Has your everyday life been zapping away your energy? Are your jobs and studies the monsters of the week, threatening to tower over you and overwhelm you? Wishing you could conquer your fears with a swing of your trusty sparkly magical weapon? And just where is your cute and fluffy familiar when you need them, anyway?!
Happy 2022, my wonderful readers. These last few years have been a doozy, huh? But even with all of that, we’re still HERE, and that’s the most important thing of all! I hope y’all have been having a great start to your year and that everyone accomplishes the goals they have set forth. I believe in you! ✨
With the passing of these last several years, talk of mental health has been highlighted more than ever, with resources being more readily available than it ever has been. Speaking as someone who’s actively going to therapy sessions and doing a lot of reading on the topic, it’s been a breath of fresh air! But what if you’re not that big into reading just any self-help text unless it has a tinge of something you’re really into? And if that something happens to be anime and manga centering around the magical girl genre? Well, consider yourself lucky, because such a book actually exists!
Jacque Aye’s The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil, and Save the Day with Self-Care is here to provide with the magical help for you to prosper to the powerful magical being that you are to defeat that pesky monster of the week. Here’s the book’s synopsis to get more familiarized with what to expect:
When you live a life without magic, it’s impossible to be the best version of yourself. This manga-inspired self-care guide taps into your inner power and uncovers the magical girl within. Author and fellow magical girl Jacque Aye serves as your stand-in familiar to help you learn more about yourself, your monsters, and how to defeat them with your inner power, intelligence, and strength through fun exercises, journal prompts, and personality tests. You’ll quickly learn everything you need to know about your magical girl self, including your magical girl name, what type of power you possess, and what cute companion will perfectly complement your magical girl journey. Once your magical girl identity is locked in, you’ll learn how to take on the world and continue your self-growth by:
✨ Discovering your magical girl gang✨ Punching fear in the face/defining your monster
✨ Developing your magical girl routine
✨ Finding love after fighting crime
✨ And more!
With gorgeous illustrations and entertaining animated characters, The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life reveals how self-love, sisterhood, and magic go together. Perfect for fans of anime and manga like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and more! You have what it takes to become a weapon-wielding, cute costume-wearing, crime-fighting cutie. So get ready to reframe the way you approach challenges in your life and embark on your self-care journey—anime style!
Of course, after reading what treasures this book would be bestowing upon me, how could I NOT check it out? I grew up watching Sailor Moon (as many as you did, I’m sure!), and I was curious to find out about what kind of magical girl I would be. What I ended up with was so much more.
The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life leads the reader to identify what their own personal foes are, let it be something like a depressive episode or a sudden panic attack. Once your adversary is known, it’s time to unleash your magical prowess to overcome them, and that can come in the form of calling a friend to talk things out, or journaling, or maybe taking some time to meditate or cuddle with your favorite plushie. Everyone has their own unique way of battling their foes, so results will vary, but that’s where The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life comes in to help you figure that out.
Now, you might be thinking “I have to answer questions?!”, but that’s part of the beauty of this guide. Like I mentioned previously, everyone has their own unique way of handling things depending on their situation, so answering the questions is a MUST to get every bit of value out of this book. The neat thing here is that as you read through the book’s words of wisdom while answering the presented questions, it doesn’t feel too instructional or formal like some other self-help books I’ve read. Sure, learning new info is cool, but sometimes you might want to read something that speaks to the heart, you know? And The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life does just that.
The coolest thing about this book, by the way? As you work through reflecting on your battles and how you prefer to handle them, you end up creating your own badass magical girl persona, complete with magical weapons and your own familiar! I can totally see folks making or commissioning art of their own magical selves after they’re done with this book; I know I will be doing so at some point!
Jacque Aye made The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life feel like you were having a conversation with a trusted friend who’s hyping you up, while detailing on her own struggles she’s faced, and mighty foes that threatened to take over, like the horrendous Duke of Despair. But as horrendous as that foe was, she manifested her mighty magical self and prospered. And now she’s sharing her wisdom with all of us to better care for our mental health as we take on a new fabulous form to do so. On top of mental health being more widely discussed these days, I cannot stress how important seeing a book like this in the wild is. As a Boricua growing up with extremely conservative parents, the topic of mental health has a pretty heavy stigma, but I’m betting it isn’t as heavy as the mental health stigma within communities of Color. With a book like this, featuring Jacque and her friends in their majestic magical forms on the cover, I can see a person of Color who’s both wanting to know more about mental health AND into anime reaching out to grab this book from the shelf. Especially if they’re into the magical girl genre!
Growing up with adults around me speaking of going to therapy being “only for people crazy in the head”, wasn’t fun. Mental health is as important as physical health in order to live your life to the fullest, and this is something I finally started accepting as fact only a few years ago. Going to therapy has helped me identify and recognize the difficulties I’ve faced, along with applying some healthier ways of processing through it all. Funnily enough, my copy of The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life arrived after I had returned from a therapy session, so as I sat down to read it, I was able to reaffirm stuff I’d discussed in my session with my therapist. Writing down some of the answers to the book’s many queries felt a bit powerful, as if I was solidifying my thoughts and intentions on how to best conquer my adversaries throughout my journey. That’s why when my time with reading the book came to end, it felt like I was saying “farewell” to a good buddy of mine. But with that “farewell”, I’d manifested my own new magical girl self, and my goodness, she’s AWESOME. And she’s ME!
All that being said, I heartily recommend checking this book out, so you too can discover your own fabulous magical girl persona, while also learning a bit more about yourself too! Many thanks to the lovely folks at Ulysses Press for sending a copy my way. 💖 You can order your copy of The Magical Girl’s Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil, and Save the Day with Self-Care through the following stores:
Jacque Aye is a therapist-in-training and “Head Magical Girl” of the Adorned by Chi lifestyle brand. Since launching Adorned by Chi in 2015 Jacque has grown her business tremendously, racking in 6-figure sales within the first two years of operation and a development deal within the first five. Adorned by Chi has also worked with the likes of Sanrio, collaborating on a collection for their Small Business, Big Smile initiative. As a leader in the manga and anime space, Jacque has grown her small tight knit community into one that boasts over 100,000 magical beings across social media. She is a vocal supporter of mental health awareness and self care amongst Black women, and advocates for those suffering from social anxiety. In 2020, Adorned by Chi was able to donate $10,000 to the Loveland Foundation. Keep up with what Jacque is up to by following her Twitter and Instagram!
Until next time! ✨
Are you going to manifest your true magical self? What activities do you do for better mental health? Let me know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this article, and you want to see more cool stuff like this come to life, consider supporting my Patreon. I have a lot of cool stuff planned, and I would love to make it a reality with your help!
Figuratively Speaking 
This book looks like such a fun way to get back into the habit of taking care of myself. Thank you for introducing it to me!! I think I’ll purchase it from my local bookstore next time I have the opportunity!!
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It’s definitely a good book to try if other self-help books seem a bit too daunting and intimidating. Let me know what you think of it when you read it! And thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment~ 💖
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