This fall, #AerieREAL Role Model, YouTuber & Motivational Speaker, Molly Burke, joined #AerieREAL Role Model & Self-Care Activist, Iskra, for a Real Talk about Molly’s new audiobook: It’s Not What It Looks Like. If you couldn’t make it to the event, see some of our favorite moments with Molly & Iskra right here.
“This is a book for everybody who’s going through anything, or will ever go through anything, which is all of us. At the end of the day, I think if you boil my story down to one thing, it’s overcoming challenge. And everybody has to deal with challenge over and over again in life.”
Many of her fans know Molly from her YouTube channel, where she shares everything from her experiences as a blind person to her style and favorite beauty products. From the start, the most important thing to Molly has always been staying true to herself and to her story:
“What was important to me [when I started my YouTube channel] was sharing my message to whoever was there to hear it. It wasn’t about being famous, making money, getting clout… whatever it might be for people. For me, it truly was the commitment of sharing my story and what I thought was important.”
Now, in her audiobook, Molly is sharing more than ever before:
“I really wanted to share things that I’ve never felt comfortable sharing in any other platform. There are things in this audiobook that I never felt confident enough to talk about on stage, that I never felt confident enough to talk about in an interview or a video. Things that I was, frankly, scared to share. That I was concerned that I might get backlash for, or judgement, or negativity. I shared things that I am aware are controversial opinions of mine. I wanted to share it in an audiobook instead of a video because in a video… you’re listening to the video but you’re also reading the comments and distracted by everything else around you. But if you’re sitting in your bedroom or in your car or you’re running on the treadmill at the gym and you have my voice in your headphones, it’s just me and it’s you.”
Molly chose to release her book as an audiobook only, not a printed book. Because Molly is blind, an audiobook gives the reader the same experience that she does when reading a book—by listening to the story instead of seeing the words on the page:
“In a way, I’m forcing people to read the way I do. I can’t read a book, and a lot of people don’t pick up audiobooks and don’t give them a chance. This is a cool way to ‘force’ people who want to learn more about my story to read the way I read. And to experience it the way I would experience it.”
Have you listened to It’s Not What It Looks Like yet? Comment below & tell us your biggest takeaways from Molly’s new book.