Jinger Duggar Vuolo on Her New Kids’ Book, Breaking Free from ‘People-Pleasing’ and the Change She Finds “Amazing” (Exclusive)
The former reality star opens up about faith, family and teaching kids their worth
Jinger Duggar Vuolo has spent her life in the spotlight, thanks to her family’s hit TV show, 19 Kids and Counting, which ran from 2009 to 2015, and her bestselling books. She has spent much of her life as a self-described people pleaser and is currently working on overcoming that. As part of that, she teamed up with her husband Jeremy Vuolo to write a new children’s book, You Always Belong. To learn more about what went into writing the book and what her life looks like since leaving reality TV, keep scrolling.
Jinger Duggar Vuolo and Jeremy Vuolo discuss their new book
You Always Belong takes readers alongside a group of children who learn that their worth isn’t determined by pleasing others or being perfect. It was inspired by Jinger’s memoir, People Pleaser: Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations, which was released in 2025.
“When I wrote my book, People Pleaser, I talked about how I struggled with pleasing people for so many years, and I still do. Then, we thought about how cool it would be to have a kid’s version of that, and it wasn’t until we had a situation with our oldest that we decided to pursue this whole project.”
Adds Jeremy, “Our oldest daughter came home from school one day ready to burst into tears, and it breaks your heart when a little 6-year-old girl says, ‘Daddy, they were laughing at me today,’ and then she starts crying.
“It’s one of those scenarios where, as a parent, you’re like, What do I say? We have so many answers for so many things, and then you enter a situation like that for the first time, and it really caused Jinger and me to think, Man, this message of not being bound by the expectations of others and allowing your own perception of who you are to rise or fall with how others perceive you is something that children need at a very early age,” he continues. “And so that day, we told her, ‘Felicity, God is not laughing at you. Even if others are laughing at you, Mommy and Daddy aren’t laughing at you. And that created the bigger picture for us of, how do we help our children shape a worldview where they’re not going into the world dependent on everyone else’s perception to be just right for them to feel good about themselves?”
Jinger Duggar Vuolo looks back at her time on TV and beyond
Jinger is the sixth Duggar sibling, all of whom were showcased on the popular TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, which followed the family’s day-to-day life, featuring their experiences with homeschooling, family relationships and being part of the nondenominational Christian fundamentalist organization Institute in Basic Life Principles.
“I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself to be a certain way. A lot of people had opinions about who they thought I was and where they thought I was going to end up, and that definitely started early. I would roll my eyes on camera because I thought it was hilarious. And people were like, ‘Oh, you’re so rebellious. You’re gonna run away to the big city,’ because we lived in a small town in Arkansas. But there’s that side of me where I also was one who was a big rule follower, and I wanted to make sure I toed the line. So when I wrote my book, Becoming Free Indeed, which basically talked about my upbringing and the tight-knit community I was raised in, there were harmful teachings that needed to be exposed, and that was scary to be able to speak up against that, because I was afraid of losing my community.”
“Even on the show, I remember feeling those tensions because I started doing things differently, thinking about life differently, and after I stepped outside of those harmful teachings and started wearing pants and started listening to modern music, I realized that it’s not sinful and it’s not bad. But I also wanted to handle it in a way that was going to be loving, because people are saying all sorts of things about why I did it. They were saying that I was angry with my parents, or angry at my upbringing, and it wasn’t true.”
Following her time on the show, Jinger has kept in touch with her family, but they’re not as close as they were when they were all living near one another. She also has redefined her faith, and she continues to wear pants instead of dresses (a decision that goes against the rules of the church she was raised in).
“I live in them,” Jinger jokes. “Realizing that I could ride a bike and not have my clothing get caught in it all the time was actually amazing.”
Be sure to pick up your copy of You Always Belong now wherever books are sold.
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