– Start the fire. Shannon Watts is best known as the woman who tackled gun violence. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 20 children, Watts started Moms Demand Action.
More than a decade later, Watts is still passionate about gun safety—but she’s widening her remit as well. Last month, she published her new book Fired Up. She wants to help other women “come alive” the way she did when in rapid succession she left behind corporate communications, her first marriage, and stay-at-home motherhood to start what became the largest women-led nonprofit in the U.S. “I was in a career I didn’t love and when I started Moms Demand Action, it felt very much like alchemy, like magic,” she remembers. “I watched thousands of other women have the same experience. What I realized was, we transformed the issue of gun safety … but the issue also transformed us.”
She needed that push. She knew she “didn’t want to sell companies widgets anymore,” but she didn’t know what she did want. “Men are socialized to follow their desires. Women are taught to fulfill their obligations,” she says she realized. Her new book is an effort to flip that dynamic and prompt women to instead ask themselves, What do I want?
What she doesn’t want, now, is to help women find their “purpose.” There is no one purpose, Watts argues. “You can spend a lot of time trying to find out what that one true purpose is and overlook fulfillment,” she says.
Case in point: Watts is living in Florida now, and after helping elect thousands of candidates, she doesn’t say no to running for office herself. “I love being the underdog,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- IMF exit. International Monetary Fund deputy managing director Gita Gopinath will step down at the end of the month and return to Harvard. Her exit gives President Donald Trump a chance to "put his stamp" on the global economic institution; the U.S. typically appoints the IMF's No. 2 position. Bloomberg
- What comes next. After public media was stripped of federal funding by Congress, NPR chief Katherine Maher gives an interview about the future of public radio. NPR will persist, she says—but local stations that serve communities with no other forms of local journalism are already preparing to shut down. Status
- Love that. 831 Stories, the new-ish romance book publisher from Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo, is mixing things up in publishing by centering fandom. Books published under the 831 mantle have commissioned fan fiction and merch—the kinds of things that pop up organically for the world's biggest book series. Adweek
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Custom hair care brand Function of Beauty hired Monica Belsito, most recently CMO of the hummus brand Sabra, as CEO.
Jinx cofounder Terri Rockovich is becoming chair of the dog food startup's board as it hires a new CEO.
ON MY RADAR
Motherhood at 50 wasn't the plan—it was better Glamour
What happened to the idea of 'middle age'? Allure
The trouble with wanting men New York Times
PARTING WORDS
"There’s no shame in being wrong, necessarily."
—Pop star and actress Renée Rapp on what she learned from her parents—which helped her become outspoken and confident today
