Author Chimamanda Adichie’s new book, entitled Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, is a letter she wrote to a friend who asked how to raise her daughter to be a feminist. National Public Radio shares the highlights of the interview with Chimamanda on the said book.
She also talks about how women are often raised to be likeable which has limited their own capacity to speak their minds and do what they want. “I think instead we should teach girls to just be themselves, and that idea that you don’t have to be liked by everyone. And it kind of makes me wonder what kind of world would we have lived in if women had been allowed to be their full selves?” Chimamanda shared.
Lastly, Chimamanda emphasized that raising your daughters as feminists starts early. She said, “If we start early to start to challenge it, push back, then, you know, a woman is more likely, when she is an adult, to have those tools to say, ‘You know, in the end I’m going to live the life I want to live.'”
Chimamanda is a Nigerian author known for her feminist novels such as Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun and the book-long essay We Should All Be Feminists. Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions is available for pre-order on Amazon.
Photo courtesy of National Public Radio
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