I'm a huge fan of graphic memoirs, and I have a thing for books that discuss mental health issues and body dysmorphia, so Full of Myself is right up my alley, and it did not disappoint!

In this fun graphic memoir, Siobhán Gallagher shares her experiences as a fat child and young adult, and talks about how these experiences shaped her expectations and her self-image as an adult. The stories she recounts are at times uncomfortable to read, and can be triggering, so be mindful of that when you pick this book up. The author tackles these topics with a sense of humour, while still giving them the attention and care they are owed. You're able to smile at the art, and the light-hearted tone of the narrative voice, but you're still aware that the author is making herself vulnerable through these pages, and it tugs at you, just a little.

As someone who's had very similar experiences growing up, this book did more than tug just a little. I found myself identifying with a lot of the internal dialogue the author describes and recognising the self-destructive tendencies that she'd developed over the years. Being aware of them usually makes me want to brush it all off, but just something about how these issues were discussed in this book is just sort of making me want to sit in the discomfort for a bit, and then call my therapist. Which I think is much more healthier than anything I've done before.

Growing up being perceived as "fat" or "ugly" is something that leaves a permanent scar on your self-image. You'll always be that little girl who wanted to be beautiful (who doesn't!) and just never was. And unlearning these perceptions and accepting yourself is a difficult, arduous and life-long process. This book is a study in how tough it can be. But how with the right tools, and support system, and just a little faith in yourself as a person, it's not impossible.

I enjoyed reading this, because it felt like a reflection of a dialogue that's been going on in my head for years! And i can't wait for it to hit the shelves! Thanks to Andrews McMeel for the review copy

So, I've never read a lot of graphic novels, but my young daughter is very into them. My curiosity about the format along with totally relating to the body image struggle my whole life made me want to check out this book!
I absolutely loved the colorful, meaningful illustrations and thoughtful content about dealing with body image. I felt her words and descriptions along with her depictions of different moments in her past and how they affected her. I think this is a really important book to read, and it offers us a chance to take a look at some painful messages and the way they affected our lives. It is honestly a really healing way for me to examine my past through media messages and comments from friends & family, realizing the way they shaped my beliefs and struggles I still have about my body image.
I would love to buy a physical copy of this book, because I just really loved and related to it. It helped me better understand myself and that the messages and comments I got in my life affected me. It also makes me more aware of things to look out for and ways to stay connected to the truth about having a healthy body image.

I love myself!! 난 뭔가 달라 달라 Yeah

Yes that is exactly what is this book talking about, heartwarmig. Somehow this feels a raw memoir :')
Thank you to Andrews Mcmeel Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cute and heartwarming. Wish there was a book like this when I was a teen, felt like I was reading a story about myself.

4,5 stars

a raw memoir about emotional journey around body image, with pinkish girly illustrations that radiate the author's personality and occasional light humor. It was lovely and I'm sure it's relatable to a lot of girls out there.

Im in awe of the authors ability of storytelling!! This book takes you on a journey of self love and accepting yourself as you are and i loved the overall message! The author also skillfully highlighted how lonely and isolating a disorder (particularly eating disorder) can be. Also i really enjoyed the illustrations, they were so cute!

Full of Myself is a beautiful graphic novel memoir of self discovery and coming of age. Gallagher discusses important topics such as diet culture, unrealistic expectations for women, eating disorders and self love. I would recommend this novel to anyone who could benefit from it, looking for a beautiful illustrated, relatable narrated graphic novel!

Self love is ten best love and this book teaches you how to pour into yourself so you aren’t dependent on searching validation from others.

Trigger Warning: References to self-harm, depression, eating disorders, and fatphobia

Siobhan Gallagher’s graphic memoir Full of Myself is full of reflective honesty concerning self-image. Growing up, much of Gallagher’s perspective was shaped by pop culture which shows in the book’s compositional iconography displaying a host of influences from magazine collage to television and film. Adversely, this abundant pop cultural consumption imparts stereotypes and tropes regarding high beauty standards and fat-shaming that she subconsciously internalizes, playing a large part in her negative body image which plagues her into adulthood. This leads her to deal with issues like bulimia and depression.

Gallagher presents these themes with sardonic wit using self-deprecation while also deconstructing it by depicting how she used that to avoid addressing her insecurities on a deep level and project them onto the other females around her, an astute commentary on how people can express the same internalized misogyny and fatphobia they’re a victim of.

We also have these moments during the beginning of each milestone (childhood, adolescence, and adulthood) where we see the evolution of the author’s fashion choices which reflect her self-perception.

Finally, I do like how the memoir ends on a high note while acknowledging mental health issues can become easier to manage even if they don’t entirely disappear.

Overall, Full of Myself is an insightful and witty memoir worth looking forward to in 2024.

You wouldn't find a woman alive that doesn't struggle with body image in one form or another. This graphic memoir was incredibly relevant to me and I saw myself reflected in the pages. Although not all our struggles mirrored each other, I saw enough to recognize a kindred spirit. I personally don't struggle with self harm, nicotine addiction, or purging but I was more than sympathetic to her plight. Full of Myself is a honest illustrated novel by Siobhan Gallagher detailing her difficulty accepting her body from prepubescence to adulthood. I was absolutely blown away by this book and I read it in one sitting.

Full of Myself had spectacular artwork and I loved the color palette she used throughout the book. I even visited the author's page after reading it and I think she does herself a disservice by making her avatar homely. She's a beautiful lady and her nose isn't that big. Full of Myself was wonderful and it felt like she had the Hubble telescope aimed straight at my brain. This is a vital graphic novel and I think everyone should read it. You may not share every aspect with the author, but there's enough common doubt about one's appearance that is universally felt. I really enjoyed this book and hope to read more from this talented author.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is one of the most helpful books I have read about body image. As a woman, I of course have and do struggle with body positivity and am hard on myself when I don’t look like the “standard beauty”. This honest, funny, and raw work by Siobhan Gallagher is going to help so many women and young girls.

It’s a must read for everyone, yes guys, you too!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved it! This graphic novel is an absolute must read. The topic covered is quite delicate, the author talks about her childhood, her adolescence, up to adulthood. She talks about how she has always felt inadequate, fat, and alone, she talks about how she deprived herself of many things because she felt she didn't deserve them, that she wasn't enough. Fairly strong and current themes. I found myself in these pages, it was 'nice' (if we want to define it that way) to see these topics covered in a comic. The drawings are very nice, also the recap of the fashion of the various years, very nice. Advised! Read it and fall in love with it. It's worth it, whether you reflect what the author says, or for those who have never had these thoughts, it's also interesting to get into other people's heads and empathize. Thanks to Netgalley for this arc copy. Received in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing for a copy of Full of Myself!

"I’m proud of the person I’ve become because I fought to become her. At the age of 30, Siobhán Gallagher looks back on her teenage self: struggling with anxiety and diet culture, desperate to become a beautiful, savvy, and slim adult. As an actual adult, she realizes she hasn’t turned out the way she’d imagined, but through the hard work of self-reflection—cut with plenty of humor—Gallagher brings readers along on her journey to self-acceptance and self-love."

Full of Myself tackled heavy topics with such cute graphics!! I feel like every woman will be able to relate to this graphic memoir, especially teens/young adults who went through the early 2000s!

My main feedback for this is that I wish the author pushed a bit more with her reflection and discuss intersectionality. I felt like she touched upon diversity (or lack thereof) but very lightly. I wanted her to push that a bit more, so BIPOC readers like me can be like "ok I feel seen with my body image issues on top of lack of diversity".

Overall, Full of Myself discusses misogyny, body image, fatphobia, eating dx, and anxiety in a straightforward, simple way! Plus, the artwork is gorgeous and easy to follow.

I enjoyed reading this book, even if some parts were hard for me because my own experiences were captured so well in this book. There were some minor formatting errors that I have no doubt will be fixed before the book is finalized and published.

At many points of this graphic memoir I found myself nodding and thinking "Yes, that's exactly it." The author captures a slice of womanhood in the late 20th and early 21st centuries that really resonated with me.

An easy 5 stars!! I loved the illustrations and the writing. Siobhan is so brave to share this and it really did help me understand that everyone struggles with body image no matter who they are. As someone with disordered eating, this gave me a great source of solace that I am not alone. I appreciate this book so much more than I can even describe.

What an amazing read! Simple in the best way, the one that allows you to understand and feel close to the character. However, it shows how deeply the author analyses the mechanisms used by society to control our bodies. Those mechanisms, more than once, create human beings full of themselves in the worst way possible: conscious of their physicality and judgmental about theirs and other appearances. And here is where the novelty of this book comes into place. It builds a main character that initiates her transit in life pressured and conditioned by a pop culture that imposes a specific, limited and repressive way of understanding our body. But learns to cope and battles and ends up by being full of herself in the best way, the one that permits you to appreciate who you are and embrace your identity.
The book explores how those mechanisms of control determine the life of women and the way we see each other as rivals. We live in a society that motivates competition among females. One of the most important realizations of Siobhan is to find sisterhood.
The book is a journey through fashion, pop culture and family. As a memoir, it is deeply personal but at the same time it is a mirror where any person can look at.

On the face of it this looks like a cute little book. However. It tackles some pretty serious issues, including, eating disorders and self harm.
I think it'll resonate with pretty much everyone who identifies as a woman. The pressure to look and be a certain way. The messages we get from movies, social media and other people.
This would be a great gateway into learning about fatphobia, health at any size and life in general.

Full of Myself by Siobhan Gallagher was the exact book I needed to pull me out of my reading slump. I didn't know anything about Siobhán Gallagher but her experiences growing up in NB. Canada couldn't have been any more similar to mine thousands of kms away and a few years later. I loved the simplicity in her writing in contrast with her colorful and detailed art style. A great read if you like the art style.

This extremely resonated with me. I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that near 100% of females struggle with body dysmorphia. Siobhan (love the name!) Gallagher brings to life her struggles with depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder brought on by internalized fatphobia. This is what we need to be talking about with our daughters and other female relatives and friends!! This happens to most of us, and from a young age, we are bombarded with images and entertainment that idealize “skinny” while also teaching us that girls and women are to be ogled and subservient to men. It’s no wonder that we so often feel inadequate around other females!

There’s a scene in this book where Siobhan is approached by someone who was dating her ex, and in the course of their conversation, Siobhan comes to the realization that this other woman felt equally inadequate, ugly and unlovable—AND that she had always looked up to the author! That conversation seemed to be a turning point for her, and I cheered as I read about her fight to manage her mental health and practice self-love. I was invested in the story from start to finish.

There are resources at the end that have helped the author, and I am definitely going to look into them, because, sadly and unsurprisingly, I have loved ones struggling with these very issues.

This book should be required reading.

The author’s picture is at the very end, and you know what? She’s absolutely gorgeous. It hurts my heart to think of all those years she spent thinking she was unlovable and unworthy.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. I also want to thank Siobhan Gallagher for being extremely vulnerable in a very public way…you are so brave, and I know this book will help others who are suffering.