Reviews
"This book is moving, heartfelt, incisive, and bitingly funny. This isn't just a beautiful read, it's also an invitation to live better, messier, and more truthfully. I loved it!"-- Amber Ruffin, host of The Amber Ruffin Show and New York Times bestselling author of You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, Author and narrator Brandon Goodman brings their thoughtful and joyful performance to an audiobook that explores what we might have become without the destructive messages given to us while growing up. . .With an actor's ability to perform and the emotions lingering from lived experience, Goodman makes listeners laugh and cry in equal measure. They share important lessons, and their powerful performance makes this audiobook resonate long after it ends. -- Audiofile, "bell hooks once wrote that our society has no places where we can go to learn how to love. Brandon Kyle Goodman's You Gotta Be You answers her call. This work is a laboratory of love: an essential companion for our journeys toward self-actualization. With practical lessons, trenchant political critique, generosity, wit, and panache, Goodman is a lighthouse for those struggling to find themselves (read: everyone). Their knack for holding multiple truths is honest and refreshing: this book is both self-help and collective responsibility, both mental health and macro politics, and all love."-- Alok Vaid-Menon, author of Beyond the Gender Binary, "Brandon's voice will empower you to the very core. After reading this refreshingly conversational and honest book, it's impossible not to share his infectious lust for life and passion for both self-acceptance and self-love. Brandon reminds us we're always on our path of becoming. Reading this will make you feel braver, brighter and bolder along your journey. I know I did!" -- Lily Collins, actress and author of Unfiltered
Synopsis
From the time we're born, a litany of do's and don'ts are placed on us by our families, our communities, and society. We're required to fit into boxes based on our race, gender, sexuality, and other parts of our identities, being told by others how we should behave, who we should date, or what we should be interested in. For so many of us, those boxes begin to feel like shackles when we realize they don't fit our unique shape, yet we keep trying because we crave acceptance and validation. But is "fitting in" worth the time, energy, and suffering? Actor, writer, and activist Brandon Kyle Goodman says, Hell no it ain't! As a Black nonbinary, queer person in a dark-skinned 6'1", 180-pound male body born into a religious immigrant household, Brandon knows the pain of having to hide one's true self, the work of learning to love that true self, and the freedom of finally being your true self.In You Gotta Be You , Brandon affectionately challenges you to consider, "Who would I be if society never got its hands on me?" This question set Brandon on a mission to dropkick societal shackles by unlearning all the things he was told he should be in order to step into who he really is. It required him to reexamine messy but ultimately defining moments in his life-his first time being followed in a store, navigating his mother's born-again Christianity, and regretfully using soap as lube (yes, you read that right!)-to find the lessons that would guide him to his most authentic self.Compassionate and soulful, funny and revealing, You Gotta Be You is an unapologetic call to self-freedom. It's about turning rejection (from others and yourself) into a roadmap to self-love. It's a guide to setting boundaries and fostering self-growth. And most importantly, it's an affirmation that we are enough exactly as we are., You are enough exactly as you are. From the time we're born, a litany of do's and don'ts are placed on us by our families, our communities, and society. Be it how we should behave, who we should date, or what we should be interested in, we're required to fit into boxes based on our race, gender, sexuality, and other parts of our identities. For so many of us, those boxes begin to feel like shackles when we realize they don't fit our unique shape, yet we keep trying because we crave acceptance and validation. But is "fitting in" worth the time, energy, and suffering? Actor, writer, and activist Brandon Kyle Goodman says, Hell no it ain't! As a Black nonbinary, queer person in a dark-skinned 6'1", 180 lb. male body born into a religious immigrant household, Brandon knows the pain of having to hide one's true self, the work of learning to love that true self, and the freedom of finally being your true self. In You Gotta Be You , Brandon affectionately challenges you to consider, "Who would I be if society never got its hands on me?" This question set Brandon on a mission to dropkick societal shackles by unlearning all the things he was told he should be in order to step into who he really is. It required him to reexamine messy but ultimately defining moments in his life--his first time being followed in a store, navigating his mother's Born-Again religion, and regretfully using soap as lube (yes, you read that right!)--to find the lessons that would guide him to his most authentic self. Compassionate and soulful, funny and revealing, You Gotta Be You is an unapologetic call to self-freedom. It's about turning rejection (from others and yourself) into a roadmap to self-love. It's a guide to setting boundaries and fostering self-growth. And most importantly, it's an affirmation that we are enough exactly as we are ., Audible's Best of the Year in Well-Being YOU ARE ENOUGH EXACTLY AS YOU ARE. From the time we're born, a litany of do's and don'ts are placed on us by our families, our communities, and society. We're required to fit into boxes based on our race, gender, sexuality, and other parts of our identities, being told by others how we should behave, who we should date, or what we should be interested in. For so many of us, those boxes begin to feel like shackles when we realize they don't fit our unique shape, yet we keep trying because we crave acceptance and validation. But is "fitting in" worth the time, energy, and suffering? Actor, writer, and activist Brandon Kyle Goodman says, Hell no it ain't! As a Black nonbinary, queer person in a dark-skinned 6'1", 180-pound male body born into a religious immigrant household, Brandon knows the pain of having to hide one's true self, the work of learning to love that true self, and the freedom of finally being your true self. In You Gotta Be You , Brandon affectionately challenges you to consider, "Who would I be if society never got its hands on me?" This question set Brandon on a mission to dropkick societal shackles by unlearning all the things he was told he should be in order to step into who he really is. It required him to reexamine messy but ultimately defining moments in his life--his first time being followed in a store, navigating his mother's born-again Christianity, and regretfully using soap as lube (yes, you read that right!)--to find the lessons that would guide him to his most authentic self. Compassionate and soulful, funny and revealing, You Gotta Be You is an unapologetic call to self-freedom. It's about turning rejection (from others and yourself) into a roadmap to self-love. It's a guide to setting boundaries and fostering self-growth. And most importantly, it's an affirmation that we are enough exactly as we are.
