Title: Nikki Lilly’s Come On Life: Highs, Lows & How to Live Your Best Life!
Author: Nikki Lilly
Illustrator: Julia Broughton
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Teen/young adult non-fiction, memoir, self-help/advice
Book format: Hardback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: I don’t always succeed. I have bad days like everyone else. But hopefully me talking about some of my harder times will help you feel less alone in yours.
Since being diagnosed with a rare illness when she was just six years old, Nikki Lilly has become a best-loved vlogger, whose inspiring insights have touched worldwide audiences. Now, in this essential guide, readers can find out even more about Nikki’s ever-changing world, learn from her personal experiences and feel empowered to take on the highs and lows of teen life.
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is an interesting and inspiring book which is a cross between a memoir and a self-help/ advice book for teens. ‘Nikki Lilly’s Come On Life’ is a lovely hardback filled with thick matt pages of text, some illustrations and photos. When she was young, Nikki was diagnosed with AVM, a condition that causes the blood vessels in her body, and in this case her face, to grow too large. Despite being diagnosed and facing some unpleasant consequences such as nose bleeds and hospitalisation, her condition has never stopped Nikki from doing what she loves. And in this book she tells her life as well as inspiring other teenagers to live their best life too.
I have to confess to not kowing who Nikki Lilly was until a couple of months ago, but I soon found out and after reading this book I feel genuinely inspired but this amazing young lady. At the start of the book and throughout, Nikki explains what her condition is and how it affects her, but the book doesn’t focus on her problems, instead it focuses on how she enjoys living life and how other teens can enjoy theirs. Each chapter is dedicated to a different area and are all titled such as, How I Got Here, Be Yourself, Be Brave, The World of Social Media, etc. In each chapter Nikki tells us a bit about her life, her ideas on how life shoud be (for example: how good being kind can be), and some practicle tips for teens on things they can do to improve their own lives. Every chapter begins with a quote from Nikki and ends with her encouraging readers to get involved and do something positive in their own lives.
I know I would have enjoyed reading a book like this as a young teenager. Nikki’s tips on life as well as how positive she is throughout, despite having such a life changing medical condition, make it an easy book to read and relate to. It doesn’t really feel like reading a book but more like a letter from a personal friend. In some pages there are recipes on different things to make, mainly cakes to bake as she was on Juniour Bake Off. There are also some great tips on things like make ups, periods and how to deal with friendships if you run into problems. I enjoyed finding out about her success on Bake Off and how it seemed to spark off so much more success for her including her own show ‘Nikki Lilly Meets’!
The book is so easy to read, the text being easy to look at and throughout all the pages there are little illustrations, photos or things like fun colourful borders around certain pages. The book ends up looking more like a personal notebook/diary with all the fun borders and things and I have always loved books that have a look like this. It makes it so much easier to read, even for those that don’t typically enjoy reading a lot of books.
Overall I think this is a lovely book for younger teenagers to read to help inspire them to live their best life. Nikki herself is an inspiration and I can understand why she has such a large following. However, despite all my praise I’m not sure this book would be enjoyed so much by those that don’t first know who Nikki is. Although it can be read by anyone, I do think this is really more for Nikki Lilly fans, or at least those who have heard of her first, rather than those who’ve never heard of her. It can still be enjoyed by those people who don’t know her, but it does feel a little like a book that would be appreciated much more by those that watch her channel or know of her first.
Do you follow Nikki Lilly online? What do you think of this book? What other books or people inspire you? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 
I haven’t heard of her but then I know very little about the world of teen vloggers. It looks very inspiring though.
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Don’t worry, I don’t knw of any teen vloggers either, except Nikki, and I only found out about her because I was asked if I’d like to read and review her book, lol 🙂 But yes, she’s definitely inspiring, especially having to deal with such difficult medical problems.
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