January 29, 2025
Virtual Event, 7 - 8:30 pm PST

Jessica Lahey

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Jessica Lahey is an education journalist and New York Times bestselling author who speaks on the science of learning, motivation, engagement, and substance abuse prevention, all with the belief that adults have the power to help kids become more autonomous, competent, connected, and fulfilled.  Her first book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed, was a New York Times bestseller and has empowered so many adults to strengthen home-school partnerships, support kids as they learn from their mistakes, and forge stronger, more trusting relationships with children. 

 

Her second book, The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence, is the culmination of Lahey’s experience as an alcoholic with a decade of recovery, the parent of two kids, and twenty years teaching in the classroom.  Whether she’s talking about why kids need more autonomy, competence, and stronger connections with adults in order to stay motivated, learn more deeply, and become the best versions of themselves - or about preventing substance use - her focus is always on adolescent mental health and facilitating difficult conversations around these challenging topics. 

 

Jessica's work is grounded in evidence-based approaches.  By encouraging parents to step back and embrace their children's failures, she helps parents give their kids the tools they need to become self-reliant, confident, and successful adults.  When it comes to substance use prevention, she helps teens understand how their brains work, how they learn, and why substance use in adolescence is far more dangerous than substance use in adulthood.  She offers concrete, practical scripts kids can use to refuse substances while saving face in social situations and that adults can use to open up discussions about substance use and other sensitive topics.  Most importantly, she helps kids find the strength to believe that they are good enough, that they deserve to take up space in this world, and to be loved for who they are and not just who the adults in their lives wish they were.