Mel Robbins and Plagiarism

Meet Cassie B. Phillips, the original author of Let Them

Photo of Cassie B. Phillips published October 2022

It was New Year’s Day 2025; and to help set my intentions for the year, I chose a self-help audible to accompany me on a day’s long nature hike: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. I thought, how cool for someone famous to take a poem written by an unknown and turn it into a book. I was looking forward to hearing about the woman who originated the entire concept, Cassie B. Phillips, in her poem Let Them that went viral in 2022 after she got a tattoo of the words she penned.

Unfortunately, credit to the originator was never given. I listened to the entire book, even the appendix, special thanks acknowledgments and closing credits-twice; nowhere did I hear, “Thank you to the woman who wrote the viral poem that I based an entire book upon.” My heart sunk at the thought that yet another unknown writer sharing her insights and inspiration on social media might have had her work plagiarized, unacknowledged, and stolen without credit or financial compensation.

Then I came across a Facebook post by Mel Robbins promoting her book to which I commented, “I’m confused. I just listened to your book where you mention several times that your daughter Sawyer co-wrote it with you, but I didn’t see her name on the cover as a co-author. I also don’t understand how you can say you discovered this ‘theory’ when Let Them was written by Cassie Phillips. Not to mention themes and quotes I recognized from my own book.”

In perfect social media fashion, someone tagged Cassie B. Phillips, she replied to my comment, and I reached out to her directly to understand more. This is an abridged (and sometimes paraphrased) version of our conversation, published with her permission.

The Interview with Cassie B. Phillips

Sage: I’m sorry this is happening to you; and when it happens to one of us, it happens to all. May I ask what the original date was that you posted your Let Them poem? The least Mel could have done is say the book was inspired by your poem. That’s what I do when I publish: always give credit to the inspiration. If we don’t speak up [when our work is used without credit]- [more established authors] will keep doing this.

Cassie: The POEM that went viral was in September of 2022 because I decided to get it tattooed. The LET ME version was October of 2022. Mel joined the movement in May of 2023 when she posted a Tik Tok video and [it] went viral. She [ended] up using that to build an entire following about it. She announced her novel releasing in September/October of 2024 saying she dedicated 2 years to creating the theory, but [she] had only been involved for 1.5 year building a fandom and incorrectly explaining it.

Sage: So [Mel Robbins] did not create the LET ME concept, either?!

Cassie: The poem is the most frequently circulated version that was popularized. But the LET ME even more specifically came from me as well. Hold on, and I will show you!

Here are screenshots and the dates that Cassie posted (a form of publishing) her original works.

Cassie: This was a follow up in April of 2023. Still before [Mel Robbins] joined the Movement in May of 2024 as well. The original works were written in 2019. Here is the “Let You” as well.

Sage: I attended a gathering with her publishers (Hay House) in which they encouraged their authors to use A.I. which is just another way of encouraging them to plagiarize because AI is trained off of our words [those of us who share on public platforms to inspire others].

I’m a union member of SAGAFTRA, and I walked for nearly half a year, in a heat wave, on the picket line, during a strike, to get AI out of that industry; and I’ll do the same for us as content creator originators and independent writers. I don’t think I can stop AI, but I can awaken the do-the-right-thing-conscience of authors and publishers—at least through public pressure and awareness.

Cassie: It angers me that [writers with] larger followings can do as they please! If we don’t take a stand, what does this mean for the beginning writers? To allow this to continue, means that larger followed authors or writers can commit theft, use AI, and steal from originators for FOLLOWS and for MONEY. This violates everything writers stand for.

Sage: [I agree] I published my book in 2022. Then Hay House writers came out with the books WORTHY and LET THEM, which heavily mirror concepts from my book, FREEDOM. The hypocrisy of “spiritual people” who steal from those who have less fame and finances and can’t even offer a hand up with a shout out that it was their words that inspired them can be heartbreaking and financially devastating. If Louise Hay were still alive today, I don’t think she’d approve of how her publishing house is being run. (Link to piece on Hay House)—-end of interview—-

The Entitlement of Plagiarism

Mel Robbins is a former Lawyer. Attorneys are trained to find ways to avoid accountability and prevent liability. As a country, America has been victim to a myriad of injustices that have weakened our nation through divide and conquer techniques. The only way we are going to survive is to rise up, one voice at a time, and take a stand. No matter what defense Mel Robins gives for not giving credit to Cassie B. Phillips, we, as a collective, should not allow gaslighting that denies our reality. We all know that it was Cassie’s poem that went viral two years before Mel’s book was published, and Cassie deserves credit—not because she’s motivated by fame, but because she’s motivated by justice and protecting the rights of all writers and independent artists. The very least Mel could have done was to acknowledge Cassie as inspiring her. The poem was viral! It wasn’t in a vacuum. If we stay silent, we are complicit and might as well be the enslaved fools on the sidelines of the parable “The Emperor Wears No Clothes.” We must speak up, speak out, and say, “Hey! This isn’t right! Give credit where credit is due.”

How to Rectify the Situation

My desire is to give people grace and take heed when calling people out, to neither shame nor incite cancel culture, but rather call into right action. I want to give Mel the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was poorly advised. Maybe she offered her daughter a co-author credit and her daughter refused. Maybe Mel really didn’t mean to usurp the tattoo movement started by Cassie because she genuinely believes that all the tattoos are because of the Tik Tok video she made viral and not because Cassie, herself, started that ball rolling when she got the (presumed) first tattoo of “Let them,” years ago. Giving grace, however, does not mean making excuses for. Mel Robbins had options. She made choices, and I’m suggesting that she be encouraged to make new choices.

Toni Morrison is quoted as saying, “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower someone else.”

Mel Robbins has the power to acknowledge Cassie B. Phillips as the original source of her inspiration for The Let Them Theory; and until she does, maybe people will pause buying her books.

Here’s the original Let Them poem that went viral in 2022, written by Cassie B. Phillips.

You can find her on Instagram @Cassie.B.Philips. Please support her. Everything you could learn from the book “written” by Mel Robbins is in the poems Cassie shares for free here. Remember, we vote with our dollars; and buying Mel’s book is a vote for plagiarism. If you’ve already purchased the book or audible, you have the option of returning them. Let us not reward plagiarism. Thank you.

Sage Justice is an award-winning playwright and critically acclaimed performing artist who has appeared on stages from Madison Square Garden in New York City, to The Comedy Store in Hollywood, California. Ms. Justice is the author of Sage Words FREEDOM Book One, an activist, a member of the Screen Actors Guild and an alumna Artist-In-Residence of Chateau Orquevaux, France. Sage is intensely sincere. Balancing wisdom and humor she most often writes deeply personal solution based pieces about the enduring virtues that connect us all: love and healing. She has a series of short reels about living with the rare genetic disorder, Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that you can find in a highlight reel on her Instagram page @SageWords2027.