to the women who clean her toilets as simply ‘toilet scrubbers.’ Way to give the finger to yet more of the people that are cleaning up your shit, literally this time. Nothing will make an impact with this woman, she can’t hear any negative feedback as she’s still screaming out how hard done by she is to listen. Go away and be tone deaf somewhere else, everybody else is simply to busy, and that includes people who have names, or job descriptions and clean people’s toilets, dumbarse.

  54. olliesmom says:

    That photo of her in that stupid, too big for her head, large brimmed hat. Those stupid hats. When are those dumb hats going to go away? Do they think that they look good in them?