Publication Date: January 7, 2025
A Brit&Co Most Anticipated Books of 2025
Amy Wilson, co-host of the award-winning podcast What Fresh Hell, takes a funny and insightful look at how women are conditioned to be “happy to help”—and what happens when things don’t go that way.
Amy Wilson has always been an ultimate helper. As a big sister, Girl Scout, faithful reader of teen magazines, personal assistant, sitcom sidekick, and, finally, mother of three, Amy believed it was her destiny to be a people pleaser. She learned to put others first, to do what she was told, to finish what she started, and to look like she had everything under control, even when she very much did not.
Along the way, Amy started to wonder why doing it all had been her job. Still, when she tried to hand over some of her to-dos, no one was particularly interested in taking them. And when she asked for help, in return, she got advice: have a sense of humor, quit nagging, and stop trying to be perfect.
Amy dutifully took on these goals—with varying degrees of failure—until the day she started to question if something else needed to be fixed besides herself.
Hilariously relatable, Happy to Help is a collection of essays about how you can be the one everyone else depends on and still be struggling—how you can be “happy to help,” even when, for your own sake, you shouldn’t.
If you’ve ever taken on more than you can handle, trying to juggle competing priorities can leave you exhausted.
Author Amy Wilson acknowledges the challenge in her book Happy to Help. Inside is a collection of essays, both heartfelt and humorous.
She uses her own life to illustrate how her desire to be helpful suddenly turned into a lifetime of duties. It’s inspiring to read about her struggles and how she handles those overwhelming moments that are incredibly relatable.
Rather than approaching the topic from a dry self-help perspective, the author serves up a refreshing take on setting boundaries.
Happy to Help details the adventures of a people pleaser in a humorous memoir offering permission to take a break—at least until the next chapter.
Amy Wilson is the author of the memoir When Did I Get Like This? and the co-host of What Fresh Hell, a Webby-honored podcast. Amy is also an actor who has appeared on Broadway, as a series regular on TV sitcoms, and in films. She lives with her family in New York City.
