The Gutsy Girl Handbook

February 26, 2018
White, former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief, serves up a companion volume to her 1995 bestseller, Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do, with this empowering career guide. She outlines strategies to help women rise to the top of their fields, including how to hustle (side jobs are okay; doing them at work is not); learning that “though it may not be fair,” appearances matter; being able to accept constructive criticism; asking for what one wants; and being a “gutsy” boss. In generating ideas on the job, White advises using tools such as the “four Bs”—could it be better? bigger? bolder? badass?—to turn ordinary ideas into extraordinary ones, illustrated by White’s experience of turning a skin cancer story into an investigative report that led to regulatory oversight of tanning salons. A 10-step process for evaluating risks includes an examination of an action’s potential benefits and risks, and how severe consequences might be. Shorter and snappier than its predecessor but with all of White’s spot-on, hard-won wisdom intact, this updated offering will inspire a new generation of women. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.