HOWL! Abby Wambach, a hero for all women and girl soccer players, has blown me away with her new book, WOLFPACK!
Abby’s New Rules Flipped My World!
In just 93 easy pages, she has turned my world upside down! She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Women’s World Cup champion. She also just happens to hold the world record—184!—for goals scored in international competition—for both men and women!
Wambach Records Unmatched!
If you’ve never heard of Abby, her records are unmatched in the history of soccer. Current superstar Alex Morgan recently scored her 101st goal of her WNT career, so she might have a shot at passing Abby. In her new book, Abby shows she’ll be right there, cheering Alex when she does. Because, for Abby, it’s all about the team, it’s all about empowering girls and women to be who they are meant to be—powerful, successful, and joyous! To be a leader among leaders in a courageous Wolfpack!
Girls-Abby Says Claim Our Power!
In her new book, Abby has challenged girls everywhere to claim their power! To become who we are meant to be, not what anyone else or society expects or demands us to be.
She retells a story we all know—and I loathe: Little Red Riding Hood. Girls are taught to follow the path we’re told to follow. To keep our heads down and our faces hidden. We’re taught to live in fear and avoid taking any risks, to take what the world dishes out to us and like it. To never stray because like the ‘Hood’ found out, bad things happen if we do. To be ‘saved’ by a man when we get into trouble. Worse, we’re “bad girls” if we do follow our own path. Crap!
We ARE The Wolfpack!
Abby changes everything when she demands we realize one simple fact: “You were never Little Red Riding Hood. You were always the Wolf. We must venture off the path and blaze a new way, together!”
I love wolves as much as I love hawks and eagles so I’m thrilled with her message and her challenge.
Abby’s Viral Speech to Barnard College
In her awesome commencement address in 2018 to Barnard College, she described a National Geographic video that showed how bringing the wolves back to a dying valley in Yellowstone National Park gave it new life. Despite the bad rap wolves get from the ignorant or scared, the wolves saved the valley. Far from being the problem, the wolves were the valley’s salvation.
Check out her graduation speech! If you’re not inspired to howl like a wolf after it, girl, there’s something wrong with you! This video went viral with more than 201,000 views on YouTube.com alone. It led to this book and Abby’s great new career inspiring organizations to empower women and to become much more successful as a result.
We Have The Power To Save Our Society!
Awesome! Abby calls on girls and women to know that we have the power to save our society from the fears and dangers that threaten our freedoms. Many people, especially many men but also many women, feel threatened by powerful women.
I don’t get it. Maybe they’re scared there is not enough of everything—power, love, success, joy and prosperity—to go around. Abby says they see the world as limited. They think there’s only so much of everything.
When a woman gets her piece of the pie—equal rights, equal pay, equal respect—they believe the pie shrinks so everyone else ends up with less.
Infinite Prosperity, Joy, Success and Love Available to All!
They are just plain wrong. Abby believes—and I agree—that there is an infinite supply of love, success, joy, power and prosperity for everyone to share.
We have to help each other—other girls AND boys—learn to see the world as a wonderful, generous place.
It’s tough to do; I know. Living for years with an alcoholic father and surviving the challenges Booper and I face in our tough trials make all this hard to believe. But I’m slowly coming around; Abby’s added rocket fuel to my hopes for the future!
Abby asserts powerful women, equal women, women of all kinds have the strength, the wisdom, the insight, and the natural ability to create this unlimited and better world.
Abby’s Eight New Rules That Can Transform the World!
She lays out Eight New Rules that toss out the old ones:
“1. Create your own path.”
Never settle for staying on the trail someone else created and someone else says you have to follow.
“2. Be grateful for what you have AND demand what you deserve.”
Equal rights, equal pay, equal respect, equal justice.
“3. Lead now—from wherever you are.”
I like what she said in her speech better: “Lead from the bench.” That is, cheer your team on, support other women, celebrate every goal, every victory as a victory for the team, not the individual.
“4. Failure means you’re finally in the game.”
Again, her speech is better. She directs us to “turn failure into high octane fuel…Wolfpack, fail up, blow it and win!” Her view is far more powerful than simply learning from our mistakes. We’re to use failure to drive us to win!
“5. Be FOR each other.”
She’s right about this: women are taught from babies to compete with each other for everything from daddy’s attention to boyfriends to that one token ‘seat at the table.’
Instead, we’ve got to work together; Keysha, Magda and I—and the guys—are doing a good job of forming our own “wolfpack” on the Redhawks soccer and basketball teams. We can do more to expand our wolfpack to all the Carver Middle girls who play sports. And we’ll be in high school soon and at the bottom of the pile again. But we can be FOR the upper classwomen who start ahead of us. We can champion them and each other.
“6. Believe in yourself. Demand the ball.”
I love to win, I want to win, but I’m often criticized by the other kids for being too aggressive, for being selfish.
Sometimes, I dial it back and pass the ball when I know I can score, just to get along, so other kids will like me. Abby says heck with that. She said she is most inspired by “a women who believes in herself, who gives 100 percent, and who owns her greatness…” without apology.
In eight powerful sentences, she challenges girls to demand what we deserve, whether it’s the soccer ball on the pitch, a job, equal pay, a promotion, a voice, the presidency, respect—and by the way, demand that the powerful share it with all the wolfpacks of deserving women, too.
“7. Lead with humanity. Cultivate leaders.”
But Abby insists demanding the ball is not about being selfish; it’s to give everything you have to the team, to do what you do best not to make yourself look good but to help the team—your wolfpack—succeed.
Win Beautifully! WOW!
She recalled when Pia Sundhage became the new coach of the USA Women’s National Team; Long the toughest women’s team in the world, Pia challenged them to test new ways to lead, to cooperate, to win with honor and dignity—“to win beautifully.”
Wow, who could ever imagine that? The Redhawks are a lot like the USA Women’s Team—we usually just crush our opponents with speed and strength. But as you can read in Be Careful What You Wish For, I learn the hard way how everyone can be a leader if we encourage them so they feel safe enough to share their ideas.
“8. You’re not alone. You’ve got your Pack.”
Amen. My Redhawks did something for me so unbelievable, so courageous, so generous, so unselfish…well, check out Be Careful What You Wish For. I don’t want to spoil our story for you! The Redhawks—including our goofy guys Rory, Peter, Jorge and Bu—are now and always will be my Pack.
I wish I’d read Abby’s book before I’d learned so much so painfully. She made a major point: She hates to work out alone because she’d always been part of a team. Everyone suffered together, won together, lost together, laughed together, pulled each other through the tough times together.
“Life is harder as a lone wolf. We all need a Pack.”
Yes, we do! Girls, if you feel lonely and ignored, if you can’t get what your deserve from your best efforts, if you are discriminated against, if you feel you’re being taken advantage of, then find your pack!
STAND UP FOR OURSELVES!
If you can’t find one, create your own pack of like-minded girls, and STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES!
Is this easy? Of course not! Is it easy practicing for hours in terrible weather? Is it easy running wind sprints until you want to throw up? Is it easy staying up late to finish your homework because you practiced until after the sun went down? Is it easy just being a girl? Of course not!
But is becoming who I am meant to be it worth it? Is facing every challenge, every failure and becoming a stronger, better person worth it? Of course it is!
As Abby concludes, what you and I DO—soccer games won, trophies put on our shelves, exams aced—will not last long. Every record will be broken-Alex Morgan is only 30 years old and will play dozens more games. She could surpass Abby before her career ends years from now.
Everything will change. We will be forgotten at Carver as soon as we move on to high school. But who I AM, who you are, will always distinguish each of us.
Let us all remember what Abby’s wife Glennon wrote her the day Abby retired. Abby worried who she would be without soccer: “Abby, it is crystal clear that soccer didn’t make you special—you made soccer special.”
Whoever You Are, You Make Whatever You Do Special!
HOWL!
WOLFPACK, by Abby Wambach, © 2019, Celadon Books, www.celadonbooks.com. Available through all major bookstores, Amazon.com, IndieBound, and Barnes and Noble.
