Here We Are

Kelly Jensen, editor, Algonquin Young Readers Softcover $16.95 (240pp), 978-1-61620-586-7

In a book that includes contributors such as Mindy Kaling and Roxane Gay, Here We Are is a compilation of pieces that analyze what it means to be a modern feminist. Part essay collection, part social commentary, and part educational guide, the book is accessible and easy to read, and the writers approach the topic of feminism with humor, levity, and thoughtfulness—and a message of inclusiveness for the movement.

The book opens with a few essays on feminism—including one by Roxane Gay, called “Bad Feminism: Take Two”—and goes on to feature poems, FAQS, and other sections that all give the book an engaging, playful quality. Essays include personal anecdotes and social commentary on a number of issues that range from body image to careers. They’re interspersed with comic strips and lists such as “Ten Amazing Scientists (Who Also Happen to Be Women”) that break up the text and give it an almost magazine-like quality.

The voices in the collection come from a variety of careers, races, gender orientations, and ideologies that lend richness to Here We Are and demonstrate the depth of the feminist movement. In one piece, an interview with Laverne Cox—actress and first trans person to be on the cover of Time —reveals Cox’s own fears about the connection between stigma and violence, providing food for thought on how misgendering affects the trans community. In another piece, Mindy Kaling offers advice to “not peak in high school,” reminding readers that plenty of successful adults started off as overlooked teenagers who spent lots of (valuable) time with their families.

Here We Are is an excellent work that makes the topic of feminism approachable and engaging in its mixed-content format. The essays, all diverse and relatively short, are interspersed with poetry, comics, and facts that provide a full, rich picture of feminism.