Powerful Girls - by Ann Muno (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book equips parents and mentors with practical tools to help girls and young women cultivate confidence, identity, and power while overcoming everyday challenges. By fostering a healthier culture where girls thrive, it paves the way for them to reshape the world they'll inherit and lead.

Book Synopsis

This book equips parents and mentors with practical tools to help girls and young women cultivate confidence, identity, and power while overcoming everyday challenges. By fostering a healthier culture where girls thrive, it paves the way for them to reshape the world they'll inherit and lead.

Review Quotes

Powerful Girls is a must-read resource that combines a mix of practical tools, program examples, and more that support the needs and limitless potential of girls, young women, and gender expansive young people, particularly those of color. The practical content is punctuated with a call to action that addresses the root causes of marginalization and oppression--the critical need for introspection, interrogation and courageous confrontation about how each of us, though well-meaning, are part of what props up systems and social norms that views and treats some "girls" as less than. Finally, as they should, the wisdom of "girls" shines through in the book as the leaders, not of tomorrow, but of today.

Powerful Girls surrounds the reader with actions, tools, and fresh thinking on how to energize a diverse range of girls and those who work to empower them. With personal anecdotes, tips for parents and group leaders, and a belief in the power of both reflecting in and looking out (at the culture), Muno offers us an invaluable resource for mentoring girls towards leadership, activism, and justice.

In her book, Ann Muno invites readers to explore the multifaceted experiences of girls in today's complex world. By sharing her own deeply moving personal tragedy, she not only highlights the resilience found in the female spirit but also challenges us to reflect on our experiences and how they shape our ability to partner with and support girls in their individual journeys. The voices of girls are at the heart of Muno's work. By grounding her strategies in research and real-life experiences with girls, she provides practical strategies to create safe spaces that foster equal partnerships, growth and healing.

This book is a must-read for parents/guardians, educators, and youth organization leaders. Ann Muno's practice-based approach drawing on her decades-long experience of leading a girls' organization comes from a place of humility and curiosity, creating space for authentic dialogues between adolescent girls and their adult allies. Ann's work reminds us of how the work to support girls' lives and positive development must be communal and collective.

About the Author

Ann Muno is a nationally recognized expert on girls' issues and the mother of four daughters. She is the Executive Director of the Justice For Girls Coalition of Washington State and the co-founder of Powerful Voices. Ann has published in peer reviewed journals as well as through newspaper op-eds. In 2020, she was the recipient of a research fellowship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She lives in Seattle, Washington.