Run Like a Girl

I teach elementary PE (physical education). I get to see a lot of young girls grow into great little athletes. Aside from their skill development, it is amazing to watch the effects of athletic performance on an their inner strength, confidence and self-respect. I have always been a huge supporter in the idea that being active in sports as a child helps one grow into an adult with heightened levels of determination, dedication and collaborative abilities; great team players, great leaders, great citizens.

I believe athletics were a huge motivator for me. When I watch these girls beginning their journey in athletics it just gets to me. I love sports. I love competition. I believe in their power to enlighten the lives of young girls. I look at my students sometimes and I see myself; a girl ready to take on the world and needing just someone to believe in me. All I want for all these girls is to find the inner super-star within; to know their true beauty, to know their true worth...and to kick some tail at whatever sport they decide to play! I believe in my girls.

And Mina Samuels believes in all of us, girls!

Run Like a Girl: How Strong Women Make Happy Lives (Seal Press; March 2011) by Mina Samuels. Using candid stories of nearly a hundred women, the book demonstrates how the challenges we face as women by participating in a sport, and the way we meet those challenges, translates into greater strength and the ability to overcome obstacles in our lives.



Mina Samuels:Author



On Monday, May 30th, Mina will be on the Today Show at 8:09 am, talking about Run Like a Girl and will donate 50% of all royalties from book sales that week to Girls on the Run, a fantastic non-profit, whose mission is to encourage preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running; a message that her book promotes to girls and women of all ages!

I am excited to be getting this book in the mail soon and hopefully I will have one to giveaway to you too! Anytime I hear a little boy tell one of my female students they "run like a girl", I just tell those girls to give it right back to 'em. "You bet I run like a girl! Girls are amazing runners!" To do something like a girl is a great thing. We are great. Come on boys...that just doesn't qualify as a cut down anymore. It's a compliment!

I'm sure I will just breeze right through this book! It looks like a great read and...SCHOOL IS ALMOST OUT!! (I know...a little too excited, right? What can I say. I love summer vaca!) I'll have a review and giveaway comin' your way soon!

Have a fabulous Saturday!! Go girls!

**For more information please visit http://www.minasamuels.com/runlikeagirl.htm and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.


~ Lindsay