Written by: Cecile Richards with Lauren Peterson
Cover Art by: Eugenia Mello
For ages: Young Adults
Language: English
Topics Covered: Trailblazer, Politics, Women in Politics, Activism, Feminism, Bodily Autonomy, Memoir/Biography, Political Activism, Family, Planned Parenthood, Inspiration, Growing Up, Community Involvement.
Summary: For our first skill to take into the new year we’ve chosen: Activism! This is what we want to embody most throughout the next decade, and Make Trouble is the perfect place to start. Through the acts of many we can create waves of change. Let’s join together and take this new beginning as a time for hard work, direct action, and step into our power!
This book is awesome! It is part memoir, political history, and call to action for everyone reading the book. Something I really love about this book is that it doesn’t shy away from the really difficult parts of campaigning and activism, but the unfairness of the system that we’re up against doesn’t diminish Cecile’s hope for a better future.
Make Trouble guides the reader through Cecile’s life and career (especially at Planned Parenthood), she comes from a long line of political organizers and continues that tradition with her children today. Throughout the book there are questions for the reader to be able to reflect on their own lives and become inspired to change thing about the injustices experienced in daily life. Being able to find the courage to speak out and begin to organize for change is a difficult and necessary job for young people today. Luckily, they’re already doing a great job!
This book makes the point over and over again that we must persevere through the garbage and keep fighting on the ground to create ripples of change for both our lives and the lives of others. Organizing and activism are long roads filled with late nights, tired feet, and disappointment. But we can join together to affect great change and ensure that all humans enjoy their personal liberties and work to counteract the systems of oppression that keep cycles of marginalization spinning. Our work is not over, but we are together for the fight.
About the Authors & Cover Artist:
Cecile Richards is a nationally respected leader in the field of women’s health, reproductive rights, and social change. She began her career helping garment workers, hotel workers, and nursing home aides fight for better wages and working conditions. After years in the labor movement, she moved back home to Texas to help elect the state’s first Democratic woman governor: her mother, Ann Richards. She went on to start her own grassroots organizations, and later served as deputy chief of staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. In 2011 and 2012, she was named one of Timemagazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. For over ten years, Richards served as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She is a frequent speaker and commentator on issues related to women’s rights and activism. Richards serves on the board of the Ford Foundation. She and her husband, Kirk Adams, have three children and reside in New York City.
Lauren Peterson is a writer, strategist, and the co-author of New York Times bestseller Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead by Cecile Richards.She was a speechwriter and digital strategist on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, where she wrote about issues ranging from jobs and the economy to reproductive rights and immigration reform. Previously, she worked as a senior advisor and writer at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and a senior writer on President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Lauren is passionate about progressive politics, storytelling, and finding the clearest way to communicate a compelling message to the right audience. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has been featured in Medium.com’s “Words That Matter”, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Fusion’s “30 Women Who Will Change the Election”, and Madison Magazine. Lauren lives with her fiancée, Liz, and their rescue dog, Basil, in Brooklyn.
Eugenia Mello is an illustrator and graphic designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina currently living and drawing in NYC.
She studied Graphic Design at the University of Buenos Aires, where she also taught Design and Typography courses for several years.
She holds an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Latin American Illustration, Creative Quarterly and 3×3 Magazine, among others.
She is passionate about rhythm, movement and feelings, and uses color and shape to translate into drawing the things that are difficult to put into words. She is always hoping to get music out of her images.
She was recently awarded a Gold medal from the Society of Illustrators for her illustrated moving piece Hope for the Day.