Make Trouble

Questioning authority and challenging the status quo are expected behaviors for most teens, and often considered part of a necessary rite of passage into adulthood. Activism, on the other hand, is not always viewed with the same level of acceptance. In her autobiographical book on leadership, Richards, the quintessential cheerleader for activists of all ages, champions those who publicly take a stand for what they believe. She started making "trouble" at 13 and has never stopped. Her excitement about "fighting the good fight" is palpable. She was raised by liberal parents who worked for social justice on many fronts. In highly conservative Waco, TX, they were avid campaigners for local Democratic candidates, and Richards and her siblings spent many afternoons stuffing envelopes at campaign headquarters. After years of organizing for workers' rights, she followed in the footsteps of her mother, Governor Ann Richards, by taking up the fight for a woman's right to dominion over her own body and access to health care. The author recounts with equal enthusiasm the many campaigns for causes she's lost right alongside the ones she's won. Now, stepping down after 12 years at the helm of Planned Parenthood, Richards appears poised to enter the political arena, joining a growing number of women hoping to change the paternalistic course of U.S. history.