Worthy by Jamie Kern Lima

I loved Jamie Kern Lima’s first book, Believe It, so much that when I saw she had written a second, Worthy, I knew I wanted to give it a try.

I also enjoy Jamie’s podcast. She has the sweetest, most soothing voice and such a warm way of communicating, so I already knew I enjoyed listening to her perspective.

Worthy is quite different from Believe It. While her first book tells the extraordinary story of building IT Cosmetics from her living room and eventually selling the company to L’Oréal in a billion-dollar deal, this one turns the focus much more towards the reader.

At its heart, it asks a deceptively simple question: do you believe you are worthy of the life you want?

Confidence isn’t the same as self-worth

One of the core messages I took from the book is Jamie’s distinction between confidence and self-worth. Confidence is about believing you can do something. Self-worth is about believing you are worthy of it.

You can be incredibly capable, successful and confident in certain areas of your life while still questioning whether you’re enough underneath it all. Jamie herself has spoken about discovering this after achieving enormous success with IT Cosmetics. That really is the foundation of the book.

She explores limiting beliefs, rejection, people-pleasing, imposter syndrome, fear of failure and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. A recurring message is that external success doesn’t automatically change what you believe about yourself internally, and I think there is something worth taking from that.

How often do we tell ourselves we’ll finally feel successful, happy or confident when we reach the next milestone?

Then we reach it and immediately create another one.

Stop waiting for somebody else to tell you you’re enough

Another message that stayed with me is how much power we can give to other people’s approval. A rejection doesn’t mean you’re not good enough. A failure doesn’t determine your worth. And somebody else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your opinion of yourself.

Jamie knows something about rejection. Before IT Cosmetics became a major beauty brand, she faced repeated rejection while trying to convince people to believe in the business.

Her own journey makes the message more interesting because she isn’t writing about self-belief purely in theory.

Jamie went from working as a waitress at Denny’s to co-founding IT Cosmetics, which L’Oréal acquired in 2016 for $1.2 billion. She later became the first female CEO of a brand in L’Oréal’s history.

Worthy was published by Hay House LLC in 2024.

My verdict

★★★★☆ 4 out of 5 stars.

I enjoyed Worthy, although Believe It is still my favourite Jamie Kern Lima book.

If Believe It was about watching Jamie learn to believe in herself, Worthy is much more about asking whether you believe in yourself.

There are some useful lessons here about self-worth, rejection, limiting beliefs and not attaching your value to your achievements. Even if every message doesn’t resonate, there are definitely ideas worth taking forward.

And if you enjoy Jamie’s podcast as I do, you’ll already know just how calming she is to listen to.

Seriously, she has the most soothing voice.

Jill Newey
Editor-in-Chief