If You Don’t Like This, I Will Die - Lee Tilghman
“If You Don’t Like This, I Will Die” by Lee Tilghman turned out to be my most recent five-star read. In her memoir, Tilghman tells us about her ups and downs as an Instagram wellness influencer with over 200,000 followers.
On the one hand, it was really interesting to see how the author created a highly successful career from her posts. Hours of styling, editing, and more went into each photo of her curated smoothies and other health products, and the efforts were not fruitless, because they led Tilghman to sponsorship deals and travel for big name brands, resulting in a comfortable income.
Many youngsters dream of such online fame these days, but Tilghman’s story unveils the darker side to her seemingly glamorous life. Sooner rather than later, the author finds herself captive to the creation of the perfect photo at any given time, taking the enjoyment out of social gathering. There are truly only so many hours in a day to spend on the many posts that need to hit her following just so. She begins to feel isolated, losing friends and perhaps even family in the process.
Tilghman makes an astute observation in the book: that her addiction to social media is perhaps mirrored in an eating disorder as an adolescent, and perhaps even the drug habit as a young adult.
That’s where the book really began to shine for me, as I found myself in her story via my own history with anorexia. It makes me so happy that Tilghman includes the recently coined orthorexia diagnosis in her writings–because it is all too easy to fall into an obsession with healthy eating after needing to step away from not eating.
All in all, this is a page-turning five-star read for me, and I’m sure for many of us out there who are only beginning to understand the dangers social media has bestowed upon us without our knowledge.
Thank you for this wonderful book to the author and to Simon and Schuster, who graciously offered an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for a review. I am ashamed to say I’m late with my review; life threw a bunch of lemons my way, though they’re already in the juicer, rest assured! On-time reviews to follow.
Out August 12th, 2025.
