5 Must Read Books to Empower Girls in 2019

1. At age eleven, Jessica Markowitz learned that girls in Rwanda are often not allowed to attend school, and Richards Rwanda took shape.During his sophomore year of high school, Zach Steinfeld put his love of baking to good use and started the Baking for Breast Cancer Club.Do you wish you could make a difference in your community or even the world? Are you one of the millions of high school teens with a service-learning requirement? Either way, Be a Changemaker will empower you with the confidence and knowledge you need to affect real change. You’ll find all the tools you need right here–through engaging youth profiles, step-by-step exercises, and practical tips, you can start making a difference today.This inspiring guide will teach you how to research ideas, build a team, recruit supportive adults, fundraise, host events, work the media, and, most importantly, create lasting positive change. Apply lessons from the business world to problems that need solving and become a savvy activist with valuable skills that will benefit you for a lifetime!
2. Girls can rule the world – all they need is confidence. This empowering, entertaining guide from the best-selling authors of The Confidence Code gives girls the essential yet elusive code to becoming bold, brave, and fearless. It’s a paradox familiar to parents everywhere: girls are achieving like never before, yet they’re consumed with doubt on the inside. Girls worry constantly about how they look, what people think, whether to try out for a sports team or school play, why they aren’t getting “perfect” grades, and how many likes and followers they have online.Katty Kay and Claire Shipman use cutting-edge science and research, as well as proven methods of behavioral change, to reach girls just when they need it the most – the tween and teen years.Packed with true stories from tons of real girls, The Confidence Code for Girls teaches girls to embrace risk, deal with failure, and be their most authentic selves.
3. In Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life – and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow Series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words…And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? Open her heart to someone? Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction?
4. Being a teen girl isn’t easy—so learning skills to feel confident is key! In Express Yourself, psychotherapist Emily Roberts will teach you how to communicate effectively and feel assertive in any situation. Whether it’s online or at school, with friends, parents, bullies, cliques or crushes—any tricky situation life throws yours way.Many teen girls feel pressured to be nice, rather than assert their opinions. They may fear being called bossy or pushy when speaking their mind or offering a different point of view. If you have ever stopped yourself from expressing your opinion, you know how bad it can feel afterward. Don’t let yourself fall into that same trap over and over. Your thoughts and feelings matter just as much as everyone else’s—you just need to find your voice.Express Yourself offers skills based in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you create positive interactions with others and deal with difficult emotions that can arise from bullying or dealing with mean girls. The book also provides easy-to-use strategies that will boost your self-esteem and confidence, and you’ll discover tons of assertive communication skills you can use every day, including how to speak up when you are upset, asking for what you want in a clear assertive manner, and coping when intense emotions threaten to take over and sabotage your relationships.In our modern world of social media and texting, strong communication skills are needed more than ever. This book will not only give you the tools needed to speak up in everyday or difficult situations, but it will also provide powerful advice for effectively communicating in the digital world.
5. Maya Penn is a remarkable teen entrepreneur who has given three TEDTalks, created her own ecofriendly fashion line, developed animated films, and appeared on The Viewwith Whoopi Goldberg. She has even been name checked by best-selling authors Gabrielle Bernstein, Steve Harvey, and Eve Ensler. All while still in middle school!Although Maya is extraordinary in many ways, and her success is a testament to her own creativity, passion, and fearlessness, these are traits that can be cultivated in all of us.In You Got This!, Maya shares her incredible journey to becoming an artist, a designer, a philanthropist, and a business owner. She provides a creative blueprint for teens and young adults along with the tools she used to build an authentic, exciting, and connected life and offers creative prompts for cultivating success. So let your creativity and passion flow freely, and watch as your world transforms – it all starts with you!

Do you have a book you think should be added to my list?

You can also check out a list of 30 fantastic books I’ve linked over at The Mean Girl Extinction Project.