The atlantic, bazaar, and more. The culture director and staff editor at l. Shes joining the conversation tonight with the editorial director. One of thehe foundational of the American Revolution. From the American Revolution itself to the Civil Rights Movement to Nuclear Disarmament protests through black lives matter she uncovers the unique strengthsps to fandom to intimae friendships to lay groundworks for movements that have often sidelined. As leaders andof visionaries. [applause] thank you so much. Im very lucky to be an early reader of this amazing book and i cant wait to hear more about it. Im going to ask what your elevator pitch for the book is since maybe not everybody has read it yet. Lets start with how did you conceive of this idea . First of all, thanks for doing this. I read the acknowledgments basically for every book i ever read so i felt a lot of pressure when i was writing my own dacknowledgment wondering if there was another person in the world thatat does that. I came up with the idea when i was writing the book over time and i worked at l and glamour and came into contact with a lot of incredible young women across the cultural and political spectrumwo. A young person organizing thousands across the country or the aroundnd the world but witha little bit of perspective i feel like there was something extraordinary happening organizing claimant strikes and i thought what i am i to do is write a book about what was so special about this generation of teenage girls and young women and then i started researching how long this work has been going on and i felt really inadequate. Im glad my agent isnt here tonight. Then it became a telling of all of these movements told through the lens of teenage girls. The project surprised me and got a bigger and biggerr and ended p with us being here. You had this reporting. What did that look like uncovering the stories that hadnt been told before . I think the timeline is helpful. I started during the research pays 2019, 2018, 2020 then i started outlining each chapter in detail when there was nothing but time. [laughter] i have more concentrated hours to do research than i ever would have wanted the end of the way i approached my work is always to start as wide as possible so when im thinking about what the chapters want to be or that i knew belonged in the book, i tried to read the most general that i could possibly find so everything you wanted to know. I used to say before i sold the book that my hidden talent was reading a huge book and finding the instance where a woman is mentioned. The Books Research really follows that process of reading and researching and finding the random clause and going deeper and deeper emailing librariansy who were the only people that were very happye to go on a wid goose chase because what else did they have to do in july 2020 and following my curiosity. Thats the nice thing about having that feeling of being a little bit of an amateur is you ask a lot of questions and find a lot of people are happy to share what they know. At the amount that this uncovered. Was there a story that you found particularly surprising or removing as we were doing this research . There were a lot of stories. Youve probably heard me talk about a chinese immigrant involved in the womens suffrage fighting for a ride she knew would be extended to her and i found her story very moving. Shes so charismatic in her audiences. I love that idea of this captivating young person she was a good example and one of the stories that also surprised me the first woman in her early 20s ever to address a house of f representative in congress and thesed were two girls identifid their time who both tried their best on the platforms extended to them in an unlikely way but also couldnt help but brush up against the constraints of that where you are given a microphone but not a lot of power. Finding so much heartbreak in this idea and charming but not taken seriously those were stories that surprised me and changed the direction of the rest of the book. These are stories that celebrate but i wouldnt ever want someone to read this bookhi and think is enough to just hear from young women. If you stop there there are many that help platform but never followup after that. You create a star in the work that she wants to do. We have this tendency and if you could speak a little to what you think. I think that idea has been around for each successive generation and here we are many generations later. I think one of the things that has helped young people remain connected to the work is Intergenerational Partnership so not just the kids are doing all right but asking how can we be with them sharing this work and be in partnership and i think if you looked for some of the activist elders they are committed to not just talking about themselves and not just applauding the next generation but figuring out how to improvise what people need. And the story can definitely attest to this. They bring new ideas. They make a lot possible. Older people bring perspective. They bring the knowledge that you can keep going even if it feels this isnt working but will look more kindly on it. You need both of those things. Good for them, we are done now because you cant really leave it to them. Im wildly impressed and have so much respect for them. I think that is totally right. Speaking of r these relationshis what patterns did you see emerge when you looked act the 1830s . We talk about the climate activists of today and what patterns have emerged, what is the same and what is different. That has driven so much culture and politics and social change into thinking of the girls who called like they were the first ever to strike out on their own. That feeling of invincibility is amazingly the same and people feeling like these problems and inequities. They get older and realize only when she became older did they see the generation had been a continuance. Its a great advantage to think you are the first person ever to do it because it feels exciting. One of the fun things about being a spectator in the book is reading the diaries and the journal entries and letters. There really is Nothing Better than realizing she had something to say. That is a commonality. What is different is the way that girls are heard and the kind of platforms. The people that are there toti listen to of the audience keeps getting bigger and that comes with a lot of power and a lot of abrisk. So when they were talking abouto evolution, she was making a lot of people mad and people were reading about them in newspapers but they were not responding on twitter so the confrontation i think people have is very immediate and can be very loud. Id like to talk about what makes it special. I work at team vogue and am always so surprised and impressed with the stories we get to tell about them. Not just activism but how did that come to be . I thought i would open in the the idea and i thought maybe i would start in 1901 with of the term adolescent but then its my book i can do what i want but also part of the reason i think the girls have conceived of themselves as something unique like that awareness of a something happeng there coming into focus. When i was working on the book sometimes they would say no boys have done anything and i felt like against all odds in terms of how theyve been socialized in their innate qualities that make them so capable because of the obstacles that they faced and some more l than others a lt of real estate in the book is spent on the different experiences. There are so many different experiences being underestimated and wanting to flex your power wherever that may be available. It doesnt have to be true but rightt now where we are at ther are so many protests and movements in the book that starts with two girls in the cafeteria or the school bleachers. Maybein you are talking about segregation and i think that quality so far didnt feel like. When it does come to activism one is in the chapter about civil rights and how adults get embarrassed easily and they dont have that sense of embarrassment and then the disarmament and id love to hear about what makes them protectors and activists. As you know i dont do karaoke but there was a time in my life i had no problem speaking loudly in public and that is when i was a teenage girl. Its a powerful force forth inaction. Or even to go to something where there might not be a lot of people there. Its a unique property and also doing things with your friends. We find the culture brace it back with women. Girls either in a podium and solving or the live demonstration in washington which happened on live tv. Theres a lot of competition on thed part of adults watching tt and i think even admiration for that kind of display and feeling. I think anyone watched a woman ru for office know in adult woman is supposed to do all these things that are may be ineffective but less in her as a communicator. Mo it makes them feel both more authentic and allows us to access a level of empathy that e shut ourselves off from looking at t people being ambitious in a way we dont like and it is a bad thing because they will not be given the latitude experienced as a young person but it does also give young women in particular this powerful place in society. You mentioned friendship and i think that is definitely something that is so special. Also feel free. It was such an important part of my girlhood and yours i would like to know about stories found and may be any particular moment in activism. Theres a great moment that i love that my editor was like we are keeping it in. There are three College Students coming home from school having planned a major demonstration on their campus and they are headed home in alabama and they are preparing and they know they are going to be identified as activists. The night before they headed back home they spend their time doing any number of things and they make themselves matching shirts. I felt like iem could cry throuh history because what can a teenage girl understand more than arming herself with that kind of protection . Who can possibly hurt a girl wearing matching shirts with her best friend . I would like to see you try. I like that idea how the friendship strengthens and the idea of fighting against that narrative of hierarchypr and protest that is ubiquitous in our telling of history and they know they drive strength. I really love the attention that you pay to the aesthetic traces of these girls and i would love to know why you felt it was important. Ki working in womens magazines will always be with a chip on your p shoulder and part of the reason to credit back with what the latest trends are and it was an advantage to come from a world that taught you you are powerful communicators and they are not listening so much to what you have to say but you have to get your message across. If you ever watch a president ial debate. If you wanted to look like you are taking it serious like youve done this work so we all think about how we show up in the world and i always quote the column in thene financial times. We all have to choose and we are all saying something when we do that. Sometimes the sad thing is if you know that is the first thing people are going to write about, its losing out. One ofio the examples that illustrates that while there is a protest in texas recently when a bill came up for debate and they went to the statehouse to protest and they wore their addresses, definitely more attention yet when a reporter asked one of them how do you decide to do this and how does it feel to be here she said it was really uncomfortable. About a girl knows if she wants to make a statement. What did happen to so many of the activists . Were there repercussions for that being a part of their childhood . For most of the girls before the Civil Rights Movement first ofco all there just werent a lt of places to become figures of society and i do think a bunch of the stories in the book were hard to research and i often wanted different endings for the girls in the book and thankfully the Civil Rights Movement and feminism expand the set of opportunities. They make it possible to continue tost be activists. Theres someone in the book who is the first girl to apply and to have a place there. She never ended up going and her parents foundol the whole trialo demeaning. When i spoke to her she said it is an extension of the work i did as a teenager so you dont have to be in activist or politician to have an impact. Of the amazing thing is that it made it possible to choose from any number of options to be activists and to become Community Doctors in their lives in that way. So i think its more a story of the progress weve made in terms of what is possible for a young woman to do. That is one of the reasons i love this wide range in history and the figures in progress both from the girls. Did researching the book now did any of that recast your own experience . I apologized to my mother. We are very close yet i felt i owed her a sorry order to. It is the luck of being born into a family telling me i could do anything i wanted. I never had trouble voicing my opinion and i felt like i could do whatever and felt a lot of the things my mother would talk about were ancient history and then i got up to the working world and experienced all kinds of life and i even find myself saying nothing terrible just questioning my own selfworth and i realize aul lot of the stf is not done. I wish i could protect that innocence. Obviously there are depression and anxiety and at the same time i dont think that at any point in the book is a time im not vouchingng for and i feel theres a better time to have been a young woman and how entrenched some of these problems are for people to feel but its the collective responsibility to do something about it and not pretend theres something we could go back to. For every progressive girl there is a girl fighting against the rights that she is fighting for so can you tell us about the choice to focus on the girls making progress in this one direction . For every image is definitely a girl on the other side of the issue. My first answer to the question is selfish. I want to spend five years with the girls making progress and not fighting against it. I also think that i wanted to there is the negative space of the book it isrl a story against abortion rights and those girls do exist. Iw want to show how progress hs been driven. Heres a teenage girl involved in every movement you can think of. When youip look at the flipsiden think about the plot against progress i dont think they were the first to know those issues. Teenage girls were the leaders and i wanted tot, show how they impacted the movement for social progress. That is totally right and the idea of weaponize inc. The image of the girl versus the progressive movements where it can also be dangerous. When it comes to teen girls and activism and something that is striking to me as the story goes chronologically we hear from the climate activists and theres a lot of discussion of how do you seek balance, how can you be in activist and also live in the world that you are trying to. There are no easy answers. There is the ability to be that singleminded so there is the risk of your entire adolescence and one of the people i spoke to in the book felt a little distance from the Climate Movement like she had never done the developmental stages that she felt her peers had done with thousands of people around the country then let me try to grow up a little bit so i think it is tremendously hard and theres not a moment of the day now that you cant be working and not a moment of the day you cant be organizing if you feel the world is at risk. People have been able to handle it the best are the people that found a way to put a boundary even if it is mental between what the work is. Being a teenager is an important time and its easy to have that boundary. They have mentors in this work and say heres where the movement begins and everyone knows its hard and it just starts younger now because the incredible advantages in technology so that is going to continue to be an issue and i think that its really helpful now. Somebody qualifies as an elder of the movement so you can imagine. I was told regularly how old i was in writing the book. No one will tell you the truth like a teenage girl will tell you the truth, so it was a humbling experience. So the older 25yearolds have things to teach the next generation of activists and in that age of technology and social media and when things little by little start towa improve that way. The last question before we open up to the audience about elders, onestory we havent spoken about and that i was struck by and i would love for you to share what youve done there and i feel like that story encapsulates the intergenerational equipment to each other. I think the one whose story has been told a little bit better over the past decade you dont know her name she is billed as nine months before on the montgomery bus and was a High School Student arrested and convicted out of the crime and it was a really traumatic experience for her not because of what she did but she felt really proud. Urshe was very surprised to see that didnt happen but one person who i think people dont necessarily realize is deeply committed to the activism in the Youth Council chapter and given up on activismsm completely acct the fact for the next generation they were so close that and i love thiste little anecdote. At rosa parks house when she couldnt make a meeting she really encouraged her to keep telling the story of what happened on the bus to the point where with all teenage fashion everyone knows already about the bus and then months later they know what rosa parks did and that was decided by the movement for many reasons. She became pregnant as a teenager a few months later and every one of the movements is visual as well as political and ideological exercise and they didnt want her to be the face of the movement. So in the end it was four women, two teenage girls and, you know, with a newborn son at home and every reason possible to the say no she testified in court and her testimony won the day. They saved her for last, they found her to be the most emotional, the most persuasive the best for the movement and she did it and after she did it when there should have been parade in her honor and every person calling her to thank her, nobody called. I think that the credit we give her now is partial and the way we understand the relationship with the movement is inadequate. But i have a lot of admiration for people who decided even when it wasnt going to benefit them that there was just something that they had to do and she is still alive and its an incrediblele legacy. She changed the world. That story is so powerful and there are many powerful stories in young and restless which you should all certainly read and pick up a copy and now we are going to take some questions fromom the audience. So if you guys maybe just want to raise your hand and i will call on you and i will have the mic come over to you. You dont have to be shy, its okay im curious to know a t more about the Research Process because i would imagine that as you said, like youre doing this sort of searching through footnotes and i know that womens stories have not been as well told. So sort of what did that look like as youre trying to piece together a comprehensive understanding of these women in their roles . Yeah, i always think how many stories arent in the book because nobody knows them and nobody wrote them down there is for me like one of the illuminating parts of that i was trying to figure out when i first first started the book this sort of apocryphal story of, sybil ludington, who was reputed to have rode further and faster than paul revere to warn her father about the british troops who coming. She were supposed to be 17. And i was like, amazing, perfect story for the book. Perfect harmony, the sick thing about writing a book is like every historical fact, you you either immediately embrace or discard based on whether it belongs in the book. So i was like, is great. This is a great place to start. And in trying to track her down, i, i could find anything and in fact the first thing i found was someone saying i dont think she really existed. Like she wasnt real. Or if she was, she didnt do quite what people said she did and had to go find her grandchildren great nieces had written their own memories of what they thought she had done. And what i found most was how she had been used in speeches by everyone anticommunist to second Wave Feminist to Nuclear Disarmament act. This her story had sort of taken on the shape it needed to take on subsequent generations of activists. And it was it turned into a better metaphor for the book than i could have ever hoped, because its like, heres a girl who lived who we know nothing about, but shes been really useful for people ever. So sometimes that happened. I think the great thing is that if youre writing a book about history, thats told, you will find dozens of academics who have their entire life to this, who are just waiting for you to email them, say, you know what, im really interested in your particular narrow band of research. They will talk to you for hours and they will send you everything they have. So thats great. And and other than that its just like living with the silences sort of in the record and knowing that you can fill in as much as you can and especially later talk to people who are still alive and them who was there. What did you see who was around you . What do you feel like nobody ever writes about . And to know that in the older history is just so much thats not available. And and to feel the frustration that i felt of being limited by covid because, you can ask a librarian who was so helpful and will many documents for you, but you can ask them about things you know are you cant ask them to scan every paper in the library see whether there is some 15 year old no ones ever heard of. So its a frustrating process, i would say. But i learned to live with it barely. Ill, right . Yes back there. Hi, im to read. Do you have a sense what percentage of these young, active came from progressive families that supported them and how many were rebelling against restrictive families . Thats a tricky question. I dont think i have a percentage breakdown. I would say the in the earlier phase of the book of in the pre 1940, 1950s phase, there was a lot of continuity. A lot of girls who were the children of quaker abolitionists, for example, that comes up a lot or girls who were the daughters of schoolteachers at a time where most mothers were not and so were exposed to reading and writing or conversations in their houses. Otherwise they might not have had access to later. It becomes much more of a rebellion so you know. There are exceptions to that, but i think generationally sense of rebellion that motivates a lot of people to join these movements also a lot more geographic distance becomes possible so people start leaving their homes to go to college to get Higher Education in some way, travel becomes more possible and so that literal rupture with where come from becomes almost and then drives i think a lot people to want to find meaning in joining more collective actions but yeah thank god for quaker abolitionist parents because a lot of good things came out of them. One thing i was really struck by reading your book, mattie, was just how many of the girls were treated poorly . Not, you know, not just the public, but by other people in the social change movements that they were a part of. And you talked just earlier about the story of Claudette Colvin and how she was kind of dropped the Civil Rights Movement. I was wondering if you had any takeaways from your research as to how older participants in social change movements can support these girls in their work, in ways that thats genuinely supportive without being patronizing, but kind of helping them to stay in the movement and not be sort of, you know, turned off by their experience. Yeah. I mean, i think that the the prevailing feeling of many of the elders in these various is like we got it from here, the feeling that girls are really good publicists movements and help attract a lot of attention. And then its like, you know, the adults going to get in the room and figure this out and kind of leave girls on the outside. So i think that the extent to, you know, young people can even stay in the literal converse fashion where decisions and strategies are being discussed that, theyre not. On the other side of that door is. A big possibility. I think now you see that in School Board Meetings where young people are testifying and these these interactions and sometimes confrontations that happen between adults and children in these kind of civic spaces and the more that young can have a presence there and then sit through the debate that comes after thats just a way of keeping people in it in a way that wasnt possible when somebody went into another room and shut the door in their face. So i think i think thats a piece it and you know, where where budgets very decisions are being made and young can say well this is what i value what would that look like monetarily you know having the conversation about what how how a want becomes an action item and keeping them just in the discussion goes a long way as i think a lot of what the girls express in the book is a frustration at just not being part of not sitting at the table and not being part of the of the discussion. And then i think the other thing is, if girls are only showing up for you behind microphones in public settings. Youre not really involving them in. The movement, if youre treating them mostly as a crowd gatherer or as soundbite generator, youre not really involving them in the work of social change. So i think involving young people as much as possible, the strategy of actual organizing. First of all, its a good idea because eventually they will grow up and these are good skills be passing on to the next generation. So lets just think critically about that. And i also think it helps feel it helps them feel less used. And thats a sad thing that many in the book feel at one point or another just used by the movements they are trying to contribute positively to any other question in. How many Different Girls that you describe different historical periods, also very different lived experiences. Can you tell us, is there a common characteristic about that individual or was it that particular event being in the moment . You know, as the father of two daughters, im very to hear about what your thoughts are about what made them become activists. Yeah, i think general dissatisfaction, a common a common feeling. So if youve ever somebody say that theyre not pleased with how things are going that tends to mint really great historically. I think a lot of times what is actually helpful is that at one point or another someone in a Young Persons life says truly, often, literally question of what are you going to do about it . You know, for barbara johns, who led a walkout in her over segregation, it was a music who said as she was expressing her annoyance over the poor conditions in her high school, she literally said to her, well, what are you going to do about it . Sometimes it is like that sort of lit match that helps girls realize that theres more their power than they think. But yeah, i would say frustration. A great predictor for social change and and and i think, i think we all know that leaders of all kinds are are sort of born with or develop over time a sense of conviction about, whats right and whats wrong. So. Foster that to the best of our ability looking and not saying well things just are way but saying you know, things are this way now and they can change and they have changed helps people realize progress is possible and i feel one of the things i didnt want to do was being honest about girls and about about these protest movements was to say that i dont think that thats true. I think the book is hard at times, but is a testament the fact that change has happened often and it really doable. We have time for one more question. Yeah, back there there. I have not read book, but it sounds like you did a lot of research. My question for you is have you consider looking into movement in other countries for example iran, pakistan or africa where people dont have opportune to express themselves, that they dont have any support. Whats your thoughts on it . I mean, it was hard to limit the just to the United States. Partially. I did it, because i felt like that felt like a book was capable of writing it really hard. But i felt like im up to the challenge on the global scale. I wish other people would write this book where they know more about the history a certain place. Certainly, you know, finishing this book and picking the cover and putting it together as iranian girls were protesting in the streets, risking their lives and inspiring people around the world told the global story, which is that this is not unique to america, that this happens. Young people and young women in particular are often voices change wherever they are. And are many more volumes of the book. I think to be written from those various perspectives, i, i am loathe to admit my limits. But had you in the writing of this book and felt like this is the story i can contribute it but nothing would make me happier than to see people realize that this is really a expression and it has been. And those are books i would love to read. So if someone wants to write them, i am the first their first reader. Thank you all so much and thank you so much. Matty young and restless is truly such a feat. It is amazing. I reading it. I know you all will to. Mattie is going to be signing books up here and there are plenty of copies to buy at the register. Thanks so much for having. Yeah, thank you. Recently on book tv rachel re its impressive to have reach to be hitting 30 Million People a week but to be hitting 30 Million People a week with the message that we need a fascist overthrow of the u. S. Government and we need to go the franco way which is what we call it, military dictatorship in the United States and then started organizing followers to pursue it, thats a big deal. Henry ford as, i think, in arguably the most prolific spreader of antisemitism in the history of the world in the english language to that point, its a big deal. To have a nazi agent running a multimillion dollar, in the United States is a big deal. Its a way bigger deal because it involves 24 members of congress and u. S. Senators. Its the relationship which the radicalism and the reach. The radicalism and the access to real power. Charles lindbergh was the consensus national hero, the second most famous person after the president himself and he was arguing that we should fight with germany because aviation among other things was the province of the white race only and we should join with white germany against the color hordes of the world. Just search Rachel Maddow or the title of her book prequel. Every sunda on cspan2 its