4 Reasons You’d Be Crazy Not to Read Jenny Lawson’s Furiously Happy

As Lawson puts it, “Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, ‘We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.’ Except go back and cross out the word ‘hiding.’” Lawson, the woman behind popular blog The Bloggess and author of bestselling memoir Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, isn’t just crazy, though. She’s also furiously happy.
Furiously Happy is the name of Lawson’s hilarious, irreverent, heartbreakingly honest, and beautifully raw new book, and it’s also a movement Lawson credits with saving her life. After struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses since childhood, she got really angry during a particularly crippling episode of depression and decided she’d had enough.

“I AM GOING TO BE FURIOUSLY HAPPY OUT OF SHEER SPITE,” she wrote on her blog (the all caps are hers—and are totally deserved).
Within hours, #FURIOUSLYHAPPY was trending on Twitter, and loads of people were poking their heads out of their own fogs of depression, anxiety, and everything in between to say, “Me too. I’m with you.”
So Lawson wrote a book filled with stories of her own issues navigating day-to-day life while dealing with mental illness. And you’ve got to to read it. Here are four of the many reasons why:
The cover is insane.
Rory is the name of the crazily happy/possibly murderous taxidermied raccoon on the cover of Lawson’s new book. He resides with Lawson in Texas—and in all of our hearts (and nightmares?)—but cardboard cutouts are making the rounds all over the world: New York, Hollywood, Italy, Japan, the beach, the tattoo parlor, court (that Rory runs with a rough crowd). Every time you look at the cover, you can’t help but smile at that nutty little raccoon throwing sparkly confetti in the air. And that’s before you even open the book, which offers up so much more to smile and laugh at. Speaking of laughing…
You’ll laugh maniacally at the most inopportune moments.
In the middle of a crowded (and quiet) coffee shop. On a completely packed airplane. When your spouse is trying to tell you about their super-stressful day at work (and you were supposed to be listening intently, but just couldn’t put the book down long enough to find out whether your spouse’s coworker has, indeed, been eating people’s lunches out of the fridge). Furiously Happy’s tagline is “A Funny Book About Horrible Things,” and the book really lives up to it. When you have any sort of mental illness, sometimes you’re just desperate for something to give you a good laugh. And this book is just that—a small shelter from the storm, a smiling raccoon peeking through the heavy curtains of madness.
Jenny Lawson is the Bloggess, but also a goddess.
One of the definitions of goddess is “a woman who is adored, especially for her beauty.” Lawson may think she looks totally nondescript on the outside (though she does acknowledge she has a sexy skeleton), but scars are often the most beautiful and interesting things about someone. And while some people might play up a feature like, say, their eyes or cheekbones, Lawson plays up her flaws and perceived imperfections. She writes about them with candor, humor, and unflinching honesty. And that is beautiful.
You are not alone.
The word crazy makes some people uncomfortable; they might prefer the words mentally ill, sensitive, odd, or eccentric. But if Lawson and others like her choose and own the word crazy, then it’s theirs for the taking. It helps stamp out the stigma, as does the book Furiously Happy. This isn’t a self-help book, per se, but if you need help in the form of a feeling of community; a reminder that you’re not the only one who struggles with depression or anxiety or just being weirdly wonderful, then Furiously Happy can offer that. Depression lies, but Lawson doesn’t. And if she keeps speaking her truth long enough and loud enough—and more voices join hers—then maybe mental illness won’t retain the stigma it has now. And maybe this world will be better—and funnier—for it.