The Girl's Guide

Issue 106: Makings of a Memoir (feat. Carrie Sheffield)

Welcome to a special anniversary edition of The Girl’s Guide! If you missed the most recent issue, find it here.

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Three Years of The Girl’s Guide

This week marks three years of The Girl’s Guide! I started the newsletter as a way to write about something other than politics (which was my main gig at the time). I am still so humbled that hundreds of you tune in every week to hear my thoughts on style, relationships, and whatever else pops into my head when I’m at my laptop. In honor of The Girl’s Guide’s three-year anniversary, here are my most popular posts from past years that you may have missed. (And if you really enjoy time capsules — check out my first-ever newsletter here!)

2021’s Top Post: The Best Things in Life Are Freebies

Who doesn’t love free stuff? I shared tips I’ve collected over the years for saving your hard-earned cash. I’ve gotten some questions on getting the most out of Facebook Buy Nothing groups, and while it is hard to stay on top of all the posts to get the best stuff, I recommend figuring out when most of the posts seem to get made and staying on top of your Facebook notifications at that time. Read the newsletter here.

2022’s Top Post: Is Dating a Bear Market?

There’s a lot of doom and gloom these days about dating. Here’s my take on why you should be optimistic — and what you can do to take charge of your dating life, whether you’re a guy or a girl. Let’s call this my best Carrie Bradshaw impression. Read the newsletter here.

2023’s Top Post: The Firstborn Daughters Club

Whether you’re a firstborn daughter or just have firstborn daughter tendencies (I’ll admit, we firstborns can be just the teensiest bit bossy), you’ll want to read this one. Learning to balance having goals with having fun seems like it should be easy — until you try it. Read the newsletter here.

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So there you have it, a little trip down The Girl’s Guide memory lane! And yes, this newsletter was originally called The Girly Girl’s Guide to DC. (It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue.)

Have a topic you want me to cover in the future? Send me a note by replying to this email or send an anonymous question via this form.

Interview with Carrie Sheffield

This week, I am interviewing author

Carrie Sheffield

about her brand-new memoir, Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness. Follow her on Twitter to keep up with her book events.

The book summary is as follows:

In the vein of Educated and Hillbilly Elegy comes a young woman’s memoir chronicling her harrowing journey from despair to salvation that showcases the depths and resilience of the human spirit and empowers readers on their own paths toward healing, forgiveness, and redemption.
 
Carrie Sheffield grew up fifth of eight children with a violent, mentally ill, street-musician father who believed he was a modern-day Mormon prophet destined to become U.S. president someday. She and her seven siblings were often forced to live as vagabonds, remaining on the move across the country. They frequently subsisted in sheds, tents, and, most notably, motorhomes. They often lived a dysfunctional drifter existence, camping out in their motorhome in Walmart parking lots. Carrie attended 17 public schools and homeschool, all while performing classical music on the streets and passing out fire-and-brimstone religious pamphlets — at times while child custody workers loomed. 
 
Carrie’s father was eventually excommunicated from the official LDS Church, and she was the first of her siblings to escape the toxic brainwashing of his fundamentalist creed. Declared legally estranged from her parents, Carrie struggled with her mental health during college and for most of her adult life. But she eventually seized control of her life, transcended her troubled past, and overcame her toxic inner voice (and a near death experience) — thanks to the power of forgiveness, cultivated through her conversion to Christianity. She evolved from a scared and abused motorhome-dwelling girl to a Harvard-educated professional with a passion for empowering others to reject the cycles of poverty, depression, and self-hatred.

Motorhome Prophecies is the story of Carrie’s unbelievable, yet in many ways, very American journey. It resonates with those trapped in difficult situations and awes all who are enchanted by the depths and resilience of the human spirit.

Without further ado, here is my Q&A with Carrie.

What does your life look like right now? 

My life is very full right now with my book launch and my new outreach to help connect mental health and spirituality. I am excited to be touring the country — I have already spoken at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, also in Georgetown in DC and will be speaking in Manhattan and Brooklyn soon, along with Nashville, Kansas City and Salt Lake City and universities like Harvard, Yale and New College of Florida. 

I am very involved in my church community through singing and playing my violin. I play for several churches where I can play both the classical traditional styles and the more contemporary Christian styles as well. At my home, I love to collect plants, small trees, and also artwork.

“I am very involved in my church community through singing and playing my violin.” - Carrie Sheffield

What was your experience like writing Motorhome Prophecies?

This was a painful book to write, but it was also cathartic and healing as well. It was helpful for me to identify some toxic family patterns that I was reproducing in my own life, especially in my dating choices. I was repeating the pattern of my mother by enabling and upholding toxic partners the way my mother does for my father throughout their entire marriage, which is 49 years this year. 

I knew by the time I got to high school that my life was not normal in some terrible ways, but I didn't necessarily think about writing a memoir until I was about age 29. At that time I wrote about 20,000 words over the next three years. But then I put everything on the shelf to start a media company in 2015, and I'm glad I did because the original draft had me as a very negative and bitter agnostic who was very angry with God or the idea of God. (I didn't even know if I believed whether God exists. If there was a God why was there so much suffering in my life and the lives of many others?) Eventually, I was baptized in December 2017, and I didn't pick up writing the book again until late 2021. By that point, my view on faith and God and forgiveness had completely changed, and so this is a completely different book. I call this my "Paul book" whereas the first version was my "Saul book."

“My personal journey from abuse and trauma to peace is also proof of God's healing and redemptive power.” - Carrie Sheffield

What do you hope readers take away from your book? 

My prayer with Motorhome Prophecies is to provide relief and empathy for the suffering and compassionate insight for those seeking to help. I report on resounding scientific research showing faith and religious communities heal depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. My personal journey from abuse and trauma to peace is also proof of God's healing and redemptive power.

What are your favorite topics to research and write about right now? 

Right now, I am very focused on the mental health crisis affecting our country. We have the highest suicide rate since 1941, the aftershocks of the Great Depression. We have the highest number of suicides ever, almost 50,000 people in 2022, the most recent year available. That means an entire football stadium of people taking their own lives. This is 15 times the number of people who died on 9/11. We also have the highest depression rates among young people ever seen. The suicide rate for Gen Z women is almost double what it was for Gen X women when they were young. The long-term trajectory of our country is at risk if we do not heal our minds and allow ourselves to create healthy cognitive behavior and healthy relationships in the real world with people around us. Unfortunately, social media has created false intimacies and is driving people apart. This does not bode well for the creation of families and strong community bonds.

What's a passion or hobby you have that surprises people? 

I love to travel! I traveled to every continent before I turned 30 (I celebrated my 30th in Sydney, Australia), including Antarctica, which was breathtakingly magical and cleansing.

You can purchase Carrie’s book here.

The Haps

Oscars Ratings Barely Budge Despite Barbenheimer

Did you tune into the Academy Awards on Sunday night? Yeah, me neither. Why bother when you can see the most interesting clips on social media? (This year, the most viral clip HAD to be Ryan Gosling’s musical number.) That’s my theory to explain why Oscars ratings are just “meh” lately. Despite the cinematic juggernaut that was Barbie/Oppenheimer, the Awards’ ratings only jumped 4%. Read more here.

Soak in the applause, Ryan. You earned it.

Keeping Track of All the Kate Conspiracies

Where is the Princess of Wales? Surely, she can’t hide from the public forever. Even Americans have suddenly become Royal experts as they delve into Kate-gate, but I don’t think we’ll ever truly know why Kate is going so long between public appearances. Even though I appreciate all the inventive (translation: crazy) conspiracy theories circulating on social media, I think something like

Emily Zanotti

’s take makes much more sense (read it here).

Where in the world is Kate Middleton?

Here are more links to what I’m reading (and cooking) lately:

• Let her cook...sourdough cinnamon rolls: I just started baking sourdough bread (with varied success). I can’t wait to try this recipe from

  Helen Roy
  when I get a little more confident in my skills.

• Reflections on the State of the Union: In case you missed President Biden’s State of the Union address, Freda Donnelly has got you covered.

• ‘Halo’ video game composer running for Congress in Nevada: Composer Marty O’Donnell will have the youth vote on lock.

• PSA: Red Flats Make Every Outfit More Fun: Adding a pop of red with shoes is a great way to warm up your outfits as we transition from winter to spring. Bonus: Evie Magazine just published a list of the cutest Mary Janes, including several red options.

Substack Spotlight

If you like my Substack, then chances are you will enjoy these Substack newsletters:

Bad Trad Mom by

Katrina Hutchins

: Katrina’s Substack is back from hiatus and you should be paying attention! Her latest piece is a response to the HATERS who don’t want to hear, let alone see, a baby at the bar. Read it here.

Ikigai, in My Mind's Eye by

Andrea Mew

: You might recognize Andrea from her Evie Magazine articles, or maybe even my 2023 interview with her! Her first foray into the world of Substack is a love letter to homemade nut butter — and why nourishing ourselves is an act of love in its own right. Read it here.

Got Merch?

The Girl’s Guide now has MERCH thanks to my collaboration with 917 Strategies, the conservative PR firm recently founded by Sarah Selip. Sarah has an entire merch shop you’ll want to check out, and I’m very excited for our "Girl’s Girl ≠ Feminist” collection available now. It’s a cheeky way to acknowledge that just because you don’t feel like you can get behind modern feminism, that doesn’t mean you love or support your fellow women any less.

Use promo code GIRLSGUIDE15 to get 15% off your mug, tote bag, or sticker! And be sure to tag me in any photos of your merch you post online.