Moving Forward by Karine Jean-Pierre (Review by Tamara Ward)

“So often, we try to bury trauma in America”

First off, there are two main things you need to know before reading this book.

1) It mainly targets young people and/or college students.
2) It was written before she was appointed the White House Deputy Press Secretary.

This won’t make you enjoy the book any less, but for a 43 year old woman to read, “I assume some of you are in high school or getting your associate degree..”, it threw me off a bit, and gave me a chuckle. Also, at the time Karine Jean-Pierre wrote this book, she had yet to take on the life-changing job she now has.

Once you’re armed with that information, however, you will be pleased to know that the woman behind the child-like smile is very fascinating in ways that have nothing to with her current job.

However, what I can appreciate on behalf of young readers is how she details her journey in taking pride in her Haitian background, her journey through coming out as an openly gay woman, and being a “late bloomer.” With the suicide rate being what it is now in this country, it was really inspiring to see a young person rise above their challenges.

You see, Karine survived a suicide attempt of her own. The pressure of trying to please her parents by getting into medical school, while being in the closet got to be too much. My favorite part of the book was her journey of being a “late bloomer” and her route to politics not being the usual one. Her various jobs before working for the White House included volunteer firefighter and environmentalist.

The message is that it’s ok to not have all the answers, and you can rise above being in a dark place. For that I applaud her.

I really enjoyed reading Karine’s journey, but the one thing I wished she hadn’t done so much is push partisan ideals. Being a Federal Government career employee in my 40s, and having worked for five Presidents, I’ve concluded that our biggest problem is that we don’t listen to one another enough. The goal has become to have the larger voice and the best and most convincing insult. The way we are addressing the divide we now have in our country is not working. We have to strive to listen to one another better, and no one needs to know that more than our young people.