For her, self-care is a necessity, coming before the more prosaic needs of money, housing, and nutrition.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Cat heralds the need for self-care in this quotation. The narrator, from the perspective of Sam, comments on Cat’s devotion to self-care and putting her needs first - something with which Sam struggles. This quotation describes the entirety of Sam’s journey throughout the novel. Sam’s happiness is tied to her ability to take care of herself, something which she has lost. Sam fails, at first, to take care of her own needs. With Cat’s perspective in the back of her mind, and in conjunction with the Louboutins, Sam is able to put her own needs first. She stops cleaning her parents’ house. She voices her need for help to Phil. She starts boxing. She experiments with makeup and clothes. By the end of the story, Sam tries new things...