#chronicbabe

You will probably not be surprised to hear that I love Jenni, creator of ChronicBabe.com---we post a bunch of her resources on the blog.

Jenni is just bursting with energy and goodwill, which naturally shows through in her writing; ChronicBabe 101 is no different. It invites the reader to join the ranks of Chronic Babes: strong, independent folks who refuse to give up or lie down (metaphorically, at least 😉).

As you may or may not know, I wrote a 101-style zine, Chronically Badass: A Guide For The Young and Chronically Ill, which contained a bunch of advice I wanted to give to new spoonies after having become sick myself. ChronicBabe 101 does the same, distilling all the advice Jenni wants to give folks---but it does so in much greater detail and honestly makes Chronically Badass look like the Cliff’s Notes! 

The book covers the following topics:

Acceptance

Breaking bad habits and forming good one

Stopping negative thinking

Establishing and maintaining boundaries

Loving your body

Building a support team

Strengthening relationships

Education and career success

Communication

Getting organized

I really can’t think of better subject matter to include in a book like this; Jenni covers all the important things that we just don’t learn in school or society, and she makes the information friendly and personal to boot. I found myself nodding along as I read, and especially enjoyed her attention to emotional intelligence. 

The book reads as a class, including “pop quizzes” and “homework assignments,” which invite you to reflect and act. There’s a “pep squad” section, too, with interviews with both spoonies and folks who work with them.

Finally, there are small asides with caregiver stories and perspectives. These asides were interesting reads and useful to both spoonies and their supporters, but I had a little trouble seeing how they connected to the chapter’s topic sometimes. I also felt like they needed to go a little deeper in order to match the actionable advice in the rest of the book.

My only serious criticism is about the book’s accessibility---not in the disability sense, but in terms of the audience reached or, in this case, left out.

While Jenni certainly invites folks of any genders to be Chronic Babes, her writing often assumes a femme readership and uses asides like “girl” when speaking to the reader. This could really put off readers who aren’t female-identified (or even be triggering to folks with gender dysphoria), which bums me out since she could have made some tweaks to avoid this.

There are also a couple instances where more attention could have been paid to making a diverse readership comfortable. In reading the book I found a few discussions of weight loss that lacked awareness of fatphobia, and a section on sex that kind of erased folks on the asexual spectrum. As with the gender issue, these would be really easy to work around, so I was disappointed to see them show up.

Does that mean I dislike the book? Heck no! The reason I’m critical of its accessibility is because I want it to be accessible to everyone. This book is so, so important to our community, but as it is, I have to recommend it with content warnings.

So: if none of these content warnings apply to you, then I encourage you to read this fabulous book! Head on over to the ChronicBabe 101 website for buying options.