Thirty-Life Crisis

June 10, 2019
Actor and YouTube personality Schwartz recounts the lows of life in her 30s in an occasionally amusing debut memoir. Schwartz’s observations are standard fare: “The minute you turn thirty, everything starts to change... your metabolism gets slower, and your friends get married and have babies.” Schwartz admits to having a “disdain for love, marriage, and childbirth” and discusses how her annoyance with gender-reveal parties grew to the point that she considered setting up a gift registry for herself to offset the cost of attending other people’s parties. Throughout, she offers well-meaning but generic advice on topics including friendship (“stick with the friends you made in middle school”) and online dating (“treat it like a full-time job”). The strongest sections delve into Schwartz’s struggles with anxiety, her body image issues, and her relationship with fellow YouTuber Shane Dawson. Schwartz and Dawson—each with millions of subscribers—documented their romance on YouTube until their relationship ended in 2015 when Dawson posted a video announcing that he was bisexual. Schwartz too sparingly discusses her YouTube career, which is a shame as it’s the most unique part of her story. This memoir about growing older (sometimes gracelessly) will appeal most to Schwartz’s YouTube fans, particularly those approaching 30.