I’ve shown you the cover. I’ve told you where the book came from. But there’s a part of this process nobody ever sees — the part I’m honestly most proud of.
Not the writing. The re-writing. The checking. The slow, unglamorous work of making sure every single thing in this book is actually true.
More than twenty rounds of editing
I lost count, but it was well past twenty.
Twenty-plus passes through the same chapters — reading, cutting, rephrasing, reading again. Sentences that sounded great but said too little. Advice that was almost right but not quite precise enough. Whole sections rebuilt because the order didn’t make sense, or because I’d assumed a reader knew something I hadn’t actually explained.
People imagine writing a book is mostly about getting the words down. It isn’t. The first draft is the easy part. The book gets made in everything that comes after — the editing over editing over editing, until it finally says exactly what you mean, as clearly as it can be said.
Checking everything — because women deserve that
Here’s the standard I held myself to: nothing goes in this book that I can’t stand behind.
So I checked it all. The medical and safety claims — what’s actually safe in pregnancy, what to watch for postpartum, how the body changes through perimenopause. The exercise technique and the progressions — not just what to do, but the right order to do it in. And every statistic and study I leaned on, traced back to the source rather than repeated from memory.
Then I sent it out — because my experience, however deep, isn’t enough on its own. The content was reviewed by qualified professionals, including an OB/GYN, a pelvic floor physiotherapist, and a clinical nutritionist. The kind of people I’d send my own clients to.
The best part? They mostly told me I was right
I’ll be honest — I braced myself for that feedback.
What came back were minor tweaks. A word here, a clarification there. Nothing fundamental. After nearly a decade of coaching women through these exact phases, and living through most of it myself, the core of the book held up to expert review.
That mattered more to me than any compliment about the cover. Because it means what’s in these pages isn’t just my opinion, or another confident voice in an industry full of them. It’s been checked, and it stands.
Why I’m telling you this
Women in these phases are handed an enormous amount of advice — from people with no qualifications, no review process, and no accountability. I wasn’t willing to add to that pile.
So this is the part of the book you can’t see on the cover, but it’s the part that should make you trust it: more than twenty rounds of editing, every claim fact-checked, and a review by the right experts before a single copy goes to print.
Real strength isn’t built in perfect conditions. But the facts in a book about it? Those I wasn’t willing to leave to chance.
Strength Through the Messy & Beyond launches on 19 August 2026. You can read the first chapter free, or pre-order the book now so it lands the day it’s out.
Daniëlle van der Leest
Women’s Strength & Wellbeing Coach | Founder of ActiveWomen | Mum of 3
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