One of my favorite reading niches is non-fiction graphic novels that explore tough topics. With that in mind, this was a perfect book for me to pick up. Being about a year a part from the author, I found many things in this novel to relate to. Some of my favorite parts were the illustrations for each time period where the author included popular fashions and I saw so many of my own choices reflected back at me. Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s was a weird time. “Heroin chic” was the norm, the covers of women’s magazines were constantly telling us how easy it was to lose weight while also offering up endless spectacular dessert recipes (look at you, Women’s Day) and the Weight Watchers point system was new and revolutionary (there were SO many rice cakes). All in all I enjoyed her exploration of the topic and found myself discussing several passages with friends in a “can-you-believe-this-shit-was-normal-for-us-back-then?!?”kind of way. I definitely plan on seeking out more of her work.

I enjoyed this graphic novel of a woman coming to terms with the body she is in and learning to love herself despite the flaws she perceives. Our Culture is really bad about telling people, especially women how we should look, and criticizing anyone who does not perfectly fit the ideals of beauty. The Author shows her journey from a struggle with food issues, and weight to one of more acceptance and loving herself. As someone who has had issues with my own weight and even currently weight more than I would like I enjoyed seeing the reality of another woman dealing with and coming to terms with how her own body looks.

I also enjoyed the illustrations, the style of the author really drew me in and made the story more accessible.

I also really enjoyed that this book was written by a fellow Canadian about my age, and all the little canadian references she threw in, especially ones that would really apply to someone growing up in the same time period was really fun.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

full of myself is a deconstruction of one person's experience with body dysmorphia and ED placed in the context of a canadian girl growing up in the early 2000s. i especially loved how gallagher touched on pop culture references in that period (and later facebook in her adult years) to highlight how society perpetuates these lines of thinking with young girls and sets them up in adulthood to have these issues linger. i just wished we got more of how gallagher worked through her lines of thinking/her ED more in the end as it veers more in the vein of how she began thinking like that about her body but not how she worked through thinking about her body in a more neutral manner. this would've fit in line with the recent trends away from body positivity to body neutrality. overall though this would be a great memoir to gift to the younger cousins in my life to show that there is a light in the future.

The subtitle sort of says it all. This is the journey of a woman as she grows up and moves out to be on her own, and has to deal with body image issues. And feelings of inadequacy in her life. Is it because she is overweight? Or is it for other reasons? Society makes you think if you are thin that the world is your oyster.

So, while she is a good cartonist, and illustrator, she longs to be the “perfect” woman and binges and purges to keep her weight down, and be what society wants of her.

Does this make her happy? Not one bit. It tends to ruin relationships, and ruin her health as well.

Self love is important, and she covers that, as well as other issues, including resources at the end of the book for those who want to read further on these issues.

I won’t say the book is a laugh a minute, because that is not its goal. It is to make a point, as it rips your heart out, but with a drop of humor.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out the 2nd of April 2024

This memoir was too accurate. I knew I would be getting emotional getting into this but I felt so seen, I felt less lonely knowing I wasn’t the only one going through this

in this raw, unapologetic memoir, gallagher manages to capture the intricacies of girlhood, body dysmorphia, and disordered eating in all their gritty details. the author holds no punches when it comes to describing her personal experience with these difficult scenarios, and it works well with the punchy, cute art style. i especially liked how the color of different vignettes changed with sio's mood. i only give this four stars because a lot of the text dumps were DENSE. i know that this is an aesthetic preference, but it was hard to process some of the longer sections of text alongside the images and i found myself skimming those sections as opposed to really taking them in.

I absolutely adored this book. Siobhan shares her journey with her body. It is real, beautiful and inspiring. I loved this book, her artwork and most of all her story. I now have a new favorite artist and author.

"Full of Myself" is an adorkable autobiography that narrates the realities of being a woman in a patriarchal world and its effects on self-esteem and identity.

I adored this graphic novel, but this is quite different from most because of its volume. There is A LOT of content but I loved how it illustrated every life stage of the author and their experiences. The author highlights at the beginning of the novel that these are her experiences as a cis hetero white woman, but I found her story to be highly relatable for all women. "Full of Myself" is divided into different life stages, where the author shares her experiences as a girl and how comments about her body shaped her way of thinking of herself and her place in the world. The story has instances of ED, body dysmorphia, insecurities, and depression; which I found to be raw and yet appropriate for a variety of ages. The book feels genuine in the mental and emotional turmoil faced by the author when it came to her body and growing up.

As a woman I identified with the author many times, the ways women and femme-presenting people are sexualized from birth, the way people speak about our bodies, fatphobia, comparing ourselves to others, and the way media presents "girlhood"; I found the book to be well rounded and I enjoyed the criticisms against society. The author also gave voice to all the girls who feel like shells of people because our personalities are just others' expectations of us.

If you enjoy feminist texts with themes surrounding fatphobia, feminism, media, and identity I highly recommend this charming story about a woman becoming herself. <3

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It was insightful into being in your 20s and trying to find your place in the world. I appreciated the author's vulnerability of adjusting to life in New York after coming from Canada, and the self-destructive habits she engaged in.

CW for eating disorders.

This graphic novel was written for me. I experienced everything Siobhan did at the same time she did, as we are the same age. We even wore the same clothes. It was like she lived my childhood. This graphic novel is for a very specific audience: millennials with body issues. That's me!

The only thing I had trouble with was the abrupt ending of some of the comics. I felt like a good portion of the anecdotes just ended, jolting me to think I skipped a page.

All in all, I definitely have my copy preordered. Thank you for giving me a book I see myself so much in, Sio.

In this graphic novel memoir, the author explores her lifelong struggle with body image, exploring the negative cultural influences and life experiences that fueled her insecurity. She splits the story into different parts based on different phases of her life, and she shows how her problems intensified and spiraled over time.

The illustration style is colorful and fun, and I loved the author's attention to cultural details and trends, like with her illustrations of the popular styles and fashion accessories she wore on different years. Since I can also date trends to specific years, I really enjoyed that.

This memoir deals with a lot of heavy topics related to body dysmorphia, eating disorders, weight stigma, sexual harassment, unhealthy dating relationships, and more. I think it's appropriate for older high schoolers and up, but it won't be appropriate for every individual reader, and people should consider their sensitivities and whether or not this would be triggering for them.

I really enjoyed this book, but it disappointed me that the author didn't share more of her healing journey. At the end of the book, she portrays how much better her life is now, but she doesn't really show the reader how she got there, or how she was able to work through her eating disorder or dysfunctional thinking. Although this book is incredibly heartfelt and honest, it would have been even more meaningful if the author had portrayed her recovery journey, instead of just showing where she ended up.

Oof!! All too relatable as a girl who came of age in the early 2000s like Gallagher. Many panels in this graphic memoir struck me so strongly - in particular how she illustrates the inescapable cultural obsession with thinness as the only option to perform womanhood successfully. Arranging chapters around the seasons of her youth, Gallagher demonstrates how those early images can influence the way you see yourself and other women for long after the TV is turned off or the magazine is put down.

I appreciate how Gallagher weaves in the insights she’s gained about body image as she’s grown up in a way that is heartening to me as a reader without being preachy. I love her art style - both unique and nostalgic - and the humor she infuses into reflections on vulnerability and shame. (On one memorable page, young Siobhan imagines a deceased relative popping up from the casket at their wake to ask her if she’s gained weight.)

Also notable to me is how Gallagher themes the book around how girls in particular are brought up to watch themselves being watched - it’s more complex than “y2k tabloid culture made us self-conscious.” One of my favorite sections was about cyber-stalking “cool girls” on Instagram and her resulting revelations about empathy and insecurity.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this digital ARC.

What a great graphic novel this is! I’m so glad I picked this one up!

This graphic novel is a memoir about a girl’s journey through life from childhood to adulthood and her constant struggles with body image.

As someone who has struggled with her body image for practically her entire life, this book was so well crafted. The thoughts the author wrote about are many of the same thoughts I have had with myself over the years.

Trigger warning is needed as there is a lot of talk about eating disorders.

I absolutely loved the author’s visual chronicle of her style throughout the years - so cool to see!

I would recommend this book to any girl whether they struggle(d) with their body image or not. If not for the cursing, I would say this would be a great read for girls of any age, but I would say this is probably suitable for ages 16 & up.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for this incredible ARC!
I really, very much enjoyed this book! As a girl who grew up with and still has body image and self esteem issues (who doesn’t, am I right ladies), I devoured every page and tried to absorb the message Siobhán is sharing with her readers.
Admittedly, I was initially interested in this book because I share the author’s last name and I was curious about the title and cover art. I am glad I was able to get my hands on the digital ARC because I thoroughly enjoyed Siobhán’s writing and artwork styles.
This book is amazing and will immediately be highly recommended to my friends.

This one hit home, as emotional and physically challenging is to go through something like this. Reading this graphic novel. I got a sense of relief that maybe I am not alone in all this. (definitely read TW). I love the message at the end. Self love was not a thing for me growing up and I’m glad it’s becoming vocalized. I liked the illustrations it reminded me of 90s nostalgia , some parts were stronger than others but overall I enjoyed it.

As someone who is and has been a plus sized girl forever, who has in the last year started learning to deal with her eating disorder, AND is on a journey of self love, this hit close to home. This memoir, told in the form of a graphic novel, was kind of a breath of fresh air. Finally someone was putting into words, and pictures, what many of us as children felt or worried about growing up, and still do in our 20s and 30s. As children of the 90s and early 00s, we were bombarded by diet fads whilst being told by the media that anyone over a size 2 was “chubby.”
Seeing people in media today who struggle with food is a step in helping those who are struggling in silence, thinking there isn’t any representation for them out there.
A major thing I enjoyed was the discussion of parents and how they can help shape your view of food, your body and health, because not many people realize their habits and views of themselves come from childhood (lol same.)
I also appreciate the mention of how relationships are also affected by your own perception of your body and your relationship with food. It can put a strain on you and your loved ones, friends, partners. Gallagher didn’t victim blame and she gets the point of insecurities in said relationships very well.

The graphics were cute and I enjoyed every minute, no matter how many times I felt sorrow for the author and then myself, knowing we’ve both gone through similar phases and feelings.


Thank you to NetGalley and all of the publishers involved with the circulation of this book! Also thank you to Siobhán Gallagher for creating this graphic novel.Less

Beauty standard has existed for millenia. Women are the sole target of this rigid patriarchal box full of what should be, what should not be. The harm is caused affected the way people think about their body. The author of this book is no exception.

This book brought the reader along with the author following her journey of finding her true self through the body. The thing that I enjoy the most from this book is probably the pop culture reference be it fashion, music, or other things. From year to year, trends emerge then die down. Now with social media it moves almost too quickly. Interestingly, this FOMO phenomenon although arguably has existed for a long time, the more advanced the society, the faster the trend moves, the greater the damage. We are shown by the author how she internalized toxic beauty standard which later manifested in unhealthy habits and misplaced judgement about gender. Despite that, I think the storytelling is a bit bland. I got bored and stalling to finished this for more than a week. The panels are repetitive, maybe that's one of the reason why I feel it's way too long. I was a little bit nervous too that this will be that girlboss corporate feminism type of book, but I'm relieved it encourages intersectionality and solidarity. I'm glad that the author finally find herself and slowly unlearning harmful habits and mindset. This has been one of the most honest voice about women's experience with her own body.

I am all in for self love and specially for women .We as women go through so many changes in our lives not just physically but emotionally too. And unfortunately we don't get to see many role models in our lives.
This books had some very interesting topics to explore but sometimes it was just overboard. I could not connect to it and the illustrations were also a it little disappointing .

I went into Full of Myself thinking it was about physical boby image but it's so much more. It goes into the mental state of the author at different points in life going into great detail. I love the art and illustrations, they're vibrant and appealing to the eye. The book is formated episodically so it was a fun a fast read. This would be a bread book for young girls to read as it displays important lessons for them in life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this graphic novel in exchange for my honest review. This book is honestly one of my favorites for 2023, I related to the author more than I could ever imagine. As someone that has been "heavier" (or just perceived myself as such) my entire life, this novel really spoke to me. I felt Siobhan's entire journey through childhood and adulthood in my heart and soul. The illustrations were gorgeous and I think everything was depicted so well, even the touchy subjects (eating disorder, self-harm, depression, etc). I cried more than once for her during my read of this novel, and the parts of her I see in myself. I applaud her for being so open and vulnerable with the situations she's gone through, and the bravery she showed by sharing this with the whole world. I will be RUNNING to purchase a copy of this graphic novel when it is published. I cannot stress enough how amazing this story is, and how anyone that identifies as a woman will be able to relate to it in some way. Thank you, Siobhan Gallagher for being so amazing just being you, it was a joy to read your memoir.