Hey Glitterbomb!
Kari Ginsburg, CCMP, PCC
Uproar Coaching LLC (2025)
ISBN: 979-8992807523
Reviewed by A. Crimin for Reader Views (11/2025)
Hey Glitterbomb! A No-BS Guide to Being Too Much, Taking Up Space, and Loving the Legacy You Create is a self-help book written by two-time Helen Hayes Award-winning actor, director, and life coach Kari Ginsburg. It is a radical guide to teach you how to be yourself and love it, no matter what society’s expectations of you may be. It features real stories from Kari and others, workbook prompts, and inspirational life advice on how to find your people and shine like the glitterbomb you are.
The book walks you through how to value yourself, your time, and your space. It teaches you how to discover what you really want in life, and how to enjoy the unknown instead of fearing it. Excitement is your ally, and productivity is valued far too highly. Along with learning to manage self-doubt and imposter syndrome, the book shows you that society’s expectations of people can be wrong. Burning yourself out isn’t worth it, but especially if you’re too busy to live and enjoy life — because we only get one of those.
I enjoyed the latter half of the book the most, and I feel as though I’ve learned a lot. The advice is original and inspiring, and some of it is completely and utterly new to me. It made me feel as though I have a right to take up space, and actually ought to be taking up more of it. As someone who has been told they are “too much” at times, it really does hit home to hear that it is not actually the case. Be yourself, and don’t dim yourself for anyone else.
The productivity without punishment section feels especially relevant for the time we find ourselves living in. Everything, everywhere, is about squeezing more productivity out of every aspect of life, and learning a healthy balance is essential. Being given permission to not be productive all the time and told that, in fact, it is unhealthy to do so, was an eye-opener for me. As someone who often gets down on myself for not being productive enough, it is wild how much this book shifted my perspective.
For the workbook sections, you really do get out of it what you put into it. If you engage with the prompts in an honest and thoughtful manner, you’ll find they help you more than they would help someone who engages on a superficial level. The prompts provide a guide, but the work is all yours.
I did have some difficulty with certain parts of the book, especially the formatting. Arrows are drawn over and through the text to point out — often useful or interesting — tidbits from the author. But the fact that they cut directly through the text (at least, in my digital copy) can make those sections difficult to read. There is also a lot of slang and shorthand in the book that isn’t always explained.
The book has a bit of a slow start with the prologue rolling directly into a bit of dense theater-themed work. I personally had some trouble figuring out where the Given Circumstances and Theater fit into the self-help. The author does justify them, it’s just that some of our circumstances are outside of our control. I am all about learning to choose yourself, but this section didn’t resonate with me personally.
At the end of Kari Ginsburg’s Hey Glitterbomb! you learn to find your people (your unicorn herd, if you will), and there is an inspiring letter from the author showing you how to pass a bit of your shine on to other people. It leaves you with a sense of hope and community.