Gabbie Hanna has received endless hate throughout her extremely public career often spurred by her ignorant comments or lack of self-awareness. Her actions have in fact hurt people in various identity-related communities, and I am firm believer that she would benefit extremely from stepping away from any largely public platform and allowing herself to grow, for the first time in a while, without the pressure of others watching.
I wanted to begin this review with that disclaimer because I disliked this book and the privilege it represented in terms of impulsive YouTuber publications; however, I can’t find the rage within me to loathe it. The poems within this book are by no means good or worth a 200 page, $11 experience. While reading this book, I often wanted it to end. But to me, this book represented the horrifying magic of people’s baby steps in poetry.
Like all young poets, my first ventures into poetry were absolutely heinous. They often continue to be. Teenage poetry is a passion of mine with its awkward attempts at meter and their oddly-formed lines, and I love nothing more than watching people grow into syntactic instincts that bring about the best of their thoughts; however, the most important part of this unavoidable phase is the double-pronged process of peer-editing and constant writing.
I try to avoid posting my worst poems by asking the most honest of my friends or mentors if the poem is objectively bad, in which case I ask why and attempt to rework it if I find it worth saving. Furthermore, I try not to let criticism scare me away from writing for too long because it begins to feel foreign with time. Writing constantly will in fact produce several works that you will despise or cringe every time you are reminded that they exist, and this is the only way that anyone can ever write something honest. You learn by understanding your weaknesses and attacking them head on, writing everyday until you enjoy what you write.
Hanna’s poetry in Adultolescence is not good; however, its lack of quality indicates a lack of research and practice, both of which are easily remedied. If you find yourself fearful of approaching poetry, read as much poetry of as many types as possible: local libraries have endless volumes of verse from various centuries and writing your own poetry is completely free. Hanna’s misfortune was that of a person with too much money and attention with too little feedback and experience.
I could say more negative things that I thought while reading these poems and rolling my eyes. I was irritated by the gall to title a poem “Link” where the only body text was “In bio.” But her poetry is not the only bad poetry in the world, it’s just poetry that was prematurely published by someone whose career thrives on public attention. She did choose to publish it and that continues to be her fault and if you read it that is also your fault. As her career continues from this volume she continues to publicly seek ventures in arts that she has no experience in and it has continued to lessen her reputation. This phenomenon is avoidable simply by creating art solely for a love of creating art without the pressure of it being consumed and allowing yourself to grow without excessive eyes pulling apart its merit. Let yourself be bad at something until you’re good at it without monetizing your first attempts at everything.