Being a teen girl can be confusing and frustrating—luckily Meredith Walker created this guide to show how to dig deep, find what's important to you, and use that authenticity to make the world a better place. Featuring a foreword from Amy Poehler!

Teen girls learn rules all the time, even if many of them go unsaid. Be yourself! But don’t be weird! Hustle hard—your future depends on it! You’re only young once—enjoy it! But no one talks about the life skill they need to navigate all those rules: how to think for themselves.  

As the co-founder of Smart Girls, Meredith Walker has spent years making ideas feel real, relevant, and approachable to young people. Now she’s written a whole guide devoted to helping teen girls discover who they are, feel their feelings, develop their confidence—and figure out what to do next. Compact, insightful, and full of warm wisdom, Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice is the perfect book for any reader letting go of the old rules to create a life that’s truly their own.
 

Meredith Walker has dedicated her career to empowering young people. Walker began her career as a producer on the Peabody- and Emmy-winning Nick News and later worked as head of the Talent Department at Saturday Night Live. In 2008, she and comedian Amy Poehler co-founded Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, devoted to helping girls cultivate their authentic selves. As Executive Director of Smart Girls, Walker has traveled worldwide to work with teenage girls, from visiting refugee camps as a U.S. State Department journalism envoy to joining delegations to Haiti and Malawi. A Clinton School Distinguished Lecturer and two-time Obama White House guest, Walker hosted the Champions of Change summit and participated as a panelist for the White House Summit: Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media. She serves on advisory boards for the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, the Common Sense Media Advisory Board for Gender Equality, and the UN Women’s Global Innovation Coalition for Change. She lives in Austin, Texas.