Tomi Lahren - 2 July

Life begins when you live outside your comfort zone.

You may know me from the world of politics, sound bites, and hot takes, but you dont really know me. Yes, you know who I voted for, who I work for, and where I stand on the issues. But you dont know my values, why I am the way that I am, where I come from, and the Tomi behind the Final Thoughts. I want you to know who I am because Im probably a lot like you. There is so much that makes me me, and theyre probably many of the same things that make you you. I dont want to be your idol, but I would like to be your inspiration, if youll let me, because I feel that I have stories that are a probably a lot like yours and that maybe you can learn from my mistakes and my grit. Most of us will experience that defining moment (or two or three), where you truly dont know whats next, but you have to move forward regardless. After all, very few people go from perfect job to perfect job or perfect relationship to perfect relationship. Ive been there, done that, and learned a lot by coming out the other side, stronger than ever. And that is the point of this book.

I want to share all of that and many of the things that Ive gone through in the hopes that they can help you, too. Why am I so certain that my life applies to yours? Because Im just an average girl from South Dakota from a blue-collar family. I wasnt homecoming queen, a cheerleader, or an athlete. Not even close! I wasnt part of the popular crowd. However, I was lucky enough to be raised by two of the hardest-working people I know. My parents never complained and showed me how to work hard, aim high, and never take shit from anyone. The way they raised me gave me the courage to be fearless, and if not for their example I wouldnt have the strength to stand up for myself. I was taught to question everything and never think that something was true just because someone said it was. I didnt get where I am in my twenties by sitting back and shutting up. Ive been fired, sued, dropped, disinvited, heckled, laughed at, slandered, betrayed, and dumped. But that didnt break me. I make it work no matter what life throws at me. I smash those curveballs. And I want to help you do the same. I want you to feel empowered so that you can do whatever you set your mind to.

I dont fit in any mold. I dont look like the rest of the people on TV. I have long, blond hair, two tattoos, and a nose ring and Im on Fox News. I have a boyfriend and, on the weekends, we go out and drink with my friends. I love God, rap music, and reality TV. (My favorite show in high school was The Girls Next Door, about three Playboy playmates who were all dating Hugh Hefner and walking around his mansion half-naked.) In other words, Im not your average conservative chick. I dont read the playbook, I call the plays, and I dont care what people label me because I cant be put in a box. I dont play for safety; I play for honesty, and Im fearless.

My mom tells people I was born this way, but I beg to differ. Of course, I would not be where I am today, personally and professionally, if it werent for my parents, all they have done and the sacrifices they made for me. My parents loved and believed in me. They are the reason why I wont settle for mediocre. They drove the crappiest cars for decades. They skipped vacations and never renovated their house. Sometimes they worked two jobs and yet they never complained. They didnt baby me and, no matter how young I was, they didnt protect me from tough stufflike alcoholism in our family and money problems. They didnt tell me I was above anyone or that I was the best; they motivated and inspired me to work hard to become my best. My family didnt have a lot of money, so when I went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or UNLV, many of my moms friends and family questioned why shed let me go to an out-of-state school when I could go to a local college where the tuition was a lot less. She took so much crap for that, but she had faith in me. She knew how much Id get out of it and she was right. I promised my parents when I was a little girl that someday I would pay them back for all theyve done for me. At age twenty-six, I am blessed to start fulfilling that promise. They are so proud and humble that they still try to pay for our family dinners. I literally have to wrestle the bill out of my moms hand. Truth is, I could pay for every dinner, vacation, or luxury item for the rest of their lives and still fall short. I am where I am because they stood back and let me spread my wings and open my big mouth.

Of course, my parents have had to deal with that big mouth and my strong opinions since the moment I started talking. When I was growing up, my mom and dad both worked full-time, so Saturday was put aside for cleaning the house. That didnt sit well with seven-year-old me, who wanted to go shopping with my mom, not scrub the bathroom. What to do? I wrote memos detailing how I felt and all the reasons why we should go shopping and not clean. I told my mom that life was too short and gave her suggestions for alternate times we could straighten up. Even at that young age, I had discovered Microsoft PowerPoint and would often create full-blown presentations for that extra little push of persuasion. At first, she resisted, but eventually I wore her down. And that was just the start. To this day, if you ask my mom what adjective she would use to describe me, it would be relentless. Ill take that as a compliment. Ive always loved to entertain people but when I wanted a camcorder to record my own shows, my parents naturally said, No. After all, its five-hundred-dollar price tag was way out of their budget. But I was determined, so at ten years old I pushed and pushed and pushed the issue. Finally I convinced my parents to let me buy the camcorder on layaway, and I made the monthly payments. I did this by telling everyone in my family that I didnt want gifts for birthdays and holidays, just money. I also did extra chores around the house to help pad that birthday and Christmas money. In time I paid off the entire camcorder, which I used to create cooking shows with my cousin. I would write scripts and host the perfectly timed shows, and wed hold up handwritten signs so they looked like titles. (And my poor parents had to sit and watch!) My point is that I always had a reason and I always had a case for everything. My dad still tells every guy I date, Just accept the fact that you wont win an argument with Tomi.

Naturally, not everyone feels that way, and it seems like everybody wants to take a swing at me. I get slammed by the left and the right. But Ive been getting slammed for my political views since the first time I was forthright in expressing them. It was my junior year in high school and, though I was too young to vote, I felt very invested in the upcoming 2008 election. I went to the local Republican county office and asked if they had McCain bumper stickers.

Theyre five dollars, they told me. That seemed like a lot of money for a sticker, especially since I thought theyd be free. Still, I bought one and proudly put it on the back of my Chevy Cobalt. One day I was leaving school to go to lunch when an older gentleman pulled up next to me at a stoplight.

How can you vote for a monster like that? he screamed out his window.

Same question back to you, sir, I said before I drove away. (Yes, I used to be a huge John McCain fan. Ya know... before full-blown RINO syndrome hit him.) But I wasnt rattled or shaken. I was confident in my candidate and my beliefs. And I still am. I know how to think for myself and be myself. Over the years, people have tried to say that Im a younger, blonder version of various other women on TV. Wrong. Im not trying to be the younger, blonder version of anyone. Im trying to be Tomi. This confidencepolitically and in generalis something people ask me about constantly. Wherever I go, the question I get most often isnt about politics. Its this: Youre so sure of yourself, your beliefs and who you are. How? Girls from fifteen to fifty years old ask me some variation of this every single day! Its because I stand up for myself.