Quick Talk With Grace Helbig

You begin the book by writing about your past experience with an eating disorder. What inspired you to open up?

I felt like I would be lying to my friends–these people who have watched my videos for years–if I wasn’t very honest about my struggle with body image. Once that was written, I had a much easier time making jokes about not wearing tinfoil to work.

You come to the defense of sweatpants. Why?

I’ve had this spirit-animal relationship with sweatpants. In a past life, I probably was a pair of sweatpants. They’re like the white trash of the fashion world. It’s interesting that sweatpants are currently trendy: stores like Banana Republic and Gap have “jogger” pants that are basically elastic-waistband pants, but you can’t fool me.

You were one of the first YouTube stars to transition to TV with your E! show last year. What was the biggest challenge?

People have these patterns of consuming content on the Internet, and it is difficult to get an audience to television. Some people do it very successfully. But even with James Corden and Jimmy Fallon, some of the biggest viewership comes from clips they put online after the show.

Do you ever worry about oversharing? In one of your YouTube videos, you describe having some, uh, bowel issues at Target.

There’s an immediate wave of embarrassment when someone mentions something you did online. When you make videos by yourself in your home, you lose the perspective that it’s available online to everyone. Even when my parents are like, “We saw that you went to Michaels,” I’m like, “How’d you see that?” “You recorded yourself doing it and put it on the Internet.” “Oh. Right.”

–NOLAN FEENEY