Kathleen Hanna’s Memoir ‘Rebel Girl’ is an Instant New York Times Bestseller!

May 22, 2024

2fd7de46-dd26-4bbd-fdea-c1772345dcab — Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk book cover Book cover by Ecco

Trailblazing feminist icon, musician, author, outspoken women’s rights activist, and original rebel girl, Kathleen Hanna‘s memoir Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk is an instant New York Times Bestseller debuting at #5 and featured as Editors’ Choice. The book also debuted as a #4 National Indie Bestseller and #3 Los Angeles Times Bestseller.

Earning widespread praise across the globe and appearing on MSNBC TV’s Morning Joe, the critically acclaimed book was released last Tuesday, May 14, with Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. Hanna is currently in the midst of a U.S. book tour. She has been joined by an eclectic lineup of brilliant minds “in conversation”, including Molly Ringwald, Amy Poehler, Hanif Abdurraqib, Brontez Purnell and more. Fans unable to attend the tour in-person can join the live stream tonight, May 22 with Lindy West! A portion of all ticket sales will be donated to Peace Sisters, a non-profit organization for which Hanna is an Ambassador. Tickets are on sale now.

Hanna’s band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl” and “Double Dare Ya” are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band” in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful—and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.