Chasing the Bright Side

Jess Ekstrom's story is the engine that makes this book work. She founded Headbands of Hope — which donates headbands to children with cancer — from her college dorm room after an internship with Make-A-Wish, and she writes about optimism not as denial of hardship but as a deliberate practice chosen in the middle of it. That distinction is what separates this from empty motivational fare. Publishers Weekly covered it positively, and reader reviews consistently note that Ekstrom earns her optimism rather than just asserting it. The honest caveat is audience narrowing: the book speaks most directly to young women entrepreneurs, and readers outside that lane may find the frameworks less resonant. The charitable foundation gives the whole project an extra layer of credibility that most self-help books simply don't have. Clean, faith-friendly, and genuinely encouraging.