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Box Girl
When 22-year-old Lilibet Snellings moved to Los Angeles on a whim, she unintentionally became a �slash” to keep her head above water—a writer/waitress/actress/Box Girl. One night each week, Lilibet would go to The Standard Hotel in West Hollywood, don a pair of white boy shorts with a matching tank, touch up her lip gloss, and crawl into a giant glass case behind the front desk. There, she could do whatever she wanted—check email, catch up on reading, even sleep—as long as she ignored the many hotel guests who would point and ask the staff, �Is she allowed to use the bathroom?” (Yes.)
Dog-paddling through her twenties, Snellings resisted financial bailouts (for the most part) from her sweet Southern mother and business-oriented dad, while pondering her peculiar position as a human art installation. Was she a piece of art or a piece of ass? Was she allowed to read both Walt Whitman and US Weekly as she lounged in an oversized, waterless aquarium behind a hotel concierge desk? From misinterpreting a modeling agency interview as a talent audition, to avoiding Bond-girl-style deaths at New Year’s Eve parties, Snellings shares and laughs at her many mishaps while living in LA.
Dog-paddling through her twenties, Snellings resisted financial bailouts (for the most part) from her sweet Southern mother and business-oriented dad, while pondering her peculiar position as a human art installation. Was she a piece of art or a piece of ass? Was she allowed to read both Walt Whitman and US Weekly as she lounged in an oversized, waterless aquarium behind a hotel concierge desk? From misinterpreting a modeling agency interview as a talent audition, to avoiding Bond-girl-style deaths at New Year’s Eve parties, Snellings shares and laughs at her many mishaps while living in LA.
272 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
October 6, 2014
Light and easy. A nice diversion from deep memoirs filled with trauma. Very little to tie all the essays together, and the title is misleading. That's okay since this is hardly a philosophical magnum opus. If you cringe at privilege, don't read this.
Her best little essays are about her parents. They sound fun.
Her best little essays are about her parents. They sound fun.
July 16, 2014
Damn, this book was bad. I picked this up because I'm a figure drawing model and thought it might be somewhat relatable. It isn't, but that isn't the book's job nor is it my reason for such a low rating. This book is barely even about her job as a Box Girl and clearly just wanted to write about her pretty boring life under the guise of this quirky job that you might want to read about. If you want to read a book about a girl whose biggest problems are that she is pretty enough to be mistaken for a model but not actually be a model, that she is scraping by on her waitressing money because she is too proud to ask for cash from her parents who she describes as "firmly planted in the 1 percent", and how she ultimately winds up like the snobby people she waited on because, duh, then please, read this mess of a memoir. You also may come in contact with some micro-racist and ableist remarks along the way, and trite references to Didion and Whitman.
did-not-finish
January 1, 2016Gave up on this one about halfway through. The premise sounded fascinating, a girl playing the part of artwork once a week in a clear glass box, seemingly oblivious to everyone watching her.
Alas, while the bits that were actually about that topic were interesting enough, the book meanders quite a bit, telling the story of the author's life in LA. I should have gathered that by the last paragraph of the summary, but I was too distracted the art-display description. I'm sure many will enjoy this, but for me it just didn't hold my attention.
Alas, while the bits that were actually about that topic were interesting enough, the book meanders quite a bit, telling the story of the author's life in LA. I should have gathered that by the last paragraph of the summary, but I was too distracted the art-display description. I'm sure many will enjoy this, but for me it just didn't hold my attention.
August 9, 2015
Not sure I'm going to finish. Snellings' book isn't bad, just not very interesting.
June 12, 2014
Coming from Georgia/Connecticut (East Coast/South) and landing in Venice, on the opposite side of LA, her and I have had very different Los Angeles experiences. I was born and raised in LA, but all east of the 101, and one could practically claim we lived in different cities.
In Box Girl, Lilibet talks about being raised by a family "firmly planted in the one percent," with a Southern, liberal mother and a staunch, republican father; she discusses having a core group of 3 friends while entertaining herself in a "top five party school," hanging out in the pool while looking for a job afterwards, and eventually becoming a "slash"--in her case, writer/model/waitress/actress, including working at a modeling agency and acting in a few commercials.
Though I've worked many jobs in the struggle to pay the rent and reach adulthood, I've never been someone whose livelihood depended on their looks (not to mention, I'm a bit of a late bloomer). I was raised in a mixed-race, middle-class family (with two moms), I went to school in the very liberal Johnston Program at the University of Redlands and graduated without grades, and I've always struggled to find my niche.
What I found in Box Girl is the story of another young, lost but ambitious, struggling girl who was dropped into an economically difficult climate with no idea where to go, who wanted independence, freedom, and a financial stability that wasn't dependent on her parents. This, she captured beautifully--the unique pain that comes from knowing you have choices but not knowing how to pursue them, or which to pursue, or how to even try, all while finding a way to pay rent. The questions that you have to face in that mid-twenties, quarter-life-crisis moment that feel like they will determine not just what you're going to be doing next week but somehow, uncontrollably, the rest of your life, and the fear that comes from facing them. And, in the end, the clarity with which you can look back on these years only a few months or a year later, having "made it through" in a way, after growing so much in so short a time, with the security of knowing that it worked out in the end.
It's amazing how quickly you change between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-nine. Though you've probably shed the pure narcissism of being a teen, life still feels like it revolves entirely around you in that unique, self-obsessed way of youth. If I could go back and tell my twenty-one or twenty-two-year-old self that "it get's better"...well...I probably wouldn't have believed it from me, either. Instead, I'll be trying to put a copy of Box Girl in the hands of every lost twenty-something I see, saying "Yes, I know you're busy looking for where life is going to take you, but trust me--this will help."
In Box Girl, Lilibet talks about being raised by a family "firmly planted in the one percent," with a Southern, liberal mother and a staunch, republican father; she discusses having a core group of 3 friends while entertaining herself in a "top five party school," hanging out in the pool while looking for a job afterwards, and eventually becoming a "slash"--in her case, writer/model/waitress/actress, including working at a modeling agency and acting in a few commercials.
Though I've worked many jobs in the struggle to pay the rent and reach adulthood, I've never been someone whose livelihood depended on their looks (not to mention, I'm a bit of a late bloomer). I was raised in a mixed-race, middle-class family (with two moms), I went to school in the very liberal Johnston Program at the University of Redlands and graduated without grades, and I've always struggled to find my niche.
What I found in Box Girl is the story of another young, lost but ambitious, struggling girl who was dropped into an economically difficult climate with no idea where to go, who wanted independence, freedom, and a financial stability that wasn't dependent on her parents. This, she captured beautifully--the unique pain that comes from knowing you have choices but not knowing how to pursue them, or which to pursue, or how to even try, all while finding a way to pay rent. The questions that you have to face in that mid-twenties, quarter-life-crisis moment that feel like they will determine not just what you're going to be doing next week but somehow, uncontrollably, the rest of your life, and the fear that comes from facing them. And, in the end, the clarity with which you can look back on these years only a few months or a year later, having "made it through" in a way, after growing so much in so short a time, with the security of knowing that it worked out in the end.
It's amazing how quickly you change between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-nine. Though you've probably shed the pure narcissism of being a teen, life still feels like it revolves entirely around you in that unique, self-obsessed way of youth. If I could go back and tell my twenty-one or twenty-two-year-old self that "it get's better"...well...I probably wouldn't have believed it from me, either. Instead, I'll be trying to put a copy of Box Girl in the hands of every lost twenty-something I see, saying "Yes, I know you're busy looking for where life is going to take you, but trust me--this will help."
January 17, 2015
I was amazed after reading this novel to look on Goodreads and see that it only had 26 ratings. Like really amazed. Though I guess it makes sense, considering it only came out in March… I loved this book. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s inspiring and hopeful while refraining from being didactic.
Lilibeth Snellings graduated from college in Colorado, hoping for a career in journalism. She ended up living in L.A., working as a waitress/model/actress/writer/Box Girl. So, hold up? What is a “Box Girl”? A box girl refers to one of the several woman who are hired to be a part of a performance art piece in the L.A. hotel the Standard. The woman hired work one night a week, dressed in small white clothes, and basically lounge around a glass box that is not big enough for them to stand in. They can read, they can sleep, they can talk on the phone. And, yes, they are allowed to leave to use the bathroom.
This is not just an interesting story, though. Snellings is a really good writer. Like, really good, in my opinion. She varies between describing a night in the box to her life prior to the job to her general observations about being in your 20s. She dissects L.A. culture, art, the modeling and acting industries, writing, and “quarter-life crises” all with a lot of talent and humor.
I’m kind of glad in a way that I haven’t seen a lot of other reviews about this book because I feel like this has the merit to become a big hit (and I’ll get to say I was one of the first to read it). Snellings is both humorous and insightful about her life in a box. She doesn’t judge herself, just as she doesn’t judge the L.A. people who surround her, while she also acknowledges the absurdity and downsides of the job. She describes the people who watch her and what they say, she comments on technology today and the idea of how we are all “voyeurs” in today’s society.
This is more than just an amusing life story. It’s a real analysis of life in your 20s in modern society, told with a lot of grace and thoughtfulness. I really enjoyed it.
Lilibeth Snellings graduated from college in Colorado, hoping for a career in journalism. She ended up living in L.A., working as a waitress/model/actress/writer/Box Girl. So, hold up? What is a “Box Girl”? A box girl refers to one of the several woman who are hired to be a part of a performance art piece in the L.A. hotel the Standard. The woman hired work one night a week, dressed in small white clothes, and basically lounge around a glass box that is not big enough for them to stand in. They can read, they can sleep, they can talk on the phone. And, yes, they are allowed to leave to use the bathroom.
This is not just an interesting story, though. Snellings is a really good writer. Like, really good, in my opinion. She varies between describing a night in the box to her life prior to the job to her general observations about being in your 20s. She dissects L.A. culture, art, the modeling and acting industries, writing, and “quarter-life crises” all with a lot of talent and humor.
I’m kind of glad in a way that I haven’t seen a lot of other reviews about this book because I feel like this has the merit to become a big hit (and I’ll get to say I was one of the first to read it). Snellings is both humorous and insightful about her life in a box. She doesn’t judge herself, just as she doesn’t judge the L.A. people who surround her, while she also acknowledges the absurdity and downsides of the job. She describes the people who watch her and what they say, she comments on technology today and the idea of how we are all “voyeurs” in today’s society.
This is more than just an amusing life story. It’s a real analysis of life in your 20s in modern society, told with a lot of grace and thoughtfulness. I really enjoyed it.
July 20, 2016
Snellings does a great job of capturing that untethered feeling you might have in your 20's if you come from a particular background: educated, with a secure parental financial safety net, which gives you freedom, but puts no less pressure on you to find out who you are becoming. The frivolous and romantic notion that too much choice is just as bad as no choice at all. Not sure I agree, but Snellins could have taken this memoir and turned it into something gimmicky, but instead I think she took an honest look at her experiences, related them to the "box experience" and does so in a breezy, conversational and thoughtful way--without being too, too serious about it.
March 10, 2014
Most fun I've had reading in a long time! Lilibet's tales in LA made me long for my 20s and be extremely glad they are over at the same time. I appreciated her honesty about that unsure and exciting time of life and I hope to see more from her in the future!!
August 10, 2016
I went to school with Lilibet's brother and picked up the book out of idle curiosity. I was impressed immediately with her wit and perspective on life. This was an enjoyable read.
July 21, 2019
I did not think this was very good, but in Snellings's defense, I am the wrong demographic.
August 21, 2024
about a woman with a college education who works a string of odd jobs for income with hopes of being a writer. she ends up being a performance artist when one night a week she resides in a glass box behind the counter at a hotel check in?
there are also adult versions of this activity. lumbering list of odd jobs, uh, yeah, like readin' 'bout yer own work experiences, ugg. no pix? (nope)
there are also adult versions of this activity. lumbering list of odd jobs, uh, yeah, like readin' 'bout yer own work experiences, ugg. no pix? (nope)
March 18, 2019
I finished this all in one sitting! That's rare for me these days to do!
I have to say, there were some things I felt like made me uncomfortable like near the end of the book with the guy. I loved it overall.
I have to say, there were some things I felt like made me uncomfortable like near the end of the book with the guy. I loved it overall.
April 24, 2023
This book was such a freakin' mess! I could only get through around 110 pages before wanting to ignite this book for a fire (it has to be good for something). I was really looking forward to this read as the premise chimed of an eclectic artistic individual choosing to do something rather niche ( 'out of the box' ...no pun intended) . The actual title and subject matter reflected around 8% of this book (from the portion I managed to read). The rest is a hodge podge of random thoughts. I cannot even say this is a memoir because those are better organized. This book is ramblings (for the most part) of this authors' collection of random jobs in Hollywood. I live in Los Angeles and I did not find any of her stories particularly interesting or insightful. The chapters were not well constructed and not interesting (who cares to read about another waitress/actress/wanna be model cliche). Too many trees died for this book (one is too many). NOTE: I would choose ZERO stars if this were an option.
September 11, 2016
Snellings does a nice job of putting her personality onto the pages. One of the main things I took from this book is that we would probably be friends.
And it's hard not to laugh at Lilibet's LA-rite-of-passage accounts. Whether proudly arriving at an interview under the impression she was being considered for modeling work only to learn that the job was an administrative assistant position or spending all day shooting an episode of Entourage convinced that she was being featured in a scene but learning upon the episode's airing that she'd been recast in the close angle and blocked out in the wide, my guess is that these situations deal in an awkwardness special to La La Land to which many will relate and many more will find amusing.
I think the great unanswered questions are, "Did she ever take drugs in the box" and "How was that?"
And it's hard not to laugh at Lilibet's LA-rite-of-passage accounts. Whether proudly arriving at an interview under the impression she was being considered for modeling work only to learn that the job was an administrative assistant position or spending all day shooting an episode of Entourage convinced that she was being featured in a scene but learning upon the episode's airing that she'd been recast in the close angle and blocked out in the wide, my guess is that these situations deal in an awkwardness special to La La Land to which many will relate and many more will find amusing.
I think the great unanswered questions are, "Did she ever take drugs in the box" and "How was that?"
June 22, 2014
when I saw this at the library, the title, "Box girl- my part time job as an art installation" is what made me pick it up and check it out. And so glad I did. It was a bit sporadic but I laughed out loud in many places and the "what is art" question always intrigues me. I couldn't really relate to her angst about figuring out her life but found some of her chapters enlightening in understanding her age group. If you want a quick read with some insight into the mind of a 30 something woman this is a book I would recommend.
July 11, 2015
More of an autobiography than about the box. I felt there was far too much about her past and the circumstances that led to her becoming a box girl. I think I would have preferred more info/history of the box, details of her and other box girls experiences. What were the criteria for being a box girl? Different types of box girls, what about the box boys? I get hints but the author seems to think that it's her I'm interested in, I'm afraid I'm not, I'm interested in the box and its stories.
July 21, 2015
I was intrigued by the description of the book which referred to the author being part of an art installation. The the majority of the book, however, was about her life after college when she moved to LA on a whim. While the author would point out her own faults and mistakes as she struggled in her early 20s, her stories often seemed overly polished and tiresome. The book also felt disjointed and rambling since every chapter jumped around between different flashbacks and some observations while in the box. There are some really funny bits though which make it a light read.
July 21, 2014
There were a few amusing chapters of this book. I did laugh more than once, especially when Snellings writes about her experiences waitressing. She can be really funny. Unfortunately, the stories she tells more often reveal that she is completely self absorbed and more than a little pretentious. She does cop to this freely (and to the fact that she is privileged), but she seems very proud of theses traits like we are supposed to find it endearing or cute. It is neither.
March 18, 2016
Box Girl is less about the author's time in the box than it is a reflection on her transition to and coming of age in LA, but it is honest, funny, and totally relatable. The part about LA getting under your skin and into your heart, that is; I've never been part of an art installation (to my knowledge). Lilibet's stories made me nostalgic for my young and carefree days while appreciating the distance I've put between those years and now. Quick and easy airplane or beach read.
May 11, 2014
Interesting look at a young woman making a living in LA, in part by participating in an art installation at a hotel. But, it is more than that. It is a slice of her life so far and a recounting of her several adventures. But, in the end, very little of consequence is discussed here. At least it was easy reading.
July 20, 2014
In some peculiar way I just really enjoyed this book. It didn't necessarily only follow her life as an art installation but roamed her twenty somethings. It was kind of her figuring stuff out and exploring how her choices shaped others and her opinion of herself. I just enjoyed it for some weird reason. I would recommend it.
July 28, 2014
Found some chapters enjoyable and humorous. Other chapters? Not so much.
I saw this book on a "to read" list somewhere and figured I'd give it a try. Despite its sometimes disjointed feel, I don't regret picking it up.
I saw this book on a "to read" list somewhere and figured I'd give it a try. Despite its sometimes disjointed feel, I don't regret picking it up.
July 4, 2015
Snellings has created a laugh out-loud, entertaining book filled with ‘real life’ humor. It’s a guide to what one can do, if you put your mind to it and be willing to laugh at yourself and the world around you. Box Girl will have you grinning and wishing for more. A must read for any age!
March 3, 2019
I thought it was quite a page turner. I was engrossed by the author’s life and how much she changed, not just through her job as a box girl.
The last chapter was just delightful, bringing something extra special to this book.
The last chapter was just delightful, bringing something extra special to this book.
March 30, 2014
I did not enjoy this book. It was a bit too out there for me.
July 13, 2014
I keep finding myself thinking the following things:
"I don't care."
"Am I almost done with this book?"
"I don't care."
"Am I almost done with this book?"
August 2, 2014
It seemed to me a little disjointed in places, but I liked her voice and her honesty. I was struck by a handful of bizarre spelling errors.....
February 15, 2016
Great read!
November 13, 2016
This book had a cool premise, and some parts I connected with more than others. Overall, it reminded me why I don't read memoirs very often.
January 5, 2017
I was expecting a book about performance art, maybe like Amanda Palmer. Instead I got a pleasant narrative about trying to make it in Los Angeles.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews