Actor & Youtuber Urvashi Goverdhan on Wonder Girls

Urvashi Goverdhan who runs her popular Youtube channel shares her excitement and takeaways from Wonder Girls in her review video.

Below are the edited and shortened excerpts from her book review:

I’m here to talk about my current favourite book, which I read very recently called Wonder Girls by Varsha Adusumilli. She compiles 15 stories of millenial women who are doing really well in their jobs and it’s not limited to just the usual doctors, lawyers, and engineers. She has also included stories of artists, and casting directors, and actors, and graphic designers. All of these professions were something I didn’t even realize were real career options while I was growing up.

Reading this book has done a couple of things for me. Firstly, I wish the 14 year old me had access to these stories and had access to this first person narrative of someone who is doing something that is not just your everyday corporate job. It makes me feel like I would have made the decision to be an actor much sooner. Or at least I would have known it’s a real career choice.

Secondly, I’m so excited for young girls today to read this book because it is such a game changer. When you’re going to an All-Girls school, you don’t have access to relatable role models in your alumni network.You hear the success stories of Olympians and Actors but those aren’t relatable. Those aren’t stories that you can connect to or model your life after. So I’m really glad that this is happening.

And the third thing that I feel very importantly about, is for parents to also read this. Because being a parent is a challenging thing. I could understand my parent’s confusion when I told them I wanted to be an actor. Should they let me do it while I was still so young, should they make me wait till I’m older? It’s really hard to make a decision for someone else’s future when you’re a parent. I can’t even imagine doing it. And I feel like this book has a really good insight on what good parenting can do, especially for kids who want to pursue something that isn’t considered normal or the usual kind of job for a woman to do. I’ve faced so many small gender biases all my life where I know people don’t believe that I ride a motorcycle or they question my choice to lift weights. These are small things. But these women that Varsha has chronicled have beaten all the odds and still continue to be the relatable girl next door. 

While reading the book, I would finish a story and have to take a minute to calm down because these stories touched me so much and made me want to scream about them to the world saying ‘see what incredible things women are doing, why aren’t we talking about it more?’

If you’re a young girl, if you know a young girl, if you’re a girl like me who is looking to not feel alone in her journey, or if you’re a parent raising a girl, basically everyone should read the book. I also think boys should read it to get an idea of how seemingly minor things, and tiny little bits of conditioning in your childhood totally change your approach to a career. How do you balance marriage and career? That is not a question guys ever get but women have to deal with it all the time.

I highly recommend you read it. The language is very simple. If you are an avid reader like me, you can finish this in one afternoon or two really short sittings. If you aren’t familiar with reading or if you don’t read too much, this is not a heavy read, this is not something that you need to pull out your dictionary for. You can definitely get through it. Read one chapter every day when you’re on your way to work or wherever. It is a really easy book to get through and you have no excuses not to read it. I guarantee it is going to change your perception of women.