A review by aelbergan
Invisible: How Young Women with Serious Health Issues Navigate Work, Relationships, and the Pressure to Seem Just Fine by Michele Lent Hirsch

5.0

I really think that everyone should read this book. As a young woman who seems "just fine", I regularly get told that I "don't look sick", am "too young", or should just try yoga/a juice cleanse/acupuncture/going vegan/essential oils/anything else. Especially during a pandemic, dealing with invisible illnesses is a struggle, especially when so many of my peers are flouting the rules because COVID "isn't that bad for our age group". And all of this is nothing compared to what women of color, non-cis women, and non-femme-presenting women with health issues face. If you have firsthand experience with a serious health issue, you'll finish this book feeling less alone. If you don't, you'll hopefully finish this book with a new way of looking at people, and of addressing your own ableism and sexism. It's a fairly quick read with a lot of different narratives and different perspectives, so this book is really engaging. Speaking on behalf of all the young women who have experienced ableist microagressions in their day-to-day life: please, please give this a read!