A Woman Running in a Man’s World
By Lauren Fleshman

Instant New York Times Best Seller
William Hill Sports Book of the Year

GOOD FOR A GIRL

Paperback Available Now
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Fueled by her years as an elite runner and advocate for women in sports, Lauren Fleshman offers her inspiring personal story and a rallying cry for reform of a sports landscape that is failing young female athletes.

  • “A close-up look at the uncertain and often unhealthy climb toward stardom for women in organized sports . . . The rawness of Good for a Girl serves as a push to demand that the next crop of female athletes has it better.”

    —The Washington Post

  • “Good for a Girl is in part a memoir of Fleshman’s failures and successes, but it’s also a call to action for the coaches, parents, and young women of future athletic generations. Fleshman argues convincingly that it’s essential for the sports world to disentangle physical suffering from self-worth. In 288 funny, honest, and sometimes-wrenching pages, she makes clear that empowering girls to better understand the need for balance between pain and elite performance is not only the ethical thing to do—it’s essential to their health and career longevity.”

    —The Atlantic

  • “Motivational . . . [Fleshman’s] raw honesty when it comes to often taboo topics for professional female athletes (including menstruation and mental health struggles) is refreshing, as is her willingness to confront the ways professional racing ‘folds and smashes women and girls into a male-based infrastructure.’ Fleshman’s determination stokes the competitive spirit in this rousing call to action."

    -Publishers Weekly

  • “Part memoir, part critique of a sports system built around a man’s body, Fleshman offers a searingly candid look at her own victimhood and complicity, interlaced with compelling data and concrete ideas on how we can change this environment . . . Fleshman is an undeniably masterful storyteller, owning her own complicity in the system while holding others accountable, in a loving and nuanced way.”

    —Women’s Running

  • "I tore through Lauren Fleshman's GOOD FOR A GIRL. This is the book we've been waiting for: a coming-of-age story, told from inside our broken sports system--a system that was not built for the young athletes inside it, and certainly not for young women. Lauren's story is clear-eyed, passionate, nuanced, and unflinching; it will change the way you look at sports."

    —Kate Fagan
    Emmy-award winning journalist and bestselling author of “What Made Maddy Run” and “All the Colors Came Out”

  • “If someone held a gun to my head and said ‘run,’ I’d say, ‘nah, just shoot me.’ And yet I could not put down Lauren Fleshman’s thoughtful, elegant memoir: a necessary look at what women endure and deserve from the sports they devote their lives to.”

    —Ariel Levy
    Bestselling author of The Rules Do Not Apply

  • "Women's sports have needed a manifesto for a very long time, and with Lauren Fleshman's "Good for a Girl" we finally have one."

    —Malcolm Gladwell
    Bestselling author of Outliers, Blink, David and Goliath, and The Bomber Mafia

  • “Good for a Girl is simultaneously a moving memoir and a call to action in how we think about—and train—girls and women in elite sports. It’s a must-read—for anyone who loves running, for anyone who has a daughter, and for anyone who cares about creating a better future for young women.”

    —Emily Oster
    Bestselling author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, and The Family Firm

  • “Good for a Girl is much more than a great running memoir. It’s a remarkably candid tale of self-doubt and self-belief; of entrepreneurship, family, money, competition, and—importantly—female physiology. (Turns out women are not just smaller men!) It’s an important book that also happens to be a page- turner.”

    —David Epstein
    Bestselling author of Range and The Sports Gene

  • “Lauren Fleshman’s Good for a Girl is a lyrical, insightful, and timely meditation on women’s sports, women’s bodies, and the fundamental issues of social justice exposed and unsolved in the world of elite athletics. As someone who finds no joy in movement, I was moved and riveted from start to finish. A must-read for anybody.”

    —Kate Manne
    Bestselling author of Down Girl and Entitled

  • “Lauren Fleshman serves as a guide to two worlds unknown to most of us: elite athletics, but also, and more importantly, the unjust system that gifts men with riches and fame but crushes the hopes and bodies of women. She is both a champion and a survivor, and anyone who cares about running, athletics, or women must listen to her.”

    —Peter Sagal
    Host of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! and bestselling author of The Incomplete Book of Running

  • "This book breaks open the door for caged conversations to protect the health and integrity of growing athletes. It not only needs to be in the hands of young women-identifying athletes, but also their peers, coaches, and parents. It is the invitation to have a long overdue conversation for a long overdue cultural shift."

    —Alysia Montaño
    Olympian, Co-Founder of &Mother, and Author of Feel-Good Fitness

  • “A superb memoir . . . [Fleshman] fearlessly exposes the often dark, demanding underbelly of female sports and how she believes it needs to be reformed . . . [Her] discussion of physiology and sports psychology enhance Fleshman’s impassioned, deeply personal narrative. She beautifully balances the book with equal parts joy and victory, pain and heartache. Good for a Girl is a necessary, important read that will enlighten athletes of all genders, their coaches and those who cheer for them.”

    —Shelf Awareness

Changing the culture of a team can change the future.
My publisher has generously worked with me to create a team offer: buy 25 copies or more, and you get a 38% discount. The first 20 groups that ordered got a free video chat with the author. All team orders through February are entered in a chance to win a video chat!

About the Book

  • Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders, or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past a natural dip in performance for women of their age.

    Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is Fleshman’s story of falling in love with running as a girl, being pushed to her limits and succumbing to devastating injuries, and daring to fight for a better way for female athletes. Long gone are the days when women and girls felt lucky just to participate; Fleshman and women everywhere are waking up to the reality that they’re running, playing, and competing in a world that wasn’t made for them. Drawing on not only her own story but also emerging research on the physiology and psychology of young athletes, of any gender, Fleshman gives voice to the often-silent experience of the female athlete and argues that the time has come to rebuild our systems of competitive sport with women at their center.

    Written with heart and verve, Good for a Girl is a joyful love letter to the running life, a raw personal narrative of growth and change, and a vital call to reimagine sports for young women.

About the Author

Lauren Fleshman is an award winning author and one of the most decorated American distance runners of all time, having won five NCAA championships at Stanford and two national championships as a professional. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time and Runner’s World. Her debut book was an instant New York Times Bestseller, and won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. She is the brand strategy advisor for Oiselle, a fitness apparel company for women, and the co-founder of Picky Bars, a natural food company. She lives in Bend, OR.

Lauren Fleshman lays on her back on the track with her knees bent and one hand resting on her forehead. She is wearing a sports bra and running shorts and the sun casts a long shadow to her left on the black track.
Lauren Fleshman, a white woman with jeans and a black tank top sits on a stool and smiles for her author photo. 
Photo credits Ryan Warner and Mighty Creature Co

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