Genre: Memoir
Published: August 4, 2015
Pages: 256
Ages: 12+
Synopsis
One of YouTube’s top beauty and fashion influencers offers her motivational manual on finding your passion, building confidence, and creating your own success story.
After emigrating from Mexico at six years old with her family, Dulce Candy Ruiz spent her formative years in a trailer park, watching her parents work in strawberry fields. After high school, Dulce joined the military as a mechanic and was soon deployed to Iraq, fixing generators in an environment that forced this bubbly girlie-girl to blend in. Tired of wearing fatigues and no makeup for weeks on end, Dulce started filming makeup tutorials and posting them to YouTube to reclaim her femininity—and have a little fun. In just a few years, Dulce has skyrocketed into superstardom with the creation of her YouTube channel, Dulce Candy—which now has more than two million subscribers—becoming one of the site’s top beauty and fashion influencers, transforming Dulce from a shy, self-doubting army specialist into a risk-taking businesswoman, confident role model, and beauty expert.
THE SWEET LIFE chronicles Dulce Candy’s inspiring story, sharing her hard-won wisdom about finding your passion, answering opportunity when it knocks on your door, and overcoming failure. She emphasizes the importance of inner and outer beauty and being true to yourself, embracing the things that make you unique and using them to live your dreams, including practical advice on building your career (“keep your role models close but your mentors closer”), staying focused when the going gets tough (“progress, not perfection”), and balancing the personal and professional (“don’t settle, settle down”).
After emigrating from Mexico at six years old with her family, Dulce Candy Ruiz spent her formative years in a trailer park, watching her parents work in strawberry fields. After high school, Dulce joined the military as a mechanic and was soon deployed to Iraq, fixing generators in an environment that forced this bubbly girlie-girl to blend in. Tired of wearing fatigues and no makeup for weeks on end, Dulce started filming makeup tutorials and posting them to YouTube to reclaim her femininity—and have a little fun. In just a few years, Dulce has skyrocketed into superstardom with the creation of her YouTube channel, Dulce Candy—which now has more than two million subscribers—becoming one of the site’s top beauty and fashion influencers, transforming Dulce from a shy, self-doubting army specialist into a risk-taking businesswoman, confident role model, and beauty expert.
THE SWEET LIFE chronicles Dulce Candy’s inspiring story, sharing her hard-won wisdom about finding your passion, answering opportunity when it knocks on your door, and overcoming failure. She emphasizes the importance of inner and outer beauty and being true to yourself, embracing the things that make you unique and using them to live your dreams, including practical advice on building your career (“keep your role models close but your mentors closer”), staying focused when the going gets tough (“progress, not perfection”), and balancing the personal and professional (“don’t settle, settle down”).
Review
I won a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program in the hopes that I would leave an honest review.
You may have figured out by now that I am not a make-up person (I never have it on in any of the pictures I post with my reviews) and Dulce Candy Ruiz is very much a make-up person, so we're almost polar opposites. This fact had me a little worried going into this book, but I shouldn't have been. Mostly, this book isn't about make-up, at least not directly.
For me this book read a lot like a more mature version of Miley Cyrus's Miles To Go, especially the beginning where Dulce Candy talks about her childhood. Although the two childhoods were vastly different, the tone of voice while discussing them was similar. It was very conversational and I was very intrigued.
When the book moved on to the business aspect of Dulce Candy's life, I started to lose interest. It was still the same conversational tone, but it wasn't as engaging for me. In spite of that, I felt like the author made some very great points about life in general; a person doesn't have to dream of YouTube stardom to benefit from them.
I would recommend this book most to teenage girls; girls who can still benefit from the lessons of Dulce Candy's life before the make some of the same mistakes she did growing up. Girls that have likely been following her, or Jenna Marbles, or some other fashion and beauty vlogger. Not only would they relate better than I did, but they have more to learn too.
Overall I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. - Katie
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About the Author
Dulce Candy Ruiz is the creator of the beauty and fashion channel Dulce Candy on YouTube and runs the popular lifestyle blog DulceCandy.com. She has been featured in many publications, including Seventeen, Allure, and Glamour, and on television shows such as Good Morning America, the Rachael Ray Show, and Lifetime’s Project Runway. In 2013, Latina magazine named her one of their Latinas of the Year. She lives in California with her husband and son.
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