Struggling to navigate your 20s? These books will enlighten and help you.
Muddling through your 20s is a tricky feat. Luckily there are some brilliant minds who have penned their thoughts, feelings and experiences to paper.
The Bondi Beauty team have come up with their favourite books that helped and are helping guide them through their 20s.
BB Writer Anisha Rapthi
Book Title: The Space Between
Book Author: Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald
From the creators of the Aussie pop culture podcast Shameless, Michelle Andrews and Zara McDonald have poured their hearts into their debut book The Space Between.
The book delves into how they’ve navigated the highs and lows of their 20s so far.
It contains a mixture of searing personal essays, upbeat listicles and insightful email chains shared between the young authors.
The Space Between covers a wide array of topics from heartbreak and healing, toxic friendships, handling money, paving your career path, dealing with rejection, finding your voice, battling inner demons and so much more.
As a long-term fan of the Melbourne-based journalists, I knew the minute they announced their book that I would fall in love with their writing.
Reading this book felt like getting a warm, comforting hug from a protective older sister.
Michelle and Zara’s beautiful articulation of what they have faced in their 20s has given me the nod of approval I desperately needed to realise that there is no secret formula to figure out this time of my life.
My biggest lesson taken from the book was that with all the crazy experiences your 20s will hurl at you, when you look back, your happiness will be boiled down to the simplest parts of life, like sharing deep belly-laughs with the closest people in your life.
BB Writer Tara Mckenzie
Book Title: The Defining Decade
Book Author: Meg Jay
This book is all about making the most of your 20s. It’s written by a clinical psychologist from the USA, who debunks the saying that your 30s are the new 20s.
She says that your twenty-something years are the most defining years of adulthood, and so should not be wasted on meaningless jobs and relationships.
This book really emphasised to me the importance of using this time in my life to set myself up for the future.
I am someone who is very ambitious and future oriented with planning my career and relationships, and sometimes I’ve been made to feel silly or high maintenance because of this.
However, this book taught me, that it’s okay to have a clear idea of where you want to be in 5 or 10 years.
It’s okay to marry and have kids before you’re 30, and it’s okay to hustle for your career path – in fact, Meg argues that you will be better off because of this.
BB Writer Elise Elkerton
Book Title: Everything I Know About Love
Book Author: Dolly Alderton
This book is composed of stories from the author’s life, and the lessons she has learnt along the way. She also includes some handy recipes.
I read this book at 20, and it taught me the importance of female friendships, why you should really make the most of each moment as it is, how to navigate different relationships, and why you can learn an important lesson from each life event.
This book makes me want to go out and live in the moment, as it can all be something to look back on nostalgically and make you who you are today.
BB Writer: Montana Crabb
Book Title: Women Don’t Owe You Pretty
Book Author: Florence Given
Florence Given is Florence’s ultimate guide to entering into feminism.
It explores progressive and necessary conversations about women’s insecurities, the male gaze and toxic patriarchal structures.
This book comes across strong, and at some points, confronting.
It presents new concepts and really gets you thinking about your own life and privilege.
Whilst I found that not all notions were agreeable, this deep dive into confidence, empowerment and self-love really acts as a catalyst for a journey of exploration about personal morals and values.
It challenges preconceived ideas and allows for a deconstruction of one’s feminist beliefs.
BB Editor: Renae Leith-Manos
Book Title: The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck
Book Author: Mark Manson
In your 20s, this easy-reading book acts as the kind of shortcut in life to understanding some of the big issues you will face in the future.
Mark Manson started as a blogger, and has an incredibly insightful, direct, irreverent view of the world, which is expressed in this New York Times Best Selling Book.
The tone of this book is brutal honesty, with some humour thrown in.
Manson talks and evaluates much of the human mind and our lives and examines why we do the things the way we do, and the mistakes we make, and why we make them.
Essentially his philosophy is that our minds, decisions and values are all based on feelings, not rational thinking as many currently believe.
He covers topics including intimacy, relationships, family, narcissism, social media and smashes many illusions we create about ourselves and the world in which we live.
It is the kind of book you can re-read every few years as you get something different out of it depending on where you are at in your life.
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving a Fuck has been translated into 50 languages and has sold over 12 million copies – I am now reading the sequel, Everything Is Fucked: A Book Of Hope which is even better.
BB Writer Rebecca Wilkinson
Book Title: Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus
Book Author: John Gray
When I was 25, I moved out of home for the first time.
Not only did I move out of home, I left the state of NSW, moved to far North Queensland, and then moved in with my boyfriend at the time with whom I had only been dating for 4 years.
It was super scary and stressful and the first year was very challenging as my partner and I had to try and figure out how to live with each other.
After a very nasty argument between the two of us, I called my mum in tears talking about how difficult living with a male was.
In response, she sent me the book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.
The book was very enlightening as it not only gave me insight into how a man’s mind works, it saved my relationship.
If you haven’t heard of it and are in a new relationship, you simply must read it.