With devious television for serious readers keep watching for more of the latest nonfiction books. So to introduce tonights speakers mattie kahn is an Award Winning writer and editor. Her work been published in the new york times. The washington post, the atlantic, Harpers Bazaar vogue, vox and more. She was the culture she was a culture director at slammer where she covered womens issues and politics and a staff editor. She is joining conversation by julia the editorial director for features that box. Matty con is presenting her new book young and restless, the girl who sparked americas she had cancer what are the most foundational and under appreciated American Revolutionag teenage girls from the American Revolution itself to the Civil Rights Movement to Nuclear Disarmament and womens ovation movement to black lives matter in school strikes for climate matty con uncoverss unique strength from fandom to intimate friendship for organized and serious political groundwork for movements out of office sidelined him in the words of billie jean king, the young and restless honors the ferocious powers. In this brazen retelling of social movements matty con celebrates is leaders and visionaries of her recognition. We are so pleased to host this event at Harvard Bookstore tonight please join me in welcoming matty con and julia ribbon. [applause] thank you so much. Is this working . Im so excited to be here tonight i am a fan and friend of maddies and very lucky to be an early reader of this amazing book and i cant wait to share more about it. What is your elevator pitch for this book since maybe not everyone has read it yet that was a really great element fire host how did you come up with this idea . First of all thank you julia for doing this. I read the acknowledgments were basically every book i ever read so i sought a lot of pressure when is reading my own acknowledgment wondering if there was anybody else in the n world but in the hopes that maybe there is one you can see this acknowledgment and i didnt even know when i wrote them that she would agree to do this, that is a true friend. I worked as our host said as at l and glamour so i came into context with incrediblen young women and women across the cultural and political spectrum. I think if youre in a position like i was to work in an environment it starts being pretty normal and a young person who is organizing thousands and thousands of people across the country around the world that is sort of normal. But with a little bit of perspective i started to feel like there was something extraordinary happening with this generation of young Women Political climate strikes and on the frontlines of black lives matter in digital activism in ways that i found impressive than what i thought i might do is write a book about what wasat so special about this generation of neutrals and young women. And then i started researching and i received education and how long this work has beend going on and i felt inadequate so i spent a year end a half on the proposal and am glad my agent is not here tonight because she would definitely want that faster. And then it became italian of all of the social movements that formed america as told through the lens of teenage girls. In the project started with me in the scope and got bigger and bigger and ended up it is such a feat of research, yet this incredible archival work and original reporting which is what you do in your day job as well what did that process look like especially uncovering these stories that have not been told before. I think the timeline is helpful, i started writingti the book and during the Research Phase 20192018, 2020 and i started sitting down and outlining each chapter in detail in the spring of 2020 when there was nothing but time. So i have more concentrated hours to do research than i ever wouldvein wanted. And i think the way that i approach my work in a my journalism and writing in general to start as wide as possible. When i was thinking about what these chapters would be or the thing in the book one movement at a time i tried to read the most general and copperheads of history that i can possibly find and everything they want to know about this thing and i always used to say that my hidden talent was reading a huge 800 page book and finding where a womanth inventions inside and i want to read the book about her. The book follows the process ofs reading and researching and talking to as many people as i could about socialism in america and finding the random pause of a girl who had to be there and figure not everything i possibly could about that person and going deeper and deeper and emailing librarians who were the only people in their building that were very happy to go on a wild goose chase because what else did they have to do in july of 2020. In following my curiosity that was aic nice thing about having the file to be an amateur in this work is you ask a lot of questions and find people are happy to share. I love you and i learned so much in the amount that iso uncovered for me through this book and im grateful that you did that work for us. Was therere a story that you found particularly surprising or moving as you are doing this research . There was a lot of stories and surprised me you probably heard me talking before about the chinese immigrant heavily involved in the suffrage fighting for right that she knew even if she achieve the movement would not be extended to her as a noncitizen and i found your story very moving she led this massive march up fifth avenue in 1912 and she was so charismatic as a teenager and how she turned her audience, people would write in the newspaper and say you went to a talk and you left immobilized by the conversation and i love the idea of captivating inperson but i also think she was a good example of one of the other stories was an abolitionist during the civil war was the first woman in her very early 20s ever to address the house of representatives in congress these were two girls that wouldve been identified after time who tried their best to ease the platform that was unlikely because they were young and females but also could not help to brush up against the constraint of the platform like that where you are really given anachronistic lead microphone but youre not going to give a lot of power and i think reading those stories i knew into the book knowing that i would include but finding so much hard heartbreak in this idea of being so famous theymo are very committed. Not just applauding the next generation of people following them but finding out what people need. Young people bring energy to the movement and new ideas. They dont have a sense of whats possible and make a lot possible. Fear m of what cant happen or wontt happen. Rs older people bring prospective. Theyri bring the knowledge that one can be in the entire failure. El even if you feel like something is decentgrading. I really think you need both of those things. I feel its a mistake. Good for them. We are done now. You cant leave it to them. Im wildly impressed by the girls in the book. I wish they didnt have to do it alone. Yeah. Speaking of generational relationships, whatel patterns did you see emerge across time when you look at the earliest 1830s. We talkk about you know, climate activist of today. Yeah whate patterns have emerged. What is the same . What is different in. Young people have their advantage thinking their parents are hopelessly outdated. They felt like they were the first to strikeout on their own. Pr that feeling of inventionablety thatn young people can have, thats really amazingly the same. There is so much in the Civil Rights Movement of young people feeling like, these problems, these inequities they are waking up to it more than their parents did. Then they realize their parents saw it too. When she became much older did she see their generation didnt sa have a grandpa great leap forward. Its a great advantage to think you areit the first person to do it. I was reading those. There is nothing one of the fun things being a spectator wasia reading the diaries and journal oentries and letters to ease drop ongi girls discovering themselves and their power. I could do it for 100 more books. Al Nothing Better than realizing she has something to say. The way they are heard and what they are able to see and the people who are there to listen. That audience keeps getting bigger and that comes with a lot of power and comes with a lot of risk so when they were storming through new england she was making a lot of people mad and they were reading about it in news papers but not responding on t twitter. The y confrontation young people have is immediate and hard. I cant image personally. Id like to talk about what makes girlhood special. I work at teen vogue. You have worked a many womens magazines and written for them. Im always so surprised and impressed by the young women andll the stories we tell about them. Lets hear about that. Not necessarily in relation to activism but how we can receive girldom and how that started to be. When i first started the book i thought id start in the 1930s when a teen was prevalent. I thought id start in 1901 when they would coin the term haadolescent. There were girls earlier than that. I decided i could do what i want. Part of the reason i felt that latitude is girl conceived of themselves Something Special and unique. Muchg longer than they told them you are in a developmental phrase. The awareness of a new power coming into focus has been aroundnd since the 1830s. If you read the diaries you hear a lot of what it means to be a teen girl. When i was working on the book and would tell people about itno they would say no boys ever done anything. They have doneaz amazing work. They have fault in wars and joined all kinds of movements. I wanted to write about them because i felt like against all odds in terms of them being socialized. They developed characteristics that make them capable and savvy because of the obstacles they truly always face. Some more than others. A lot of real estate in the book is spend on the different experiences that black girls had com compaired to white girls. They have a sense of being underestimated and wanting to flex your power. There are soo many storeries in the cafeteria or school bleachers. Thats the experience of being a teen girl. You talk about something trivial and lit literal segregation. So far no one who has been a teen girl came away from reading it and didnt feel like how theyea spend their teen years oh, my god. I know that feeling. When it comes to activism there are two points you make that i love. One is in the chapter about civil a rights and how adults get embarrassed easily and what makes teen girls especially effective, is they dont have the sense of embarrassment. In the section you talk about what can a girl do verses a woman. Id love to hear about that divide and what makes girls effective protesters and activist. Julia specials in this. I dont sing but there was a time i had no problem singing loudly in public and that was when i wasas a teen girl. I think embarrassment that effects everybody not just women andpo girls is a powerful force for inaction. Feeling embarrassed to march or go to something there might not be a l lot of people there. U even tonight i hoped people would come. The sense of im doing it no matter what is the unique property i think of teen girls and on the book side of that the investment is doing things with your friends. There ise a teen girl that wants to do it totally alone. The freedom they find in that is different than growing up for sure. I also a think this comes up with other issues too is i think we as a culture tolerate a lot of loud emotion from young people we find suspect in women. So if a girl standing at a podium and sobbing and another the demonstration in washington throwing up, that happened on live tv. There t is a a lot of understandableen compassion. Admiration for that kind of display of feelings. I think anyone that watched a womanma run for office knows its not so welcome in an adult woman who is suppose to control herself. Compose herself in a certain way. Lessen her power as a communicator. The purity of expression we tolerate from young people makes themem feel authentic and also allows us to access a level of empathy we shut ourselves off from when we look at people who are being ambition in a way we dont like. Th thats a sad thing because there e isnt one person that doesnt have to bees a woman. I alsoon think it does give young women a powerful place in society. You mentioned friendship. I thinknk thats definitely something thats so special. Also do you want to come in, there are seats. Come sit. Good job julia. Moderating. It was such i an important part of my girlhood. It was such an important part of your girlhood. Id love to know about stories of friendship you found in the book and a particlar particular moment in activism. There was a great moment i loved. They asked if we needed to keep it in. There are three polish students thatat are going home from school and having planned a major demonstration on the campus. They are headed home in alabama. Oh sorry they are headed home in georgia. They are preparing to take it back together and they will be identifieds as activist and not face the most welcome reception. The night before they head back home they could spend their time doing any number of things. They found three blouses and red thread and made themselves matching shirts. I felt like i could cry and want to hug them through history. What can a teen girl understand more than arming yourself with that kind of protection. Who could possibly hurt a girl wearing matching shirts with her best friend. Wo id like to see you try. I like that idea of how you have a friendship and straighten the movement and i like the idea of fighting against the narrative of clarity in protest thats in our telling of history and saying know what they derive straight from and not leading people. Tell why us you thought this was important to include . Working in womens magazines will leave you with a chip on your shoulder art of the reason that people, sorry to say discredit that is your political analysis is sharing real estate with the latest and i felt with the advantage to come from a world that taught you that your cloths were powerful communicators and they arent listening to what you have to say. They help you get your message across if you notice a candidate is wearing a purple tie. You have participated in analysis. If you thought about what you should wear to a Job Interview you have done the work. We think about how to show up in the world i always quote to vanessa column she said the worldd is not run by naked people. Girls who are constantly assessing their relatives and they know who is cool and who is not. Who feels comfortable and who doesnt. They wheel that tool effectively. Sometimes, the badad thing is. If youat know thats what people will write about and notice, its losing out on one of your best tools one example i think illustrates that well there was a protest when a hushism immigration bill came up. Girls 15 to 20 went to the statehouse to protest and their would worese dresses. They got a ton of press and npr coffer coffered it when they asked them how did you decide, she said it was uncomfortable shes knows if she wants to make a statement its e part of that. We always say everyone wears cloths and eats i love that you brought that to the book so much. You mentioned g all of the girls get older. What did happen to so many activist . Did they stay activist . Did they feel there was repercussions. Im glad it didnt end in the 1940s. For most of the girls that come ofil age before the Civil Rights Movementfi there is no stay in the Civil Rights Movement. There werent a lot of places for them to be public figures at all a lot of the early stories aree hard. They were hard to research. I wanted different endings endings for thee girls in the book. They expand the opportunity to grow through Early Morning r education and careers. I never wanted it to be prescriptive. It was only for boys. She never ended up going. They said well leave the city but many others were able to go. She became a doctor. When i spoke to her. She said i feel like this is an extension ofiv the work. You dont have to be an activist to still have an impact on the community. The Amazing Things about what they fault for is it made it possible to be activist which some of them became or to become Community Doctors and be involved in their life that way. The book is kind of depressing oon the girl to woman transition front. I think the story of the progress we made possible. Agreed. You get to see a few hundred yearss of progress from the girls and from the world. Did researching the book and talking to teen girls now did that recast your own teen experience. I apologize to my mother. You are very close and i felt i owed her a sorry or two. When i because i was a teen work i thought a lot of it was done. Thats the luck of being born in a family that told me i could do whatever i wanted. I never had trouble voicing my opinion a lot of what we talked aboutt was ancient history. I got too the working world and experienced slights and you know i even find myself saying nothing terrible but making me question my own selfworth. You should. Have to experience it firsthand. I had a a lot of compassion for the person that saw the world fold. A lotot of people ask if things with worst now. Its hard to be a teen girl. I dont want to undersell that at all. I dont think at any time in the book is a time im nostalgic for. I feel is a better time to be a youngun woman. We are more aware of how entrenched the problems are ambulance make them feel anxious and sad. We dont want to pretend there cois a golden age. That wasal interesting. The book focused on progressive activist. For every teen girl therery is a girl fighting against the rights that shes fighting for. Could you tell us about the chose to focus on, you know, in the one direction. For every image captured. You hold an opposite protest rssign. The first answer is question. You spend five years writing a book. I wantednd to spend five years fighting with social progress. Thaty was my own preference. I also think i wanted to, you know there is sort of the negative space of the book is theer other book. Its the story of girls that have marched against abortion rights andch marched against desegregation. Those girlsgi exist. I mention them throughout. What i wanted to do was to show how progress in the country has been driven by teen girls. I didnt just want to say here is a teen girl involved in every moment but show you how they areen san bar. You look at the flip side. I dont think they were the first of the issues. Issues. They were theos leaders of the move. I wanted to show they did lead ymovements. Its totally right. The idea of weaponizing the image of the girl it can be valorized. Where do youre think we are now when it comes to teen girls and activism. How can you seek balance. How canan you have a wife and livein the world you are trying to save. Yeah there are definitely no easy answers. The nicest thing about being teengi girls is the ability to be that single minded is a talent. There is a risk of devoting adolescents. One hadwhl to do more when she got to college and got assistance from the movement. She had never done the developmental stages. Let me try to grow up a bit. Its tremendously hard and Technology Makes it harder. You cantki be working. It can be organizing if you are a young person that feel the world isld at risk. People that hand. Ed it the best and chartered their way through are the people that found a way to put a boundary even if its mental between what the work is and what itself is. Being a teen is just a really hard time. Its easy to have that boundary sort of get fuzzy. That again a why i think its so valuable for young people to have mentors that can say this is the place you end and movement begins and those are not the same. Its hard. Try to turn it off and know its hard. That hardness just starts younger now. I think that will continue to be an issue. I thinkha its really helpful now. S someone thats 25 in a climate movement. So you can image what they thought for the aarp card. I was told regularly how old i was. No one will tell you the truth like a teen girl. Those older 25 yearsold they have things to teach the next generation of young activist. They have comee of age in the age of. Technology and social media. Things little by little start to improve that way id love for you to share what you the Hidden History and the way we put them against eac other. It has it all folks. I think of all of the girls in thebo book is the one whose story held better over the past decade. If you dont know her name shes nine months before parks refused to give up her seat. Claudeeth refused to give up her seat and convicted as well. Ital was a traumatic experience for her. Not because of what she did and feltf, proud of. She sort of expected more of the community to t rally around her and she was very surprised that didnt happen. One person that rallied around herr was rosa parks. People dont realize was deeply committed to use activism and the lead of the chapter and had nearly given up on activism completely but she f went to the school and decided to dedicate for the next generation. They were so close and i loved this anddo demonstrated they knew how the other liked their coffee. Claudette slept over her home and she told her to keep telling the story of what happened on the bus. The typical fashion she was like stop making me tell the story. Everybody knows about the bus. Months later we know what rosa parks did and claudette was cast aside by the movement for many reasons. She became pregnant. A few months later and she didnt get the part. Everyone ofne the movement is visual as well as political and idealologial exercise. The o thing about claudette they know her as the first person to do what she did on a bus. Fewer people know her much more Important Role in history that after she was dismissed the movement came looking for her again because they needed plaintiff in a case. Nas theul case that ultimately ruledeg segregation on buses and ended the montgomery busboy cot that rosa parks started. Le and. None wanted to do the job so. In the end, it was for women to teenage girls, including claudette and you know with a newborn son at home. And every reason impossible to say no. She testified in court and her testimony really won the day they saved her last. They found her to be again the most emotional, the most persuasive, the best emissary for the movement. And she did it. And after did it when there should have been parade in her honor. And every person calling her to thank her. And every person calling her to thank her no one told her the result. I never wanted to tell a story that made it seemed like everything is a happy ending to the girls who do this and claws that waited a long time to get credit and the credit that we give her now is partial in the way that we understand the relationship with the movement is an adequate. But i have a lot of adverse nation for people who decided even when it wasnt goingas to benefit them that there was something that they had to do. She is still alive and its an incredible legacy, she changed the world. That story is so powerful and there are many other powerful stories in the young get the restless which you should all certainly read and pick up a copy and now we will take some questions from the audience. If you want to raise your hand i will call on you and then we will have the boom microphone come over. You dont have to be shy it is okay. Im curious about the Research Process and i would imagine youre searching for your footnotes and i know that womens stories have not been well fold what did that look like when you tried to piece btogether understanding of these women and their roles. I think about how many stories are not in the book because nobody knows the wrote them down. For me and illuminating part of that i was trying to figure out when i first started the book from a story of rosie farther than paul revere to warn her father of the british troops were coming. A perfect story for the book in the introduction the sick thing about writing y the book every historical fact you embrace weather belongs in the book. But i was like this is a great place to start in trying to track her down i could barely find anything in the first thing i found i dont think she really missed it, she was not real or if she was she did not do what people said she did and i have to go find her grandchildren and 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 from anticommunist to second waive feminist to Nuclear Disarmament activists her story had taken on the shape that it needed to take on for subsequent generations about advocate. It turned into a better metaphor than i couldve ever of hoped heres a girl who lived that we know nothing about but shes been really useful for people ever since sometimes that ouhappens. The great thing if youre writing a book about history who will find dozens of academics who devoted their entire life who are awaiting the email and same interested in your research they will talk toey for hours and that is great. Other than that knowing you can fill as much as you can and later talk to people when you see who is around you and what nobody ever writes about it to know in the older history there is so much that is not available in the field of frustration of being limited by covid you can ask librarians you are so helpful and will scan many documents for you but you can only ask them about things that you know are there but you cant ask them to scan every paper in the library and see whether there is some 15yearold no one is ever heard of. Its a frustrating process. Back there. Im excited to read this. Do you know what percentage of the young activists came fromm progressive families that supported them and how many were rebelling against restricted families. I dont give a percentage breakdown in the earlier phase in the pre1940s and 50s there was at lot of continuity and a lot of girls in quaker abolitionist or girls the daughters of schoolteachers when most mothers were not working and so reading and writing the conversations that they mightve not had access to later it becomes much more of a rebellion there areon exceptions but a rebellion that motivates people to join the movements on a lot more geographic that comes possible and they leave their homes to get Higher Education inn some way and travel becomes more possible inn the literal rapture becomes instinctual and defined meaning in the more collective actions but thank god for quakerau avenue shallll his parents a lot of good things came out of them. One thing i was struck by reading your book is how many girls were treated poorly not just by the public but other people in the social change in you talked about the story of colette how she was shot by the Civil Rights Movement and wonder if he had any takeaways to older participants that can support these girls in ways that are genuinely supportive to stay in the movement and not be turned off by their experience. The prevailing feeling was that we got it from here their publicist and attract a lot of attention in the adults will get in the roomm and the girls on the outside the extent to and people staying in the conversation were decisions and strategies are, being discussed and theyre not on the other side of the door and the big possibility now you see the on School Boards and people are testifying in the interactions and confrontations between adults and children in the civic spaces and the more that young people can ever presence and sit through the debate that comes after that is the way the key people in it that was impossible that somebody went into another room and shut the door on their face. That is a piece of it and where budgetary decisions are being made in young people can say this is what i value in having a conversation how want becomes an action item and keeping them in the discussion goes a long way its a frustration of not being at the discussion if girls are only showing up behind microphones in public settings youre not really involving them in the movement if you treated them mostly as a crowd gathered as a soundbite generator youre not really involving them in the work of social change but involving young people is muche, as possible in the strategy of organizing is a good idea because eventually they will grow up in their good skills so lets think critically and it helps them feell less used and thats the sad thing that many girls feel used by the movements are trying to contribute positively to. Any other questions. Theres so many Different Girls you describe the very different lived experiences of their common characteristic about the individual or the event of a father of two daughters im interested to hear about your thoughts and what made them become activists. Is a general dissatisfaction is a common feeling so if you ever heard somebody say theyre not pleased with how things are going that is great activists a historically. At one point or another somewhat in the Young Persons life literally the question of what you going to do about and Barbara Johns walking out over segregation it was a music teacher expressing her annoyance over the poor conditions in her eyes school she literally said what he going to do about it. Sometimes it is a lit match that help them realize theres more in the power than they think but i would say frustration is a great predictor and i think we all know leaders of all kinds are born with or develop over time sense of conviction about what is right and whats wrong so fostering that to the best of her ability and say things are this way but there this way for now and they can change they have changed helps people realize progress is possible and what are the things they did not want to do while being honest about girls in the protest movement was to say i dont think that is true i think its part of the time but a testament that change has happened so often and it really is doable. We have time for one more question. Im not read the book but isav something you did a lot of research. My question have you considered looking into other countries in africa were people have opportunity or support. It was hard to limited to the United States it was really hard but i felt like i was up to the challenge. The global scale i wish other people would write this book were they know more about the history of a certain place. Certainly finishing this book and taking the cover and putting it together as girls protesting the streets risking their lives in inspiring people around the world told theri global story that this is not unique to america that this happens but young people and young women in particular are often voices for change wherever they are and there are many more volumes of the book to be written from those various perspectives. I am loath to admit my limits but had to in the right of this book and felt like this is what i can contribute but nothing would make me happier than to see people realize this is a global expression and a hasbeen and those are books that i would love to read if somebody wants to write them ire will be the first reader. Thank you all so much and thank you for being here. The young and restless is amazing and i loved reading it and i know you all will too. Mattie will sign books appear in there plenty of copies by the register. Thank you so much for having us. Recently on booktv former special assistant to President TrumpCassidy Hutchinson spoke about being on the white house on january 6 2021 and her thoughts as she watched the capital attack unfold. Being back at the white house with the security barricades in the bike racks with a Capital Police were overrun with the rioters and the president still wants to go to the capital to get back to the white house despite his resistance so im sitting at my desk back and forth. Every minute of that day felt like a lifetime because were waiting for the next bad thing to happen. Once they actually got through thats when how real it was hit me although i started going in that direction but my mind went to i dont want the fear monger and these people dont know most of these numbers of congress or journalist they think journalists are the enemy of the people