Julie Lythcott-Haims believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. Her work encompasses writing, speaking, teaching, mentoring, and activism.

She is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult which gave rise to a popular TED Talk. Her second book is the critically-acclaimed and award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. Her third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, has been called a “groundbreakingly frank” guide to adulthood.

Julie holds degrees from Stanford, Harvard Law, and California College of the Arts. She currently serves on the boards of Common Sense Media, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Narrative Magazine, and on the Board of Trustees at California College of the Arts. She serves on the advisory boards of LeanIn.Org, Parents magazine and Baldwin For the Arts.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner of over thirty years, their itinerant young adults, and her mother.

Sawyer Lythcott-Haims is a 2017 graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto. He currently works in the Palo Alto Unified School District as an elementary school special education aide. His hobbies include reading and playing video games.