Need a Cheerleader? I’ve Got a Book for You.

By Jessica MacLeod

We Need Your Art (Stop Messing Around and Make Something) by Amie McNee is a self-help book for creatives. Published in 2025 by Penguin Life, this book shows more care, depth, and breadth than what was probably your first taste of McNee: her YouTube Ted Talk, “The Case for Making Art When the World is On Fire.”

Also popular on Instagram and Substack, and a fiction writer at heart, Amie McNee built her presence on writing and talking about creative struggles. As you might guess from the bevy of social media platforms already mentioned, McNee is young, attention-thirsty, and regularly pumping out short bits of content. She is not for everyone, and she admits that. I’ve also seen her in some videos with crazy-long and wildly decorated fingernails. Shudder. Not my thing. Despite these points, I find myself cheering for her and admiring her determination.

Plus, she is cheering for me. And you. And the art we make. In We Need Your Art, McNee understands our creative struggles, helps us gently unravel excuses and stories, and inspires us to get out of our own way so that we can share our magic with others.

Writers, artists, musicians, what do we struggle with? Have you met procrastination, perfectionism, jealousy, comparison, and burnout? I have; apparently, they really like me. Fortunately, each gets a chapter in this book. We learn we’re not alone with our struggles and that they can be surpassed. McNee is refreshingly open about the hundreds of rejection letters she has received from agents and publishers, the other artists she has been jealous of, and what it is like to have burnouts (yes, plural). Artists are human; these struggles are inevitable and there’s no sense in pretending we don’t face them. By reading about her experiences, and the mental shifts she’s made to reframe them, we can process our own struggles with less shame and perhaps bounce back quicker. What else do creatives need to consider? Well, she gives voice, self-censorship, finishing, failure, success, patience, and celebrating their own chapters too. 

Because journalling and self-examination support her own creative practice and healing, McNee provides journal prompts at the end of each chapter. These are useful questions to consider and can really illuminate some narratives we’ve had festering in our psyches. For example, “we have been taught that in order to create stuff, we need permission.” What does that permission look like? Do we need to be good at something to be able to really dive in and invest with time, money, and effort? Does permission only come through traditional publishing or acceptance to “real gallery shows”? Does permission depend on how sellable our work is? 

Other internalized narratives may be that art is a selfish, navel-gazing pursuit, that it’s only for the young and the retired, and that “art is useless without commerce.” Do we have to go big or get out? Why is it so hard to talk to other people (non-creatives) about our work? Can creatives succeed without the “hustle”? I appreciate how many of these cultural narratives McNee takes on in this book. I hadn’t been conscious of how many of them influenced me, so taking the time to really sit with some of these questions was valuable.

When we learn what issues are behind our procrastination or creative ruts, and then we reframe, we begin to see that art is generous. Sharing our works with the world, however we do it, is demonstrating bravery, creativity, and hope for making the world a more interesting and inclusive place. Art has tremendous benefit to the viewer and to the maker. As artists, we know that we feel better when we’re making, that if we can give ourselves time for creative play, we are engaging in self-care. And we feel powerful when we create; we’re resisting the prevailing cultural pressures to consume. And that has a ripple effect. When we’re good to ourselves, we’re good to others. 

Beyond the journal questions, we also learn about her “two-week reset,” a challenge to take on before we’ve worked on our creative blocks. Good for creatives at any stage, “it’s a reboot and a reignition of all your creative ways.” It’s simple, logical, easy to accomplish, and forgiving.  Now, it’s not a guarantee that we’re going to love all that we do. In fact, part of the goal is reducing perfectionist tendencies. The reset is to help us get out of our own way.

Who is this book best suited to? If you’ve worked hard all your life, in traditional employment, and firmly believe we all just have to suck it up and stick it out and leave art for retirement, this might be a tough sell. But if you know that your life and outlook have always seemed different because of creativity, that you want creativity to be the fuel you’re running on, this book might be for you. It’s particularly good for those who long to dive deeper into art or writing or music, but are still testing the waters with much trepidation. She can be repetitious at times and her writing style is casual, but I truly found this a rewarding read. The spirit and message of the book is strong enough to keep this picky reader going. She has inspired me to have more courage and self-compassion. 

We Need Your Art by Amie McNee is available in the SD&G Library.