Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead_. But Gutsy Girls Do - Kate White [0]
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Warner Books, Inc.,
Hachette Book Group,
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New York, NY 10017,
Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com
A Time Warner Company
The Warner Books name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: December 2008
ISBN: 978-0-446-55479-4
Book design by Georgetta Bell McRcc
Contents
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER ONE: The Myth of the Good Girl
CHAPTER TWO: Are You Trapped in the Good-Girl Role?
CHAPTER THREE: Strategy #1: A Gutsy Girl Breaks the Rules
CHAPTER FOUR: Strategy #2: A Gutsy Girl Has One Clear Goal for the Future
CHAPTER FIVE: Strategy #3: A Gutsy Girl Does Only What's Essential
CHAPTER SIX: Strategy #4: A Gutsy Girl Doesn't Worry Whether People Like Her
CHAPTER SEVEN: Strategy #5: A Gutsy Girl Walks and Talks Like a Winner
CHAPTER EIGHT: Strategy #6: A Gutsy Girl Asks for What She Wants
CHAPTER NINE: Strategy #7: A Gutsy Girl Faces Trouble Head-On
CHAPTER TEN: Strategy #8: A Gutsy Girl Trusts Her Instincts
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Strategy #9: A Gutsy Girl Takes Smart Risks
CHAPTER TWELVE: A GUTSY GIRL'S GUIDE TO THE FUTURE
ARE YOU “GOOD” … OR GUTSY?
To Brad.
Acknowledgments
I'd like to thank all the gutsy girls who have inspired me throughout my life, including my mom, who always encouraged gutsiness (at thirteen she gave me Bernice Bobs Her Hair to read); my friend Andrea Kaplan, who said, “Why don't you turn it into a book?”; my fabulous gutsy agent, Sandy Dijkstra; and my wonderful, gutsy publisher, Maureen Egen.
CHAPTER ONE
The Myth of the Good Girl
The day Julia Roberts's publicist telephoned my office and told me that Julia wondered what I had against her. I began to make an interesting discovery about myself—though I didn't realize it at the time.
First, let me give you the background on how Hollywood's hottest star had come to hold me in the same regard she had for the stripper Kiefer Sutherland was dating during their engagement About a year before, as the editor-in-chief of McCall's, I'd commissioned an “unauthorized” cover story on Roberts, focusing on her mysterious hiatus from movies after she'd called off her wedding to Sutherland. It had sold like crazy on the newsstands Now, the first rule of magazine newsstand sales is that if something works, you do it again—and that was my game plan exactly. The publicist had been furious about our first effort, and as soon as she got wind of the fact that we were planning yet another unauthorized cover story on her star client, she called me to protest. She said angrily that she'd always assumed that McCall's had high journalistic standards and wouldn't stoop to publishing a celebrity profile without interviewing the subject. She claimed that Julia had even asked her, “Does the editor of McCall's have something against me?”
Though most of our cover stories were interviews with celebrities, occasionally, when we were turned down by someone (as we had been by Roberts), we'd report the story using a variety of other sources. You'd be surprised at how many friends and relatives are willing to gab, though you also can discover that people have been warned to keep their mouths shut. In this particular case, the publicist was telling everyone, right down to the dolly grip operators on Julia's latest movie, not to talk to us, and so far this had resulted in a severe dearth of dirt. When I'd checked on the progress of the story one day, the researcher had looked up woefully from her desk and announced that the only new information she had was the fact that Roberts's nickname in high school supposedly had been “Hot Pants.” Oh great, I thought. There was cover line potential (IS JULIA HAUNTED BY HER STEAMY PAST?), but the article would be one paragraph long.
Despite such roadblocks, I knew that eventually we'd end up with something. In the long run, this type of story often turns out to be the juiciest and most fun to work on because you've got to be more creative and resourceful.
Unfortunately Roberts and her publicist