Prominent influencer Lee Tilghman, better known as @LeeFromAmerica, was one of the first successful influencers when the term itself was still new. Tilghman once earned nearly $300,000 a year through her Instagram feed of pictures of beautiful salads and smoothie bowls. She stepped away after increasingly critical comments on her posts severely impacted her mental health. Followers accused her of overcharging for workshops, illegally picking California poppies and posting about it, and more. In her tell-all memoir, If You Don't Like This, I Will Die, Lee documents not only the beginning and eventual downfall of her influencer career but also shares personal stories of disordered eating and substance abuse that occurred behind the camera.
Although it is unlikely to win over readers who were already critical of Tilghman and her online persona, If You Don't Like This, I Will Die is nonetheless a fascinating memoir about a distinct era in social-media culture. Readers who witnessed the inception of influencer and Internet wellness cultures in the mid to late 2010s will enjoy the peek Tilghman offers in an honest and straightforward way. Readers will see the behind the scenes of what brand deals looked like, and how much PR and gifts an influencer can receive.
Tilghman's Instagram posts and selected follower comments are scattered throughout, adding context for readers unfamiliar with the platform or with Tilghman's account, showing both the seeds of the now-ubiquitous influencer lifestyle and her unfiltered reaction to criticisms. While influencing and wellness cultures have evolved since Tilghman's heyday, If You Don't Like This shows their origins in an engaging, if sometimes enraging, manner. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller