Abandoning Approval

In this poetic memoir about finding yourself, Stacy Walker shares the small choices, subtle shifts, and breakthrough moments that helped her move from people-pleasing and perfectionism to choosing herself.

In Abandoning Approval, Stacy invites readers into the messy, uncertain, and ultimately transformative journey to reclaim her power, after years of giving it away. Along the way, she discovered that fulfillment isn’t something we achieve, but something we choose.

Blending heartfelt storytelling, poetry, and reflective prompts, Abandoning Approval encourages readers to look beyond the roles they’ve inherited and examine how expectations for women can become long-term patterns. Because when women allow themselves to look below the surface, something remarkable happens—they remember the magic that’s already within them.

 Abandoning Approval isn’t a prescription for blowing up your life or another five-step plan for becoming a better version of yourself. It’s an invitation to remember who you already are.

This personal transformation self-help book offers inspiration and practical guidance to: 

  • Recognize the hidden costs of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and overachieving

  • Reconnect to an inner voice and get curious about what fulfillment means to you

  • Create space for rest, creativity, wonder, and possibility 

  • Make small, intentional choices that build confidence, clarity, and agency

  • Practice how to stop people-pleasing and start letting go of what people think

For eldest daughters, former straight A students, and type A achievers ready to shift away from pleasing others, this personal growth memoir offers a different way forward.

Coming November 2026

Stacy Walker is available to join select book club conversations in person or virtually.

For book clubs, this memoir opens the door to meaningful conversations about seeking approval, pivots, identity, and creating new magic in our lives.

Inquire about availability via the contact form on the About Page or at stacy [at] swsolutions.io.

Endorsements

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    “Abandoning Approval is a deeply personal and poetic exploration of all the invisible ways women are taught to shape-shift, overachieve, and shrink in the pursuit of acceptance, as well as the courage it takes to break those patterns. With vulnerability, wisdom, and compassion, Stacy Walker shows us that change only happens when you get brutally honest about your complicity in your unhappiness. If you’re an overachiever who has built a life that everyone admires, but you still feel like you’re drowning, Abandoning Approval will give you both permission and a path to figure out what you really want before it’s too late.”

    —Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and author of the New York Times Bestseller Fired Up

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  • ✶

    “This book is a gift. Too many women have lived lives trapped in good-girl conditioning. Stacy Walker’s Abandoning Approval is like holding a dear friend’s hand as we learn to follow our desire and create ever more freedom and delight in our lives. Walker’s vulnerability and truth-telling chart a course for others to follow. Her poetry names the pain and the possibility of beginning to choose ourselves. This book is a celebration of becoming!”  

    —Heidi Rose Robbins, astrologer, poet, and author of Ask Me

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  • ✶

    “In Abandoning Approval, Stacy Walker insightfully shares her journey of discovering her voice, identity, and power through a series of heartbreaks and losses—both in work and family—and finding a new path forward toward a richer, more fulfilling life as a mother, wife, daughter, and writer. She opens an intimate window into her painful life experiences through her skillful prose, tender poems, and invitations for readers to reflect on their own lives. A must-read for any woman who is looking to pay attention to the fullness of her life.”

    —S. Kirk Walsh, author of national bestseller The Elephant of Belfast

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  • ✶

    “What happens when you’ve outgrown your old life before you’ve built the new life you’re meant to fully embrace? Stacy Walker gives a tender, candid look into her daunting decision to finally choose messy presence over chasing impossible perfection. This book is for anyone wondering if they have what it takes to change their own life, and it answers compassionately: ‘yes, you do.’ Abandoning Approval is woven with poetry that deepens the narrative and extends an invitation to connect beyond the cerebral into the heart.”

    —Sarah Hanson, author of Conjuring the Hurricane, winner of multiple awards including the 2026 International Book Award for Best Contemporary Poetry

    ✶

Inspired by truth-tellers, poets, and women who’d had enough and did something about it, Stacy is grateful to the women who’ve come before her and told their stories.

Stacy frequently blogs on people-pleasing, reclaiming power, grief, motherhood, and more on her Substack, @stacywalkerwriter.