"EPL" is no longer just a book, or even a hugely anticipated movie starring the iconic Julia Roberts. It is now a movement, a way of life for millions of women, even though the concept of ‘finding yourself’ through travel is as old as literature or filmmaking itself.

But Gilbert’s success in reaching out to over 7 million readers of the book is not about the ultimate outcome of finding herself, but rather the route she takes to get there.

It’s the unsaid, the underlying, that truly explains this book’s appeal. Readers don’t seem to grudge Gilbert her success despite the fact that she wrote the bestseller in less than six weeks, all while eating pizza, praying and finding love in three fascinating countries: Italy, India and Indonesia. Oh, and let’s not forget, she received a hefty book advance before she set out, eliminating pretty much all risk from the equation.

There’s a reason why women love her, and it isn’t luck.

Gilbert has redefined for women what they need to do to feel good about themselves, whether that’s in the way they look, live or love. She also made it acceptable for a woman to focus on her own emotional life over and above the other demands in her life.

She doesn’t do it through sweeping soliloquies but rather, through a series of subtle statements that resonate with women everywhere.

To start, her route to self-fulfillment did not—as seems the cinematic norm—include making oneself stunningly beautiful through makeovers and manic shopping excursions. The heroine doesn’t get her nails done, her hair highlighted or her butt buffed. This is that rare female-centric movie where the heroine doesn’t once disparage her appearance. She pretty much doesn’t seem to give a damn, in fact. Yes, the movie is still about consumption—food and travel don’t come cheap—but it’s a more soul-satisfying consumption than the overflowing wardrobes and shoe closets of Sex & the City.

Next—and it would be foolish to underestimate the impact of this—the protagonist doesn’t spend her days eating salad or compensating for every bite she puts in her mouth. Rather, she satisfies her soul with pasta and pizza, with weight gain be damned. If it seems like a tiny thing to you, chances are you’re a man.

What Eat, Pray, Love gives the women who swear by it is the hope that the route to finding themselves—and along with that, love and success—doesn’t necessarily come loaded with deprivation, starvation and living up to unreal ideals. Rather, Gilbert’s route involves satiation, humor, and laughter, and yet emerges at the ultimate destination—a love-filled Happy Ending. And that’s the correct answer to the question, What Do Women Want.