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It's hard to review this book because, even after reading it, I'm extremely biased in Abby's favor. I'm not giving the book 5 stars because it's a great literary read. Nor is it "heartwarming". Instead, it's crude, blunt, honest, and down to earth.

Since I was a little girl, Abby Wambach has been my hero, on and off the field. She was big, a tomboy who made her presence known with her body and her voice. As a girl trying to play soccer with all the boys, I always wanted to be like Abby because it seemed like nothing ever got her down. She always picked herself up again and kept playing. Of course she was my hero. Why wouldn't a strong, fierce, independent woman who is demolishing records in your favorite sport be?

So when I read this book, all I could think was "Finally, I get to see what my made my hero the woman she is today!" I can't say it wasn't hard to read pages on pages of alcoholism, depression, and self-hatred. When I finished, I had to process what I read. I had to understand why it didn't make me feel disappointed or upset with Abby. The saying, "Never meet your heroes" ran through my mind, because I believed that knowing about Abby's internal war with herself would make me hate her or no longer want her to be associated with the USWNT. Instead, it was the opposite. I became more proud of her. To know that this woman who set international records, who advocates for equal pay and for gay rights, who (to me at least) has been the face of women's soccer around the globe for over a decade, to know that she is just as damaged as a normal human, made her more real to me than ever.

I had placed her on this pedestal of "#1 perfect human being" because, to the little girl that still lives in my mind, that was what she was. I still have a 10+ year old poster of her in my "adult" apartment. Reading this book, reading her statements about her life, didn't knock her down from that pedestal that I put her on. It just put her on a different one: "#1 imperfect human being". And I realize that all this sounds super sappy and that I might be over thinking a lot in the book, but I read this book at a time in life when I needed to see for myself that heroes aren't always what they seem.

Countless times, Abby was knocked down on her ass. And countless times, she got up again. So, for that, for this book, and for being the hero every little girl needs, Thanks Abby.