Put On Your Crown by Queen Latifah - Review

Queen Latifah has been an inspiration for many women. Women of all sizes and races can look up to her as a genuine role model. Put On Your Crown, written by Queen Latifah isn’t your regular self-help book. The Queen shares with all of us about her life and how she became the Queen she is today.

Book Description
Modeled after Maria Shriver's Just Who Will You Be, Queen Latifah's goal with Put On Your Crown is to help young women build a strong sense of self-esteem. A US Dept. of Justice survey found that females ages 16-24 are more vulnerable to partner violence than any other group, almost triple the national average. Cases like Chris Brown's assault on pop star Rihanna showed an ugly side of adolescent life. However, Queen Latifah has always been a shining example of a woman happy with herself and unwilling to compromise to fit into the "hollywood ideal" of what a confident beautiful woman should look like.

My Thoughts
Queen Latifah has accomplished so much in her life – much of which I didn’t even realize until I read this book. She is an Oscar nominated actress, Grammy winner, Cover Girl, and entrepreneur.

This isn’t a how-to become a Queen book. It is a book about how Queen Latifah became who she is today. She gives out some very good advice to her readers, and really shares about her life. Reading this book is like having a conversation with the Queen herself. She really makes it feel like she is talking directly to you – not something easily accomplished in such books.

Throughout Put On Your Crown, Queen Latifah shares with us her struggles with things like weight, successes in her career, extreme sadness and grief from the loss of her brother, how her mother helped the students she taught, and so much more.

One of the stories that stuck with me most was the loss of her brother. He died in a motorcycle accident and she was overcome with grief. She was able to pull herself through and while it wasn’t easy, shows how she did it, and was even able to ride her motorcycle again too.

Another thing that really makes me love Queen Latifah even more is the fact that her best friend is her mom too. I’m also very close with my mom. I consider her my best friend too. Her mom was an art teacher at a high school where the students had really hard home lives and had to go through so much in their lives. She explained how she would have them write positive things about themselves at the beginning of the year and tell them to post it on their mirror in the bathroom to read while brushing their teeth. I was so inspired, I actually did this too. I really admire her mom for taking such care for her students. It is really teachers like this that make a difference in the world.

I highly recommend Put On Your Crown. It is a fantastic book for those who need some inspiration and the Queen delivers.


* Thank you to the publisher of Put On Your Crown, Hachette Book Group for providing me with a copy of the book for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.