No Worries If Not: A Funny(ish) Story of Growing Up Working Class and Queer

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My entire income, every single month, is derived from work I’ve written and, most of the time, pitched. Last week I advised my sister to remove two exclamation points from a text message she was crafting.

No Worries If Not is a funny, relatable coming-of-age story, that explores Soph Galustian’s experiences of poverty, queerness, mental health, grief and community. I’m setting it up pre-emptively, both so that they can reject me and not feel bad, and I can feel like I am less keen. And so we make a request and go, ​ ‘no worries if not’, so that if the request comes across as too strong, the other person won’t feel like we’re arrogant or too bossy. Realising that they felt this way too was reassuring, but worrying – when does the self-doubt ever stop? Also last week: I held a discussion thread about relationship doubts and got so many smart and thoughtful comments.

My phone was still going off with notifications every few seconds while I was having dinner the next evening. And just because you’re the kind of person who’s inclined to make things easier for others (hence your attachment to those four pesky words), don’t expect everyone else to do the same for you. Mikaela tells me that breaking down self-limiting beliefs isn’t straightforward, but there is hope: "Question your thoughts with evidence, while changing the narrative around them. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. A highly enjoyable diversion with relatable characters, many authentic Newcastle references and a feel good plot.

The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Filled with flashbacks to the early 2000s/2010s, No Worries if Not is equally for anyone who had a porch, a fancy drama school uniform and no dead pet fish. I’ve tried to erase it in myself, realising that when my boyfriend asks for work or more money, he doesn’t apologise. I love the premise of the story - Charlotte decides to try and go a year without apologising after realising she spent far too much time saying sorry for things that weren't even her fault - like having a tilted cervix!

As a self-aware people-pleaser myself, I enjoyed following Charlotte's journey to finding a better balance, with lots of laughs along the way.

The first half felt a bit slow, but the second half rocketed after a specific event and then I felt really invested in this read. If you aren’t any of those you may still find this book hilarious however if you’re all 3, there’s no way you can’t not purchase this stellar book. They made her seem happy that someone was flaking on her, I told her, and I thought it was okay if she seemed disappointed, which she was.Galustain is very open and honest in her memoir, opening up about struggling to accept her sexuality and also dealing with the tragic loss of her nephew. As a freelancer, my job means I have to constantly ask for things: commissions, time with interview subjects, money I’m owed. I wasn't sure about the first two-thirds of the book - although very funny, and I liked the mixed approach of poetry, prose and pages for writing your own thoughts - it occasionally felt quite surface-level and didn't necessarily give much new insight into being young, queer and working class in Manchester. But if you do suffer from an unrelenting urge to punch ​ “no worries if not” into your keyboard, it’s also important to not let it become yet another thing you beat yourself up about.