Jessica Lahey writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Atlantic, Vermont Public Radio, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. Lahey teaches high school English and writing in a drug rehabilitation center for adolescents in Vermont, and her next book, The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence, will be released in 2020.
In The Gift of Failure, Lahey advocates that allowing young people to experience disappointment and frustration helps them develop into independent and resilient adults. Informed by her work, Hewitt encourages students to recognize moments of failure as opportunities to iterate, problem solve, and ultimately achieve success. Hewitt’s faculty, staff, and families draw on Lahey’s expertise and guidance as they empower Hewitt girls and young women to embrace healthy risk-taking and build resilience in the face of setbacks.