Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser

by Amy Wilson

Amy Wilson, co-host of the award-winning podcast What Fresh Hell, takes a funny and insightful look at how women are conditioned to be “happy to help”―and what happens when things don’t go that way.

Amy Wilson has always been an ultimate helper. As a big sister, Girl Scout, faithful reader of teen magazines, personal assistant, sitcom sidekick, and, finally, mother of three, Amy believed it was her destiny to be a people pleaser. She learned to put others first, to do what she was told, to finish what she started, and to look like she had everything under control, even when she very much did not.

Along the way, Amy started to wonder why doing it all had been her job. Still, when she tried to hand over some of her to-dos, no one was particularly interested in taking them. And when she asked for help, in return, she got advice: have a sense of humor, quit nagging, and stop trying to be perfect.

Amy dutifully took on these goals―with varying degrees of failure―until the day she started to question if something else needed to be fixed besides herself.

Hilariously relatable, Happy to Help is a collection of essays about how you can be the one everyone else depends on and still be struggling―how you can be “happy to help,” even when, for your own sake, you shouldn’t.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays, Audiobook, Self Help, Biography Memoir, Humor

254 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2025

About the author

There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Valerie Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I tell myself getting answers is not the same thing as getting well"

I have no idea why so much of this book was about physical health, faith, and college admissions and not her overcoming being a people pleaser or even really being one at all. There were a couple great moments that were super relatable but then there were more times where I just rolled my eyes and felt no pity at all

[Courtney Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads more like a memoir than a self help but the point of being a people pleaser and exploring why is a good one. The parts about her acting career were really interesting.

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

I picked this up as it was part of this month's ALCs.

I enjoyed this a lot. It was humorous, witty, fun, and relatable. Where I believe my disconnect stems is I did not know who she was or any of her acting work due to my age. Her stories about acting were fun but not thought-provoking or interesting to me as a subject to dissect. Then, towards the end, where she handles topics like family and work during COVID-19, the point of this collection on people pleasing may have been lost a bit.
Overall, the collection needed editing to make the transitions smoother between essays and editing of essays to keep them concise and related to the theme.

[Lyon.Brit.andthebookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first read of 2025 and a great pick to start a New Year. Happy To Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser by Amy Wilson is a slim novel of essays that reads like you are getting to know a new friend. For anyone who feels like they are the ones doing it all. Amy’s story’s will resonate with you and leave you feeling seen! It’s hard running the show, yet it’s also harder to let someone else take the reigns. This would make for a wonderful gift for all the “Happy to Help” friends out there.

*Things I discussed with my mom…
-Scranton, PA
-Vitiligo
-Narcolepsy
-Pandemic
-Waxing Kitchen Floors

This is number one on my Zibby Publishing Completist 25 Challenge

Thank you @libro.fm 🎧

*when I love a book I always share bits of it with my mom above I noted things we talked in great length about.

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Lyon.brit.A...

[Deidre · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a memoir, relatable on some fronts but ultimately not that helpful in letting go of my people pleasing tendencies.

[Emily (emsalwaysreading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine

[January · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser by Amy Wilson (2025)
ix+259-page Kindle Ebook story pages 1-259

Genre: Nonfiction, Essays, Self Help, Humor, Biography Memoir

Featuring: Praise, Author's Bibliography, Author's Note - True events to the best of author's memory identifying details changed for privacy; Introduction, Why People Pleasers Exist, What Attracted You to This Book, Give It All You’ve Got, Scranton, Pennsylvania; 8th Grade, Catholic School, Nuns, Classmates, Stop Before It’s Too Much, Stress, You Were Made for This, Oldest Daughter Syndrome, Know Your Value, New York City, New York; Personal Assistant, Pushover, Saturday Night Live, Do What Matters, Mary vs Martha, The Truth Will Set You Free, Dear Diary, The Only One You Can Change Is You, Perfection, The Journey of Self Help in Productivity, Workaholic, Oprah Winfrey, Codependency, Never Give Up, Skiing, First, Do No Harm; Medical Worries, Make New Friends, but Keep the Old; Social Clubs & Cliques, Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh, Meal Planning, Keep the Faith, Allocating Tasks, Multitasking, We’re All in This Together, Covid-19, No Hard Feelings, Acting, Norm/The Norm Show, Look on the Bright Side, Emotional and Mental Health, It’s Never Too Late, Physical Health, Cherish Every Moment, College Kids, The Optimal Push, It Has to Be You, Notes on Sources

Rating as a movie: PG-13 for adult situations

Songs for the soundtrack: "Silent Night" by Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber,
"1999" by Prince, "Waterfalls" by TLC, "Let It Be" by The Beatles, “Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts, George Frideric Handel, and Lowell Mason

Books and Authors mentioned: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, I Miss You When I Blink: Dispatches from a Relatively Ordinary Life by Mary Laura Philpott, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace, How to be a Happier Parent: Raising a Family, Having a Life, and Loving (Almost) Every Minute by K.J. Dell'Antonia, Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect Love by Rebecca N. Thompson, Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do by Eve Rodsky, “A Poem for Someone Who is Juggling Her Life” from Notes from a Bright Field by Rose Cook, “The Oldest Sister” from Seasons of the Heart by Lois Duncan, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz aka The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum (Lyman Frank Baum) - Oz #1, Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm, The Holy Bible written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, Go Ask Alice by Anonymous, “Egocentrism in Adolescence” by David Elkind, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell; #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso, Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis, The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k by Sarah Knight, The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken, All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman, The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy, The I Hate to Housekeep Book by Peg Bracken, Erma Bombeck, Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry, The Showrunners : A Season Inside the Billion-Dollar, Death-Defying, Madcap World of Television's Real Stars
by David Wild, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Natalia Imperatori-Lee

Memorable Quotes: If you’ve picked up this book, you are probably someone with a lot to do. Perhaps a little too much. When you mention this to others, they may respond that what you really need to do is less. Just let go! Stop doing so much! They make it sound like it’s easy. Perhaps for those people it is easy. I am not one of those people.

And so I see you. You look like you have your act together. Hell, you do. But you’ve got way too much on your plate. You’re waiting for someone, anyone, to notice and say, “Hey, let me carry some of that.” Instead, they say, “Why don’t you try carrying less?” Or, “Hey, I think you dropped something.” And they’re so right, they’re so exactly right. You cannot handle it all. You have to let some of it go. But then you look at all the things you’re carrying, and you wonder what exactly it is you’re supposed to put down when the answer feels like nothing. I’m here to tell you that you’re right too.

The world may resent us for being extra, but that doesn’t mean it wants us to quit.

At some point in the winter of my eighth-grade year I decided to stop raising my hand in class. I had newly sensed the resentment of some of my classmates that I was always ready with an answer. Up until then I had been rather eager to share my intelligence with the group, but now the boys in the eighth grade had taken to calling me “Brainiac,” and although everyone said boys teased you only because they liked you, this did not feel like an expression of fondness. “Brainiac” was not a name for a girl boys liked. “Brainiac” sounded like a too-smart, no-personality robot programmed without the human capability of reading the room. The solution was obvious. I would stop raising my hand.

I didn’t notice that “griping” was what a person with power calls a complaint they have no obligation to consider.

Bianca taught me that if I was too demanding, people would not like me. But demanding nothing meant people would never see me at all.

People in this world are either Marthas or Marys, and women are certainly socialized to be the Marthas, which always made me as jealous of Mary as I was annoyed. How could Mary just hang out and relax knowing there was work to be done? Even as a third grader, I knew I couldn’t be a Mary if I tried.

I watched a few of these interviews before the obviousness of what separated me from these paragons of productivity hit me: all of them, without exception, were men. And if they were parents or caregivers, it wasn’t a topic that merited mention. These men were people with the power to decide what they wanted to do next, then the freedom to do that thing without unwanted intrusion. These men didn’t need Virginia Woolf to tell them they needed rooms of their own; they all had them already. And who would dare interrupt the founder of the Turbo Quantum Achievement System to ask him where the Nutella was?

For women with too much to do, monotasking usually requires establishing a replacement village first, then pushing aside the nagging feeling that our own priorities are too selfish to fully embrace.

The inevitable result is the “invisible workload” that society seems to finally be acknowledging, although we may still underestimate just how taxing it can be. Sociologist Allison Daminger calls it “cognitive labor” and explains that any task a caregiver completes has four steps: anticipating the need, identifying options for meeting the need, making the decision, and, finally, monitoring the progress. Using this math, each “invisible” thing on the list of a woman with too much to do is actually four things. No wonder we can’t seem to shorten our lists. No wonder I’m finding the methods that tell me I should “do less in order to do more” somewhat lacking. That sort of overhead is beyond my ability to ever complete, no matter how much I get done before eight a.m.

Marthas just see those things, and as incomprehensible as it might seem to me, the Marys in the world might not. Or else they figure the Marthas have got it, and why wouldn’t they? We always have before. The universe will always be there to make more—and more of it will be handed to the Marthas, since we’ve proven ourselves so good at crossing things off. Getting better at getting things done just means being given more to do.

Of course the same rules didn’t apply. If self-actualization for men meant getting ahead, self-actualization for women meant consuming a great deal of chicken soup for the soul.

And make no mistake, most of us were addicts: careoholics and shopaholics and chocoholics. In the recovery culture of the 1990s pretty much any noun could have “aholic” added to its end, making little linguistic sense if one stopped to consider it, but serving as a catch-all for anything that someone either did too much or loved too well.

We don’t have to keep doing things we hate until someone else gives us permission to put them down.

My maternal gatekeeping was not the problem. Our pantry’s spices didn’t have to be in alphabetical order. I just didn’t want to be the only person who knew where the spices were.

Sometimes what we torment our mothers with is less dramatic troublemaking than everyday psychological baggage. “Our teenagers lighten their loads by passing their problems to us,” psychologist Lisa Damour explains, calling what teens tend to hand parents their “emotional trash.” Studies have shown that mothers are the preferred garbage receptacle.

By women as well: we’ve internalized messages that self-sacrifice equals care, that suffering equals love, that we can keep bad things from happening to those we love by worrying that they will. We accept these burdens readily. We’re made for this work. It’s not like anyone else wants to become the keeper of what’s hard.

Pretending we can handle it all can’t be the way to live the rest of our lives. Being good at juggling only means we will get handed more balls. Taking care of the ones we love doesn’t have to mean absorbing every body blow for them. But our worlds around us are often structured assuming that we will, so it is up to us to figure out when that’s not serving us, or the situation, or maybe both.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🤹‍♀️

My thoughts: 🔖Page 89 of 259 Never Give Up - This really is a memoir it's pretty good but I am learning that I am not that much of a people pleaser I'm more of a half-and-half hybrid between people pleasing and letting it all go/waiting for someone to do it. Maybe I've just outgrown the disease to please over the decades.

This was a quick and easy read. I learned to say no, mostly, a long time ago so this wasn't like a self-help book for me, more like a testimony, and it was very informative.

Recommend to others: Yes.

[Bonnie Goldberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy Pub Day to this gem - Come for the wisdom, stay for the stories. Wilson - mother, daughter, wife, sister, actor, writer - shares some of her most difficult times to illuminate the syndrome of being someone who always says yes. Tracing her need to please back to birth order in a busy house of six kids, through to middle school, into college (with a boyfriend trying to decide between her and a competitor) and then her early adult life (when she embarked on a career on stage and TV), Wilson demonstrates with honesty and alacrity what happens when you lose, forget or can't find your boundaries. From the outside looking in, I gather Wilson is quite successful and thus her wisdom is valuable and well respected. I appreciated that within her breezy and advice-oriented tone, she shares some very dark times, including children's illnesses and when her family was felled by Covid early in the pandemic. Wilson made me laugh out loud (who among us has not tried to have a conversation with family about sharing the domestic load?) and cry softly when she described her moments of transition and pain. Highly recommend. Thank you to Zibby Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Jennifer Cash]

Told in an uplifting and humorous tone, author Amy Wilson shares episodes from her life as a people pleaser, from her days as a young actress trying to break into showbiz to life as a busy mom of three kids. Amy also opens up to her vulnerable side, sharing about the struggles she has faced along the way.

Happy to Help is a delightful read! Amy’s essays from her early career days were relatable, and I appreciated her essays on motherhood. I love how Amy, through her experiences, also explored the toll it takes to be a people pleaser. It can be hard to tell other people “No” or to ask for help, but we’re all human and cannot do everything for everyone who asks. Reading this was a reaffirmation that you don’t have to always be “happy to help.”

[Stephanie Affinito · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was like a beacon of light beaming straight to my heart. From the very first page, Amy saw me. She got me. She validated me. She reached out to me. I felt like I had a new best friend who knew my innermost thoughts and feelings AND the way my frenzied days usually go. I laughed, I cried, I imagined. I bet many other readers will find themselves on these pages and while it isn't a how-to book, it's a lovely call to action. Read this one.

[Heather // myinfinitetbr · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up
This was my first book of 2025, and it felt like starting on the right foot.

Amy Wilson, co-host of award winning podcast What Fresh Hell, takes a funny and insightful look at how women are conditioned to be “happy to help” - and what happens when things don't go that way.

In this collection of essays, Amy brings up all the ways she was taught, directly or indirectly, to always put others’ needs before her own at different stages of her life, and what happened when she started to let go of those ideas.

I'm just now learning, in my late 30s, how to say “no” to things. It's still very much a reflex to try to over explain and justify my reasons for declining when it's not always necessary.
We can (and should) avoid overloading our own plates so that someone else can have a clear one, right?

🎧 I really enjoyed Amy's stories and loved that she narrated the audiobook. It felt like a conversation with a friend, where I was the listening ear. I could relate and empathize with her experiences, and was left inspired to make changes in my own life.

Thanks to Zibby Books/LibroFM for the ALC!

[Kristi Kasper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is why I read. To find books that I connect with deeply, like this one. This is an essay collection about how women, on the whole, are expected to be “happy to help” and to be people pleasers and perfectionists and to have everything under control. Amy examines this phenomenon and makes some very astute observations and recounts her attempts to break free from some of these expectations. The essays are incredibly thoughtful, candid and, at times, humorous, I did not want this book to end.

Thank you Zibby Books for an ARC.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

A great mix of self-help and memoir about a people pleasing mom who figured out she didn't need to try to do it all herself and that it was okay to ask for help. Good on audio and perfect for fans of books like The good mother myth by Nancy Reddy.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and wonder if I would have liked this book as much if I wasn’t as familiar with the author through her podcast. My conclusion is that I would have enjoyed it because the essays were well written, entertaining and relatable (living through Covid, volunteering at school, raising kids etc). I do wonder why people thought it was a self help book? The cover of the book states “adventures of a people pleaser …essays”. Meaning it is the author’s stories she is sharing with us.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not familiar with Amy Wilson and I can’t remember where I heard of this book, but I really loved it. In true memoir fashion, each chapter stands alone. Her reflections on being a Type A woman who was conditioned to always be “happy to help” are poignant, funny & thoughtful.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good book of essays. Smith’s previous book is also one I enjoyed and I’d rank this right up there with Mary Laura Philpott’s books.

[Avery Shrader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laughed and sobbed and felt seen. Truly the best book I’ve ever read.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I know Amy Wilson well after years of listening to her podcast, but I learned even more about her from this book. I feel myself mirrored in her and the topics resonated with me, I could hear her voice perfectly as I read. This will be a favorite that I come back to.

[The History Mom]

I laughed out loud and commiserated with Amy through this novel of what it’s like to be a woman who always wants to please others. Some of her stories really resonated with me as a Gen X’er who feels like life sometimes is moving at warp speed as children grow up, parents age, and goals change. It’s a strange time of life, and I felt better reading her words so similar to my own. Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

[Laura Gardoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook; really liked the narration. Some essays I enjoyed more than others, but overall I found the topic (and a lot of the author’s feelings and experiences) relatable. Bonus: the author grew up in Scranton, which I didn’t realize until I got into it.

[Readersaurus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a grouping of short essays about the writer's life. Some are about boundaries/learning how to say no, many are about her personal life and struggles with her children's hard to diagnose and treat illnesses. I think these are all more interesting if you are a follower of her acting career and podcast than for the general reader.

Interestingly, based on her college graduation year, she is two or so years younger than me, but her worldview, and her parents' (based on stories from her upbringing) seem almost from an earlier generation. (This may be a Catholic/Jewish thing, or a suburb/city thing. Who knows?) Though I liked the stories and enjoyed getting to know Amy Wilson a little bit, my biggest takeaway is that I probably should go thank my mother for being a feminist, attending consciousness raising groups, and just her whole general way she taught me to be an independent person in the world.

[Jill Lucht · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book would be incredible helpful for parents and others who are primarily responsible for holding together their families. The essays on people pleasing in the work context completely resonated with me, but after listening to this book I am grateful I escaped much of the programming on household and familial duties that was internalized by the author. I did this by moving far enough away from my family of origin that I can’t be there for the day-to-day, marrying a man who really does at least half (actually MORE) of the household duties (especially the ones I hate like cooking), and choosing not to have children. These essays do, however, sound just like my women friends who are not in my particular set of circumstances. I love you and feel for you, and I have a whole lot of guilty pleasure about not being in your situation.

[Madeline Elsinga]

DNF @ 33%

Thank you NetGalley and Zibby for the eARC!

The essays are not at all concise or on theme? The beginning was relatable and definitely reflected being a people pleaser but then it sort of devolved into so many other topics. I found myself speed reading to try and understand what the point was until I realized I should just DNF. A collection that is not focused on being a people pleaser or the authors road to moving past that, which is what I went in expecting. Lots of reflections and rambling thoughts on adolescence, faith, and physical health that often left me confused, bored, and rolling my eyes.

[Valérie Montour · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book isn’t bad, but I think it wasn’t marketed right and so it wasn’t for me. it’s more the disconstructed memoir of a mother and her family than essays on people pleasing. i couldn’t relate to her parent anxiety and her husband is such a man child it’s infuriating (LEAVE HIM).
some of the points made were interesting but not deep enough to be qualified as “essays”

[Shana OkieCozyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy essay collections like those of Mary Laura Philpott; this was a similar vein. Amy mentioned that in her first book, she discussed motherhood and growing up and for this book, she thought about times in her life where she felt she took on too much.

I enjoyed so many of the essays in this collection. A couple of them describe times in her life when she was starting out as a Broadway star’s personal assistant and later auditioning to be on a tv series. I also loved her story about how women were portrayed and talked to in YM days of our youth. It made me think about those articles and how times have changed (I remember one article where a boy mentioned he didn’t like pointy elbows on girls and I thought it was such a strange comment.) This essay made me remember how girls were brought up to try to please literally everyone.

She also discusses some difficult parenting moments - like having kids with medical conditions or college applications, where lines are hard to draw as to what parents should or shouldn’t do.

I always love essays and memoirs read by the author, and she does read her own essays. Thank you to libro,fm and Zibby publishing for sharing audiobooks with librarians!

Also, if you have ever been the one who always feels responsible to help others, this book will speak to you!

“You are the one who can be counted on. You are happy to help. And that is why everyone but you is content with the way things are.” Introduction

“… saying no can sometimes be its own kind of bravery.” Never Give Up

“When we are in difficult seasons of life, they are hard because they are hard, not because there is something wrong with us. They are hard because they are real, not because we have make them harder on purpose. If others don’t perceive us as struggling, it’s because we’ve become quite capable of handling more than what is expected.” It Has to be You

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amy Wilson's Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser offers a delightfully candid exploration of the people-pleasing tendency many of us recognize in ourselves. Through her collection of essays, Wilson delivers a reading experience that is equal parts humorous, insightful, and deeply relatable.

Wilson excels in her witty commentary on how people-pleasing behaviors particularly affect women, sharing personal anecdotes that resonate with authentic emotion and self-awareness. Her memoir segments shine brightest, offering poignant reflections and entertaining scenarios that will have readers nodding in recognition of their own similar experiences.

While the collection is marketed as self-help adjacent, readers should approach it primarily as a memoir with thoughtful observations rather than a practical guide. Those seeking concrete strategies to overcome people-pleasing behaviors may find the actionable advice somewhat limited. Wilson identifies the patterns and their origins but doesn't extensively explore pathways to change these deeply ingrained habits.

The collection's primary weakness lies in its structure. A stronger editorial hand could have created more cohesive transitions between essays and established a more compelling narrative arc throughout the book. As it stands, the reading experience occasionally feels disjointed, with individual essays that shine but don't always build upon each other effectively.

Despite these structural issues, Wilson's voice remains consistently engaging, making Happy to Help an entertaining and worthwhile read for anyone who has ever found themselves saying "yes" when they desperately wanted to say "no."

[Joshua Del Toro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the description of this book is misleading. It makes it seem as though it’s a self help book when in reality it’s more of a memoir. I also completely recognize the fact that this book’s intended audience is not necessarily me. However, I was drawn to it because I tend to be a people pleaser and continuously find myself saying I’m happy to help. In addition, my mom has the same issue and I thought this might be a good one to recommend to her, but wanted to read it first.

I do feel thatthe first third of the book was more about being a people pleaser and “happy to help”. However, it soon turned more into what the author has been through in her life and the thought spirals she had and anxiety around those areas. At one point one of her children fell ill and while trying to find the cause or diagnoses she was worried she would seem as though she was faking it and that she had Maunchausen Syndrome by proxy. Which didn't, but she kept feeling like doctors would think that, and she did allude to a doctor making her feel that way at one point, weeks or months after she began worrying about it. s someone who suffers from anxiety and thought spirals, I felt like that's more what it was then just wanting to be a people pleaser. Again, this is strictly my opnion.

At the end of the day it's not a bad read and had I of known it was a memoir going in, and if the first third of the book also was written as a memoir instead as the stafrt to a self help book, I would have rated it and enjoyed it more. I think this book, as is, is a solid 3 stars.

[Pooja Palimar · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Happy to Help" by Amy Wilson is a thought-provoking collection of essays that delves into the pervasive issue of people-pleasing across various facets of life, including education, parenting, medical crises, and relationships. Wilson’s insightful exploration sheds light on the generational patterns of women who often prioritize others’ needs over their own.

The essays are relatable and resonate with anyone who has struggled with the desire to please. Wilson offers a unique perspective by focusing not just on what we should do to break free from these tendencies, but also on what doesn’t work—a refreshing approach that encourages self-reflection and understanding.

While the content is engaging and filled with valuable insights, some sections could benefit from deeper exploration or more concrete examples. However, this does not detract significantly from the overall impact of the book.

In summary, "Happy to Help" is an interesting and relatable read that provides much-needed insight into the complexities of people-pleasing. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to understand this behavior better and its implications in everyday life.

[Alicia Grega · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scranton native Amy Wilson shares a cohesive collection of conversational writing that, as a trained actress and experienced podcast co-host, she reads with nuance and power in the audiobook edition. While I have to recommend this book to those like myself with a special interest in the immense talent cultivated in Northeast Pennsylvania, it speaks beyond geography to women around the world who are still learning to prioritize their own needs while the amount of free labor they are expected to contribute to society remains disproportionate and often interferes with the pursuit career, health, and self-esteem.
In chapter 23, she writes these lines many of us need to hear:
"When we are in difficult seasons of life they are hard because they are hard, not because there is something wrong with us. They are hard because they are real, not because we make them harder on purpose, and if others don't always perceive us as struggling it's because we've become quite capable of handling more than should be expected."

[Marianne Pestana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amy Wilson delivers a witty, honest, and deeply relatable exploration of the lifelong struggle to balance kindness with self-preservation in Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser. With humor and heart, Wilson shines a light on the unspoken expectations placed on women to always be accommodating—whether as daughters, friends, colleagues, or mothers—while also exposing the exhaustion and invisibility that often come with being “the dependable one.”

Through sharp, self-aware essays, she takes readers on a journey of realization, showing that sometimes the hardest thing isn’t saying "yes"—it's learning to say "no." Wilson’s comedic timing and candid storytelling make this book a delight, offering both laughter and liberating truth bombs in equal measure.

If you've ever found yourself overcommitted, underappreciated, and wondering how you got there, Happy to Help will make you feel seen, validated, and, most importantly, understood. A perfect blend of humor and wisdom—this book is a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled to set boundaries.