Some of my favourite books are memoirs, I remember the first one I ever read was Elvis & Me by Priscilla Presley. I couldn't tell you what drew me to this title; most likely it was the only thing on my parents bookshelf that I knew anything about. But once I got into it, I couldn't stop... I loved reading about her life and from what better perspective than her own. I have always been a bit of a dreamer and I tend to romanticize a lot in my life. So I think reading about her average life turned extraordinary made me feel optimistic about how extraordinary my own life could be. I mean, she married The King of Rock 'n' Roll. As I've gotten older, my ideas of what an extraordinary life looks like has changed quite a bit. I mean, a job with benefits? Yes, please! But I still love hearing about these stories and reading memoirs by strong, influential women.
I feel like we're in this fantastic era filled with incredible women of comedy. Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler... These women brilliantly stick out in the world of comedy, a world that was for too long completely male dominated. Sure they stand on the shoulders of many hilarious women who came before them, Lucille Ball, Fanny Brice, Whoopi - to name a few. But either way, I think these ladies are pushing the envelope, their voicing opinions on things that need to be addressed and not apologizing for any of it. If you couldn't tell, I really admire these women. So in honour of this, I thought I would share some of my favourite 'lady memoirs' from just a few incredible women of comedy.
“Do your thing and don't care if they like it.”
“I will leave you with one last piece of advice, which is: If you’ve got it, flaunt it. And if you don’t got it? Flaunt it. ’Cause what are we even doing here if we’re not flaunting it?”
- Mindy Kaling, Why Not Me?
“When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.”
- Caitlin Moran, How To Be a Woman
“I think we should stop asking people in their twenties what they “want to do” and start asking them what they don’t want to do.”
- Yes Please, Amy Poehler
