Glennon Doyle is arguably one of the most successful memoir writers of all time.
Her latest book, Untamed, opens with a story of a cheetah at the zoo that performs a “Cheetah run” for the crowd. Watching the choreographed scene unfold, Glennon identifies that women are similarly tamed from birth by systems that include misogyny, body shaming, religious doctrine and the suppression of their wants and desires.
Diving deep into these subjects, the book deals with the author’s path to uncaging herself from society’s expectations for what a woman should be.
Since its release, Glennon has emerged as the informal leader of an army of women who are embracing their truth, regardless of how the world (and people closest to them) respond.
Read on to learn more about the author and the most legendary quotes from her wildly impactful book, Untamed.
Who Is Glennon Doyle?
Glennon Doyle has 609,000 followers on Instagram and 755,000 fans on Facebook. For those who don’t know who she is, it’s best to have some context about her life and experiences to understand where she got the courage to release the book Untamed.
Glennon’s blogging career began in 2009 when she made a brutally honest “25 Things About Me” list on Facebook. The response was so explosive that she launched a blog called Momastery. Writing content daily from approximately 4 to 6am while her children were still asleep, she filled it with raw essays about everything from being a wife and a mother to deeply personal issues such as binging and booze.
Yes, she summoned the courage to write about her struggles with bulimia, alcohol, drugs, anxiety, depression and mental health.
The blog eventually gained a following—an extraordinary following. A post called Don’t Carpe Diem reached 250,000 views. Momastery’s popularity eventually led to 10 publishers fighting over the rights for her first book.
Glennon began writing memoirs in 2013. Her first book Carry On, Warrior reached the New York Times bestseller list and sold over 200,000 copies.
Despite the popularity of her first memoir, Glennon didn’t reach the spotlight immediately. That all changed in 2016 when her second book, Love Warrior, was chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club Pick.
Glennon’s 1st Marriage to Husband Craig Melton
Glennon revealed that she was leaving her husband, Craig Melton, shortly before Love Warrior’s release.
As a little girl, Glennon had internalized society’s messages about what a girl’s body “should” look like— small, quiet, and shrinking. As a survival technique, she became bulimic by age 8 and learned to live in her mind where the world was safe.
Equally damaging, Craig had been shamed for expressing his feelings and emotions as a little boy. He learned it was advisable to shut down his mind and live in his body, playing sports and showing affection exclusively through touch and physical intimacy. The risks associated with raw and authentic communication were too much.
The result of these early childhood experiences caused Glennon to develop bulimia and Craig to develop a porn addiction. These distinct but parallel coping mechanisms were gendered responses to the same oppressive system. Within their marriage, these destructive patterns also led to her ex-husband’s periodic infidelity in the form of extramarital one-night stands.
The book Love Warrior is a raw and honest memoir of Glennon’s path to see her first marriage for what it was. Self described by Glennon as a “a bad marriage to a good man,” the couple separated in late 2016.
After separating from ex-husband Craig Melton, Glennon Doyle married Olympian and soccer star, Abby Wambach, in 2017.
Glennon and Abby are both successful authors and activists. They’ve created a charity called Together Rising for women in crisis. It has raised over $20 million and helped countless families across the globe.
Glennon and Abby live together in Florida with their three children.
Best Untamed Quotes
Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed is a relatable collection of essays that detail how women become tamed when they deny their authentic selves and what they truly want in order to accomodate and serve those around them. She encourages everyone to be who they are, rather than who the world expects them to be.
Here are some of the most legendary and impactful quotes the book provides.
Untamed Quotes About Society’s Expectations
Below are my favorite Untamed quotes about shedding society’s expectations:
- I’ve done my research and learned this; Ten is when we learn how to be good girls and real boys. Ten is when children begin to hide who they are in order to become what the world expects them to be. Right around ten is when we begin to internalize our formal taming. Ten is when the world sat me down, told me to be quiet, and pointed toward my cages.
- Good girls aren’t hungry, furious, or wild. All of the things that make a woman human are a good girl’s dirty secret.
- Our culture was built upon and benefits from the control of women. The way power justifies controlling a group is by conditioning the masses to believe that the group cannot be trusted. So the campaign to convince us to mistrust women begins early and comes from everywhere.
- We weren’t born distrusting and fearing ourselves. That was part of our taming. We were taught to believe that who we are in our natural state is bad and dangerous.
- They convinced us to be afraid of ourselves. So we do not honor our own bodies, curiosity, hunger, judgment, experience, or ambition. Instead, we lock away our true selves. Women who are best at this disappearing act earn the highest praise: She is so selfless.
Untamed Quotes About Being Ourselves
Below are my favorite Untamed quotes about unbecoming what is expected of us by society and stepping into our true selves:
- I understand myself differently now. I was just a caged girl made for wide-open skies.
- Can you imagine? The epitome of womanhood is to lose one’s self completely. That is the end goal of every patriarchal culture. Because a very effective way to control women is to convince women to control themselves.
- What the world needs is more women who have quit fearing themselves and started trusting themselves What the world needs is masses of women who are entirely out of control.
- I had been deceived. The only thing that was ever wrong with me was my belief that there was something wrong with me.
Untamed Quotes About Sensitivity
Below are my favorite Untamed quotes about the power and beauty of sensitivity:
- The opposite of sensitive is not brave. It’s not brave to refuse to pay attention, to refuse to notice, to refuse to feel and know and imagine. The opposite of sensitive is insensitive, and that’s no badge of honor.
- The culture depends on the sensitivity of a few, because nothing can be healed if it’s not sensed first.
Untamed Quotes About Love and Self-Love
Below are my favorite Untamed quotes about embracing love for oneself and others:
- Love is the opposite of control. Love demands trust.
- Self-love means that I have a relationship with myself built on trust and loyalty. I trust myself to have my own back, so my allegiance is to the voice within.
- We can either control our selves or love our selves, but we can’t do both.
- I’ll abandon everyone else’s expectations of me before I’ll abandon myself. I’ll disappoint everyone else before I’ll disappoint myself. I’ll forsake all others before I’ll forsake myself. Me and myself: We are till death do us part.
Why You Should Read Glennon Doyle Books
Untamed continues Glennon Doyle’s trend of writing raw, honest books to inspire and encourage women and beyond. It focuses on finding joy within yourself, being at peace with who you are, and listening to your inner voice that is the source of unbridled wisdom.
All of Glennon Doyle’s books are inspiring, life changing reads. Untamed is one of the most relevant and relatable, because it’s full of inspiring stories on how to become free.
It contains compelling stories of how she has seen through the matrix of societal constructs and learned to become ‘uncaged’. It is a riveting read, and I should warn you, you’ll be unlikely to put it down once you crack the front cover.
Doyle made her name blogging about the “brutiful” struggle, a word that combines “beautiful” with “brutal” to recognize that life is hard. It is supposed to be hard. And, as Glennon reminds us, it being hard doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong.
Next time you start to second guess your wise inner voice, remember to ask yourself, “Is it possible I’m not crazy, I’m a GD cheetah?”
Of the Untamed quotes above, which ones compel to shed your cages and embrace your process of unbecoming? Let me know in the comments below.
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