DePaul student Amber Farooqui wrote a book over the summer, drawing on her personal experiences as a fitness and business consultant. (Image courtesy of Amber Farooqui)As a child, DePaul marketing student Amber Farooqui says she didn’t like reading. She just couldn’t find a genre that held her attention. All that changed when she read her first self help books as a teenager.
“I started actually implementing the advice that was given in those books, and I started seeing my life changing for the better,” Farooqui says.
Now the Driehaus College of Business junior has a book of her own, “Finding Your Fit: A Guide to Living Your Best Life.” The self-published work debuted on Amazon in September and quickly became a number one best seller in the new releases category for inspiration and self-development. It’s also remained popular in categories for teens and young adults.
Over the summer, Farooqui wrote the book when a surgery sidelined her from her usual fitness and wellness routines. She seized on the opportunity to distill the best of what she’s learned as a fitness and business consultant and entrepreneur.
“I didn’t write the book to make money. I wrote it to help others and to show that reading can be a super power,” Farooqui says.
The book covers what Farooqui calls the five dimensions of wellness: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing.
“The book shares ideas for how to master those aspects of your life, to live a better life and find your purpose,” Farooqui says.
Motivational speaking is one of Farooqui’s long-term goals. She took Deborah Seigel-Acevedo’s “You: On the TedX Stage” course in the College of Communication last spring and found it to be illuminating. She wrote a short talk about the benefits of homeschooling, which seemed especially relevant as the class went into remote mode in March.
To underscore her main motivation to help others, Farooqui is giving a portion of the proceeds from the book to the Youth Mental Health Project.
“I feel during this time with the pandemic and everything happening in this world, mental health is super important,” Farooqui says.
Learn more about "You: On the Tedx Stage."