Megan Rapinoe scores book deal, will also publish book for middle-graders
Megan Rapinoe is taking her talents from the pitch to the keyboard.
Fresh off leading the USWNT to the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the outspoken advocate for women’s and LGBTQ rights is partnering with Penguin Press to release a book. According to the New York Times, the book will be out by fall 2020 but doesn’t yet have a title.
Penguin Press president and editor in chief Ann Godoff made the book deal with Rapinoe, and spoke to the Times about what it might entail. It won’t be exclusively about sports, but it doesn’t sound like it’ll be a straight memoir, either.
“A lot of women, great women soccer players, have written memoirs,” Ms. Godoff said. “Megan has a different platform.” While watching the World Cup, she said, “I thought, ‘Here’s a woman who is comfortable in her own skin,’” and noted her own children’s excitement about Ms. Rapinoe’s authenticity.
“She’s just operating from this very honest and straightforward ‘this is who I am’ place,” Ms. Godoff said. “I think that’s what many people aspire to.”
Godoff also told the Times that Rapinoe will address LBGTQ rights and the USWNT’s fight for equal pay in the book, two topics that she’s heavily advocated for as an athlete in the public eye.
“Coming from that very honest and authentic place and being able to find a way to put that on the page,” Godoff told the Times, “I think will make a very lasting book.”
Rapinoe commented about the book in an email to the Times.
“I hope this book will inspire people to find what they can do, and in turn inspire other people around them to do the same.”
Rapinoe and her confidence have been inspirational to many, especially to kids. And she’ll get a chance to speak to them directly as she’s also signed a deal with Penguin Young Readers to write a book for middle-graders, which is considered in the publishing industry to be ages 8-12.
In a statement provided to the Times from Razorbill, a division of Penguin Young Readers, Rapinoe said that the overall message of the book will be how “we can change the world in one generation, and have one hell of a time doing it.” The statement also said that the book will center on “the power young people have within their own communities and the world at large.”
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