Category: YouTube

Wordsearch and Nail Polish! | Pages 43 and 104 | The Pointless Book

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hello all!
Another Pointless Book blog post! This one is probably not very exciting though. However I did like doing these pages. It was just something nice to do for the night.
If you guys want to check out the video it is below, and also more detailed looks at the pages I did:

So the first page was the wordsearch, which there isn’t much to I mean it’s a wordsearch. I suppose I could have easily just cheated and looked at the solutions page but where would the fun have been in that? Instead I did the whole thing myself, even timed it. It took me roughly six minutes, I’d say that was in good time.

The next page was to use some old nail varnish to paint the page and i had quite a lot of old nail varnish to choose from. I didn’t really know what else to do with the page but I decided that the neatest way to do it was to just paint lines across the page, plus I didn’t know how much nail polish was still in the bottles, they were just old colours I never used anymore.

All of the colours I used…
The final result!
And there you have it, another Pointless Book blog post done and dusted. I hope you guys enjoyed. If not, that’s cool. I mainly do these things for myself anyway, it’s a result of having too much free time. But anyway, I’ll be back soon with another blog post, hopefully something more interesting next time. x

❤️ #LoveWins ❤️

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Just thought I’d post a quick blog post to celebrate marriage equality in America.
My Twitter timeline has just been an explosion of love and it’s such an amazing thing to see. It’s literally such a heartwarming thing.
It makes me want to go out and party or something to celebrate and I don’t even live in America, nor am I gay. But still it’s a huge thing that I think should be celebrated no matter what.
Because at the end of the day, love is love, whether it’s been two people of the same gender or two different genders it doesn’t matter. We should embrace it.

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YouTube posted this video today about celebrating marriage equality and LGBT month and it is the cutest thing and I even teared up at it omg, I love it. #ProudToLove

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Also I thought I would share with you some of my favourite tweets, because it has been such a love-filled day:

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Origami, Makeup, Shapes and my Hand! | Pages 11, 21, 38 and 126 | The Pointless Book

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

But I have to say that this one was a lot of fun.
So this time when I filmed my Pointless Book video I did it a little differently. And I think the new way that I do it is a lot more efficient. It also helps that I have a tripod now and a lot more free time on my hands.
If you want to see the video you can check it out below, and as always there are more detailed photos shown here in the blog post.

The first thing I wanted to tackle was the origami on page 11. I knew from the second I saw it that I was going to mess up. We get two pages for this, one with the square of paper that we need to cut out to make the swan and one with the instructions on it. Seems simple right?
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Not exactly. This is what mine turned out like…
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It really could have been better. I kind of got lost somewhere in the middle of the instructions. To me, they aren’t that clear. I feel like I need to have written instructions as well. Although let’s be real, I’d have probably been better off with a YouTube tutorial…
On the bright side I seemed to do better on the next page. Which was to draw makeup on the person. This was something I thought I would be good at, considering I have been doing my own makeup since about the age of 13 I think I know a thing or two about it.
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So, what do you think? I think it was pretty good. I don’t know if the lighting in the photo shows it off the best but I did what I could. Also if I had better pens or something like chalk I probably would have contoured and all of that haha but I didn’t so I just had to leave the person looking pretty pale, but I still think it looks good anyway.

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The next page that I decided to do was the one where you had to draw shapes without taking your pen off the page. This one was…okay. I mean there wasn’t really much of a challenge to it, at first I thought that there would be but you just have to think about it for a second before you draw it. Nothing too terrible.

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The final page I did in the video was to draw around my own hand. Nothing special about it haha. I could have been really artistic with it and added more details rather than just doing the outline of my hand but I am not the best artist in the world so decided to give that a miss.

That was it for this Pointless Book blog post. Now that it’s summer I can do a lot more of these videos/blog posts and hopefully I can finish the Pointless Book before the end of summer. I also have to start on the Pointless Book 2 so look out for that.
In the meantime, if you guys want to check out my previous Pointless Book videos the playlist is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS-A2-2r_dIQex17WjQJbqXUXVh1k2ugm
I’d appreciate it a lot if you spent the time to check them out. But other than that I hope you guys enjoyed and I will see you soon with a new blog post. Smile
~ Courtney x

The History of my Insanity Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys,
Here I am reviewing another YouTuber book. Surprise, surprise. This time it is The History of my Insanity by Trisha Paytas. Something that I think is worth noting about Trisha’s book is that it is self-published and it was written in 2013. So as you can see she was way ahead of this YouTuber book writing craze.

I have only been watching Trisha’s videos for a year but she has quickly become one of my favourite people to watch. I don’t know what it is about her that makes her so interesting to me, but she’s just one of those people I could watch forever and not get bored. She’s been through a lot of tough things in life and for her to come out the other end pretty sane is incredible to me.
If you guys watch YouTube then you know that a lot of YouTubers have been through a lot of problems in their lives, and we like to watch them because we find them relatable. They are real people and aren’t afraid to show us they have flaws – which is why I think they are so popular. But I have to say, no one’s been through as much as Trisha – at least no one I watch.
Trisha’s story has always been an interesting one to me. I mean most YouTubers have interesting lives – otherwise we wouldn’t watch them – but Trisha has definitely been one that’s stood out. If you guys have watched her Draw My Life video then you kind of get a feel of what her life used to be like.
However, I think she tells the story a lot better in her book.
What I would say about the book is that it is an easy read. It’s very casually written in Trisha’s personal style and it’s a short book. It shouldn’t have taken me as long to read as it did, but I just didn’t read it very often.
If anything this book makes you have a new found respect for Trisha. I know that a lot of people don’t like her and people online just seem to be rude to her and hate on her for no reason. They somehow think that because of her past choices in life that she is beneath them.
But after reading about what she went through and how she was able to bounce back from everything that life threw at her, I admire her a lot. I mean she never gave up on her dreams and she never let anyone tell her that she couldn’t do it and that’s how she got to where she is today.
If anything she is inspiring.
I mean I’m not saying she’s perfect. But she has made some drastic improvements on her life and I am so proud of her for that. I mean reading about how she used to live and seeing her succeed in her life now is amazing. I like that in her book she was so open about everything and it was raw and it was real.
I also love that it was a self-published book. Mainly because I know that it didn’t go through a team of editors and a publishing company that probably would have wanted it to be changed. I liked that it was just Trisha’s words.
Maybe this blog post should be retitled to “Praise for Trisha Paytas” because honestly I just love her so much.
I don’t really know what I can say about the book other than I think it’s a good read. It’s definitely one of those books I think you need to read if you want to know more about the person behind the camera. Because Trisha has always been such a strong person when it came to her online presence, but you can see she wasn’t always like that. I think it’s important to know more about people who share their lives with us because it reminds you that they are people too.
I said something similar when I was reviewing Shane’s book but I think it’s important to remember that while these people may be playing characters online they are real people who have gone through real problems in life. And when they share those with us in videos we shouldn’t be acting like they are making it up for attention because they’re not.
I know that Trisha is someone who is known for being overdramatic and crazy, but that’s just her character. And so when she talks about real things I feel like people don’t take her seriously and don’t see her for the person she really is.
I think this book captured exactly who she is, or rather who she was. It’s very clear to me that Trisha is not the same person she was when she wrote this book. If anything she has grown stronger and has become an even better version of herself. I think that she is amazing because she continues to work on herself and improve and she’s fulfilling her dreams.
I mean if you guys have been watching her videos for a long time then I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I have definitely seen a lot of change with Trisha since I started to watch her videos and I couldn’t be happier for her.
So in conclusion I just wanna say I love Trish. I think she’s so inspiring and you should definitely pick up her book because it really does help you understand who she is more and it gives you a better sense of who she is. I will also probably be picking up more of her books because she has written quite a few and so I’m excited to read those in the future.
And so that concludes another (sort of) book review! I hope you guys enjoyed…and if you like them then please look out for my next book review because I still have plenty more YouTuber books to read. 🙂
~ Courtney x

Game On, Charles – Pretty Little Liars Season 6 Premiere

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Speechless.
Literally how I felt at the end of this PLL episode.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about an episode. This was the most intense one yet.
And I have so many feelings that I don’t know how to express them properly. And I have so many questions that I need answered.
I just don’t know.
But one thing’s for sure, we are in for one hell of a ride this season. It’s going to be more than we have ever experienced before.
If you guys want to see my initial reaction check the video below:

I don’t think I will film my reaction to every episode but for the mid-season finale and things like that maybe. Sometimes I watch these things before my friends and need to discuss them with someone and I can’t so I need to get my feelings out there in other ways.
In other news, I have no theories about this season. I have no way of knowing what’s going to come and what we will find out about Charles. I just have a hunch it’s not Andrew. Okay, I know why everyone would think Andrew is Charles but I don’t think so. He is part of it though, I don’t know what part but we can’t act like he’s totally innocent.
I just want to know everything. But I know we are not going to get another episode where Alison comes back and tells us everything we need to know like before. Charles isn’t just going to sit and talk to us and tell us his life story….
If anything, it’s going to be one hell of a summer and I hope you’re ready because I know I am (not)!
~ Courtney x

I Hate Myselfie Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I am finally here to review Shane Dawson’s book!
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Honestly, this was probably the book I have been most excited to read so far. Mainly because I love Shane Dawson. He is one of the first YouTubers that I started to watch religiously back in 2011 and since then I have just grown to love him more and more.
So obviously when I found out he was writing a book I was so excited. Shane has always been a very open person online about his life so when I found out this book had stories he had never told on the internet before I was interested.
This is the first YouTuber book that I have read that is specifically about the YouTuber’s life and not something else which I really appreciated because I was definitely interested in learning a lot more about Shane, after watching his videos for about five years how could I not?
Shane’s book is not necessarily an autobiography though it is a “collection of essays” which basically means that each chapter tells a different story about something that happened in his life and a lot of these stories are before YouTube so it was really interesting to learn more about what life was like for Shane before he became internet famous.
In the book there is a mix between serious and funny stories and from the style of the writing you can definitely tell that Shane wrote it, as even within the serious chapters he was able to throw a joke in to lighten the mood. I definitely found myself laughing out loud a few times at some of his jokes.
I really think that this book let’s you see the person Shane really is rather than the personality that you see in his YouTube videos. I know that since he started posting daily on his “Shane” channel he has become a lot more real and less of a character but in the book he really opens up about some personal things that he went through.
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In his “My Strange Addictions” chapter, Shane talks about how he gets addicted to things really easily and talks about just how unhealthy his addiction to Splenda got. And this made me think back to when Shane used to vlog, he had mentioned in a few of his vlogs how much he loved Splenda and it was ridiculous but you never really knew how far it went because that was the part he didn’t show in his vlog. There’s so much that we don’t know that happens behind the camera and I really think that people should remember that when they watch YouTubers.
In other chapters of the book Shane talks about his high school/teenager experiences, his struggles with his body image, and he also talks about some of his experiences after he started YouTube as a job. I have to admit that some of the chapters in the book do get quite emotional, there is a chapter where Shane talks about his grandmother which I thought was really sweet. I almost cried, it was so emotional.
Shane also made a short film about one of the chapters in his book, and I watched that before I read the actual chapter. But I really enjoyed the short film he made about it. It was really fun to see his writing come to life like that and the chapter and the short film are basically identical so I would recommend you guys check that out if you are unsure about getting the book.

I think I saw a post by Shane a while ago saying he wanted to make another short film based on the “Astral Projection” chapter in his book which I personally would really enjoy. I mean it’s one thing to imagine it in your own head but to see the author’s vision come to life is even better. And with a YouTuber you know it’s their exact vision and not an adaptation like big feature films based on books.
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Another thing that I liked about the book was that before each chapter, there was an illustration by one of Shane’s fans. There was a note at the start of the book from Shane saying that he sent some fans excerpts from the book and they would draw an illustration to go along with it. I thought this was a really creative way to have his fans be a part of his book. Even if it was just the lucky few. Their art was really good and Shane also included a short description about each artist on the back of the illustration which I thought was really nice.
I really hope Shane writes another book like this, this is only a small part of his life and if his story-time videos and this book are anything to go by, I know that he has a lot more crazy adventures ahead and I will be so happy to follow him on these adventures for as long as he is on YouTube and sharing his life with us.
So yeah, I think that that is everything I have to say about Shane’s book. I know I could have probably said a lot more but honestly, I just loved it. I loved every part of it and I know I’m biased because I really like Shane anyway but honestly if you have ever wanted to learn more about the YouTuber behind the camera this book is the perfect example.

Love Tanya Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys, so I’m here with another YouTuber book review. These books seem to be all I’m reading lately but I promise I will have some reviews of non-YouTuber books soon.

So Love Tanya is written by British YouTuber Tanya Burr and as always I am happy to hear when a YouTuber is releasing a book. I feel like it’s a way to connect with them that more personal. Especially if they have written about themselves.
One thing I love the most about these books is that they are all different. While Grace’s and Tanya’s books both give advice they do it in very different ways and I love to see the YouTuber’s personality come out through their writing.
When I was reading Tanya’s book I felt like I was reading a fairy tale. There is something simple about her writing style and the tone she writes in that makes her life sound like a fairy tale. Especially in the chapter where she writes about her relationship with Jim.
That was probably my favourite chapter in the book because you can tell just how much Tanya loves Jim and how important he is in her life. I’m a total sucker for a sappy love story and Tanya and Jim’s is definitely one of my favourites.
Jim and Tanya’s relationship has always been one I have loved. Not only do they look amazing together but they way they work together and support each other is so adorable and I will definitely ship them forever. I wish them the best of luck with their future and their upcoming nuptials.
Anyway…sorry I let my inner fangirl/shipper get in the way there…
I really enjoyed learning more about Tanya’s life before YouTube. I started watching her videos in August last year I felt like I didn’t know her as well as other YouTubers, so this book was the perfect way to get to know her. Plus, who doesn’t love photos of people when they were babies?
This book also contains a lot of Tanya’s style and beauty tips which I appreciated a lot. Sometimes you don’t want to sit through a 20 minute video to find the right makeup brush to use and this book explains it quite well.
I also learnt a lot about skin care through Tanya’s book as she took us through her beauty routine. Sometimes in videos people may not give proper descriptions on how a product works with their skin but in the book Tanya was able to give a better insight into her favourite beauty products.
One section of the book I didn’t actually read was the baking section however I don’t think that is a section of the book you can read in one go. However I did flick through these pages and the photos make everything look amazing so I can’t wait to get around to using these recipes in the future.
Another part of the book that went unused were the sections that Tanya left for us to write in. I know that they are there for us to write in but I feel like it’s wrong to ruin such a beautiful book with my writing. Like I just can’t bring myself to write in it so I have left these pages blank…I don’t know if anyone else is like that or just me but I am sure you understand what I mean…
Another thing I really liked about this book were Tanya’s “top ten..”s at the end of each chapter. Again it was another thing that allowed you to learn a little bit more about her and the things that she has a personal connection with. I know that when you watch YouTube videos you often miss things like that, especially if you don’t watch every single video a person posts so it was nice to learn about the little things like what her favourite places are.
These were also great for learning tips and tricks that Tanya had for different aspects of your life. Some of her advice is quite simple but it is often the type of things people forget so I think it’s nice to be reminded of them every once in a while.
Overall I think this book captures Tanya Burr perfectly as she discusses personal issues such as her anxiety, lighter topics such as beauty and baking and everything in between. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking to learn more about beauty, fashion, baking, dating and of course Tanya Burr herself.

Girl Online Book Review!

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

It took me a long time to get around to reading it but I finally finished Girl Online!
Girl Online is a fictional book written by British YouTuber Zoella and I have to say I was so excited when I heard she was writing a book! I mean I have been excited for every YouTuber book coming out but I was very excited to learn that Zoe’s was a fictional book. Almost every other YouTuber is writing an autobiography/lifestyle type book so I was interested in seeing how Zoe’s was different from everyone else’s.
And before I get into the review of the actual book I just want to say that the cover of this book is stunning. The cover of the book is actually the whole reason I bought my own physical copy. I was originally going to buy a kindle version of the book because it was cheaper at the time but once I saw the cover I changed my mind and when I went to change my preorder the physical copy had went down in price so it was close to the kindle version’s price so I was very happy about that.

So I know that a lot of people were upset to learn that Zoe’s book had a ghost writer…and I just want to address my thoughts on that. I don’t really have a problem with the fact that she had one. I mean if she had help to make her novel she had help, there’s no shame in admitting that. Plus I think it’s a bit much to have high expectations for someone who has little writing experience to be a best-selling author right off the bat. Besides she’s not the first person to have a ghost writer…
However I do understand why people would get upset about the fact she didn’t write it on her own. I have to admit I was a little upset about this but only because other YouTubers that are writing books have done it on their own. The difference being that their genre of book is different from Zoe’s. Other YouTubers are writing about themselves which is easy to do but Zoe is writing fiction so it’s understandable why she would turn for help.
At least that’s just what I think about the whole thing. While I wish she hadn’t used a ghost writer there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean I know if I was in her position I’d probably do the same thing. So yeah…moving on to the actual story…

Penny has a secret.
Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her crazy family, and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets Noah, a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. Suddenly Penny is falling in love – and capturing every moment of it on her blog.
But Noah has a secret, too, one that threatens to ruin Penny’s cover – and her closest friendship – forever. 
– Girl Online Blurb (source)

As soon as I read the blurb I was interested in this story… and I was so excited to finally begin reading it and while I did enjoy the story I didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to.
To me it felt like this book was written for a younger age group. The style of the writing is simple and the whole storyline turned out to be a tiny bit anti-climactic for me.
I thought that the beginning of the book was good, I liked the style of writing for Penny’s blogs and I found this aspect of Penny very relatable. As someone who also enjoys blogging and understands the need to put your thoughts out there for even one person to read I did enjoy this part of the book. I also found the reason for Penny going to New York understandable…
I have never had a video of me go viral before but if it did I’d probably flee the country too. Especially if it was that embarrassing.
Another thing I found relatable about Penny is her struggle with friendships. I’m sure we’ve all been there. When we have to decide when it’s time to stop being friends with someone or you’ve “outgrown” them. It’s something everyone has to do in their lives and I liked the way this is handled in the book. However not all fake friends are as easy to spot in real life as they are in the book.
Something that I wasn’t able to relate to is Penny suffering from panic attacks. I don’t suffer from a lot of anxiety but I do understand that a lot of people do. This book gave me an insight into what it’s like for someone who might be dealing with anxiety and I found this really interesting. I also liked that there was advice on how to deal with anxiety in the book. I thought this was important especially since Zoe has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks her whole life.
As the book goes on and Penny and Noah spend more and more time together I found the book was getting a little bit boring. I just thought that nothing really happened in that time she spent Christmas and New Year’s with him. And I know not every part of a book has to be exciting but I was just waiting for the time when Penny would finally learn about Noah’s secret…
Throughout the book I had my own ideas about what his secret might be. I think I was thinking too outside the box and have been reading/watching too many vampire things because I thought he was going to be a vampire or some other supernatural being….Or I thought he was going to find out about Penny’s blog or that he was actually a criminal or something really crazy and unexpected.
My friend Bryce actually came up with the idea that Noah was really gay and was going to end up with Penny’s gay best friend Elliot which would have been quite funny but also kind of mean.
But none of those things were Noah’s big secret.
I do have to say when I found out what his secret was I was a little bit sad. I mean I wasn’t expecting his secret to be what it was but I was expecting something a lot bigger. Which is why I felt like it was a little anti-climactic.
I was also surprised that we only find this out about 3/4s of the way through the book…I thought we’d find out sooner than that.
After that I felt like everything just happened in a blur. Which I guess is how it’s meant to feel but to me everything just seemed to be happening too fast. Faster than the rest of the book and I feel like it caused them to brush past some more important issues.
For example what Elliot was going through with his father. I feel like it should have been something that was put into more detail. I know that he’s not the main character in this book but if he is dealing with a serious problem like that I think maybe there should have been more about it…I feel like it was a little bit random to have in the midst of everything else towards the end.
However I did like the way that Penny took control of her situation and dealt with the cyber bullying. It also teaches you the lesson that while anyone can make up a rumour about you only you know the truth and that’s all that really matters. As long as you and the people you’re close to know the truth it doesn’t really matter what other people think and I think that’s a really important message to have. Especially if you are someone who does put themselves out there, on the internet or in real life.
As for the ending of the book…it was predictable. Which I didn’t mind because I do prefer happy endings more than sad ones. And for a book like this I didn’t expect there to be a sad ending. I also know that when two people go through so much together it does seem like a waste for them not to end up together. However sometimes that’s for the better but not in this case.
Overall I’d say the book was okay. I didn’t really hate it but I didn’t love it either…like I said before I really felt like the book was aimed at a younger audience just because of the style of writing and the way the story played out…I did however think the love story between Noah and Penny was quite cute but I’m a sucker for any type of love story.
Now the real question is…will I be buying the sequel? I wasn’t actually aware of the sequel until one day I was on Amazon and it came up as a recommended item for me. But I think I’ll have to wait to find out what the sequel is about before I consider buying it. Considering how I felt about this book I’m not sure if I will immediately jump at the chance to get the sequel but I guess we shall see when the time comes.
If you guys have read Girl Online please leave me a comment letting me know what you thought and also let me know if you will be buying the sequel when it comes out because I’d be interested to know.
And until the next blog post I bid you adieu 🙂
~ Courtney x

My Strange Friends and Picking Photos! | Pages 188, 25, 6 & 154 | The Pointless Book

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This is my first Pointless Book blog post for this blog!
If you want to see my previous Pointless Book blog posts click here.
So with this Pointless Book video I took my book into school and asked my friends to fill in some things and it got a little weird…
The first page I asked them to fill in was the one where you ask a friend to describe you in 3 words. I didn’t ask just one of my friends, I asked three so I have three phrases below which are supposed to describe me:

The first one was written by my friend Georgie and she says I am “dedicated to FSOG” for those who don’t know FSOG is the abbreviation of Fifty Shades of Grey and if you follow me on Twitter you can see this is a pretty accurate statement haha.
The second one is written by my friend Megan and she says I am a “vlogging-obsessed fangirl” which is very true. I started my YouTube channel almost a year ago and I have become obsessed with vlogging…and I have been a fangirl for about 8 years now…
And finally the last one was written by my friend Ashleigh and she says that I am a “lover of Ashizzle” which basically means I love Ashleigh. Again true, we are really good friends and I love her a lot.
So all in all it is safe to say my friends know me pretty well. Then again I feel like if you just went on my Twitter you’d know these things about me. Apart from my love for Ashleigh you might have been unclear about that until now lol.
The next page that I asked my friends to fill in is the one where you ask a friend to write a message and swap pages with them. Now because none of my friends have a Pointless Book I decided just to let them write a message in my book and I would share it with you all and I have three messages as shown below:
The first and last messages were written by my friend Ashleigh. As you can see she is very open with her feelings for me haha.
The middle one is written by my friend Victoria who had some requests to make. This was done a while ago before Christmas and so this is why she is calling me Santa lol.
And that is what my friends got up to with my Pointless Book. I basically just handed them the book and asked them to write something it’s amazing it was as calm as that I can imagine it could have been much worse haha.
The next two pages I did were to stick in photos and this was an easy task. These are the two pages:
                  
The first one is a photo of me and my friends from 3rd year which was like four years ago…I have to say we look a little bit different now haha but mostly the same. It’s the first photo we have of all six of us together so it’s a very significant time. Especially since these were my first secondary school friends, I’m still friends with all of them even if some of them don’t go to the same school anymore but we’ve had lots of fun over the years. That’s why I decided to add this photo to my book.

The next photo is a really old photo of me from when I was younger haha. I don’t remember anything about this photo, I just know it’s me and my sister found it a while back and posted it on Facebook and I thought I would share it with you guys. At least it’s not too embarrassing.

And this concludes my first Pointless Book blog post for this blog! Woo!
Like always I did make a YouTube video of me talking about these pages so if you would like to see that you can click below – I say the same things in my blog posts as I do in my videos but I feel like if I do both then the event is documented very efficiently. There’s no need for both but I feel like I should have them both haha.
~ Courtney x

Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown Up Book Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment
Hey guys so today I am going to be giving you a review of Grace Helbig’s book. I have been meaning to write this book review for about 2 weeks now and I apologise that it has taken me so long to sit down and write it.


The first thing I would like to comment on is the name of the book. It is very long. I don’t really have a problem with that other than when you try to post something on the internet talking about the book you usually have to shorten the title to “Grace’s guidebook”. Which is kind of sad because the full title of the book is one of the main reasons the book appealed to me.
For those of you who don’t know I am currently 17, in my last year of secondary school and currently have no idea what I am doing with my life. So the fact that one of the YouTubers I watch has released a self-help book on how to pretend to be an adult seems kind of perfect. I don’t know if it’s the best advice in the world but I think that it can be useful for the future. 
Anyway, you might think that it’s weird to read a self-help book all in one go, especially Grace’s which is split up into different sections. I have to say it was a lot of advice and information to take in at once but I wanted to get an idea of the type of advice she could give me so that if I ever did need advice on a particular subject I knew that Grace would be able to help.

Overall I would say that Grace actually did provide me with some helpful advice for the future. I mean I didn’t think she would give bad advice but at the same time I didn’t know if the advice would be suitable for me. Some of the topics Grace covered in her books I have yet to experience in my life and so I can’t put that advice into effect until these things happen to me for example, how to do the walk of shame.
Most of the advice that Grace gives in the book is actually quite simple. They are little things that you often forget while you are going through life and it is really nice to be reminded about them. For example when you are on the internet, don’t post your personal information such as your address, social security number, bank details…that kind of thing. 
To be honest I wasn’t expecting life changing advice from this book, if you know Grace then you know she isn’t a very serious person and she tends not to like to get too deep and meaningful – a perfect example of this is her podcast “Not Too Deep“. Not that I minded if the advice wasn’t that good. I was more interested in buying the book to support Grace (as a YouTube fangirl I will support YouTubers by buying their merchandise if it appeals to me even a little) and to learn more about her.
While the advice wasn’t completely life changing it was very helpful. As someone who is socially awkward and avoids being in public a lot I found Grace’s tips on how to host parties very useful. There are some things that she mentions in her book that you wouldn’t even begin to consider when you are preparing to do something, like when you are going for a job interview it is important to ask questions back rather than just answer your questions that way you seem more invested. I would never do that, but thanks to Grace’s book I will do it in the future.
As I mentioned before Grace covers a lot of aspects of being an adult in her book and at the beginning of each section of the book she will write an introduction and share a story or two of her experience regarding that particular topic. I really enjoyed these introductions as they allowed me to learn a lot more about Grace as a person which was really nice. It was nice to learn more about her real life and not just the YouTuber personality we see in her videos. Although as you read the book you discover that Grace doesn’t really have a YouTube personality and that the person you see in her videos is the real deal.
Another thing I really enjoyed about Grace’s book were the photographs, because who doesn’t love a book with pictures? They were very funny and adorable and just very “Grace”. Below are some of the photos within Grace’s book so that you can see what they are like:

Another enjoyable thing about Grace’s book is that at the end of each section she would have made an acronym for all of the advice that she gave on a topic. This means that it would be easier to remember her advice as well as produce random funny words at the end of the book sections. I have no idea how she came up with those acronyms but they are definitely memorable which means I won’t be forgetting any of the tips and tricks on how to decorate like an adult anytime soon.

And with that I think I have said everything that I want to say. The only thing to say is that the writing style is very casual and easy to understand, I noticed that the style of writing is in the style of how Grace would speak naturally so reading her book is just like watching one of her YouTube videos which I think made the whole book more enjoyable. It is surprising how well Grace’s sarcasm can come across based on the style of her writing. That or I have been watching so many of her videos that I can always tell when she is being sarcastic, even through written language.
Oh! That’s another thing that I enjoyed, Grace’s sense of humour. I don’t know if everyone enjoys Grace’s puns and bad jokes but I do. I might not laugh out loud at them but I do appreciate them and I imagine that if the book didn’t contain these puns or jokes that it wouldn’t have been Grace that wrote it.
And now I think that I have said everything I wanted to say. Overall I really did enjoy Grace’s book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Grace Helbig’s videos or is struggling to become an adult like myself haha. Will I ever use her advice in real life? I think I will. I might not follow it exactly to the letter but I will definitely think about it because like I said it can be useful. I just think it depends on the type of person you are and if you can apply the advice to your life.
And so yeah…I never really know how to end my blog posts. I just sort of drift off at the end and stop writing haha. I need to think of a better way to end them. But until then I hope you guys liked my thoughts on Grace’s book. Let me know in the comments below if you have read Graces book and what you think of it and I hope you will come back for the next blog post! Whatever that may be…
~ Courtney x