When Kristi Hemmer was eight, she was the Connect Four champ; nobody wanted to play with her. When she was twelve, she was on the Future Problem Solvers of America championship team; people told her that if she was too smart, boys wouldn't like her. When she was eighteen, her professor told her she was too smart to be a teacher. When she was thirty-three and principal of an all-girls school, a city council member told her she was too young. The underlying message is one that every female of every age is told again and again: You're too much. Quit being you. You don't belong. Wait your turn. Be quiet. Quit being so good.

Quit Being So Good is a collection of fifteen stories from the frontlines of being female. It is a call to action for women to unapologetically be their most powerful selves for the sake of building a safer, more equitable world. The key to being unapologetic (maybe even dismantling the patriarchy itself) is in these three simple steps: 1). take up space, 2). be first, and 3). look for the helpers.

Reading this book will inspire women to be self-assured, to be their possible, and to take up the space they need to be more of themselves--not less. And in the process, women will indeed change the world. As Malala says, You will never know who stands with you if you don't stand up first.

It's time for women to stand up. To take up space. To put more women in power. To create a safer and more equal world for women and girls. And to MOXIE on. Join Kristi at kristihemmer