Story of My Book

Rise: How Empowering Women Elevates Us All is about how society benefits as a whole when women are given the chance to come into their power. Rise seeks to not only illustrate the various reasons why female empowerment is important, but also aims to provide guidance on how we can support the women around us and allow them the chance to create a positive impact on their own lives, their communities, and even the world.

My name is Shana Abraham and I am the author of Rise: How Empowering Women Elevates Us All. I wrote this book because I’ve come to realize just how important and powerful female empowerment is, not just for women but for society as a whole. We can look at its effects from any perspective — political, social, health, economic, etc. — and it always results in progress.

There are many people who want to empower women, but don’t know the most effective ways to encourage them. There are also many young women who want to create social change, but don’t know where to start. Many women would benefit from learning about the tools that can help them, but also from learning that they are not alone in the challenges that they face.

My hope is that, in reading this book, you will discover the close relationship between gender equity and global health. In this book, I hope to instill the same sort of passion and excitement that I have for female empowerment in you. And then ultimately I want you to see this book as a tool to help you create social change and support the women around you.

In this book, you'll learn about the various levels of adversity that women face daily, and the core principles of female changemakers who've been able to overcome such challenges, including:

• How there are many different ways to be an effective female leader and the range of experiences that can create an impact. You’ll learn from stories about Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban, to Elyse Fox, who battled with depression her entire life and discover the various ways women can overcome their forms of adversity to advance a greater cause.
• How Mercy Akuot was a child bride in Sudan, and how after days of violence and struggle, she was able to get help and escape this fate. You’ll be inspired by her resilience and how she’s used this experience to fight negative cultural practices across the globe.
• How it’s not about giving women charity, but rather a chance to fight for what they deserve, and how young women across the globe have championed a variety of causes, from Jihye Yang in South Korea, Suhani Jalota in India, and Nadya Okamoto in America.

 

You will love this book if you either are or know a young woman who wants to be a leader in their own right. They may look up to certain female public figures, but don’t know just how powerful they themselves can be when given the right resources. With the stories and insights you find in Rise, you’ll learn effective strategies to lift up the women around you and help them explore opportunities to create social impact.

Rise is a non-fiction book that speaks to young women and their supporters who are looking at female empowerment and social change for the first time.

 

The Book - Rise: How Empowering Women Elevates Us All

The book is written in 3 Parts...

Part 1 provides background on the female empowerment movement, the history of social change, and why many women continue to hesitate to create social change and/or take leadership roles. It highlights key insights, such as how women tend to reinvest 90% of their income into their families when economically empowered, in comparison to the average 30-40% from men. Part 1 also delves into how social change has been amplified due to the advancement of technology in recent years, such as through social media campaigns, online crowdfunding sources, etc.

Part 2 explores the core principles of female changemakers and details the stories of how they’ve been able to cultivate qualities such as authenticity in order to attain their level of success. You’ll see how adversity can come in various forms, from violent encounters like Malala’s experience to mental health struggles like Elyse Fox, and how with resilience, one can find ways to overcome these challenges. Part 2 also speaks to the importance of a support network and illustrates the various levels in which a young woman can be encouraged and advocated for.

Part 3 centers around how to empower women and girls. It lays out the various challenges to empowerment, such as how many young girls are forced to turn to sex work in order to pay their school fees, allowing them to continue their education and avoid being married off early. It dives into the various methods of empowerment: psychological, social, economic, education, and more. Factors such as the lack of academic opportunities for girls is costing our society trillions of dollars, demonstrating one of the reasons it’s imperative that we not only acknowledge the necessity of female empowerment but also act on this issue. This final part shows that there are numerous ways to move the world towards a more equitable society and that it’s never too early or too late to start supporting women.

 

What I Need & What You'll Get

This book will be published with New Degree Press. I set up the pre-order tiers to help cover the costs for publishing my book. Money raised will go towards the following:
 

• The Editor I will work with to revise and publish my manuscript in July 2020
• The Cover Design of my Book - the mockups you see currently are a placeholder!
• The Layout Design for the interior of my book (Physical Copy, Ebook Formats)
• The Copyediting for My Book - to help polish the grammar and spelling prior to publication
• The Launch & Promotion Efforts for my book - when I ultimately publish this summer

 

When I pre-sell 100 physical copies of my book, I will publish. When I pre-sell 150 copies of my book, I will also publish a Spanish translation. When I pre-sell 200 copies of my book, I will publish a Hindi translation. These translations were chosen as goals rather than a hardcover or audiobook in order to expand the reach of the book to people who may not be comfortable reading English, many of whom belong to low-resource areas and may need the tools within it the most. 

I am also offering some exclusive rewards for people who pre-order my book now:

• You will receive a personally signed copy of my book when I publish
• A personal, handwritten thank you note for pre-ordering my book
• Your Name will appear in a Special, Acknowledgements Section of my book (“with Special Thanks to”)
• Early access to the Introduction of my book and my entire manuscript, with the opportunity to review it and give me early feedback
• The opportunity to help give me feedback and be involved in selecting my cover
• I will do a book topic/workshop seminar where I will share experience the experiences of writing my book

And more...

About the Author

Shana Abraham is a Program II student at Duke University, a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina. Initially studying global health and public policy, she discovered not only a passion for women’s health but also a strong interest in empowering women and creating sustainable initiatives that allow communities to use resources more effectively. She decided to create her own major, choosing to study “Culturally-Specific Innovation to Reduce Health Disparities for Black and Brown Women,” in the hopes that it will provide her the multidisciplinary background to better serve disadvantaged populations in the future. The idea for Rise was born from her love for mentoring young women and her passion for health education and promotion.

When she’s not running around campus between classes and club meetings, you can often find Shana dancing with her performance teams (or by herself) to any type of music. She also has an unhealthy obsession with dogs and loves dragging people into existential conversations.

For more information, you can connect with Shana at shana.abraham224@gmail.com and @shana.abraham on Instagram.

 

Risks & Challenges

The biggest challenge with publishing a book is delivering the finished book to the backer, specifically my mailing of the book to you. I have eliminated this risk by building into the campaign the mailing and shipping costs of your signed copies to you within each pre-order tier.

The risk of delivering the pre-sale copies of my book is contingent on the publisher we use. I will be working closely with New Degree Press to make sure we get the earliest possible ship date of the signed book copy to you. We will keep all pre-sale backers up-to-date as my book hits each key milestone and publishes. You will know when the copies of my book you pre-ordered are expected to ship.

Other Ways You Can Help

Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean they can't help:

• Please share my Pre-sale Campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with your friends, family, and network. Please use #RisewithShana and tag me as well as my publisher, New Degree Press so we can help amplify your efforts.
• You can easily share my Pre-Sale Campaign Page via Indiegogo at the top of the page
• Please share my book with 5 friends, family members, or co-workers who you think would enjoy it. Please do this as a text message or Direct Message on social media.