Tell Her She's Dreamin'

A memoir for ambitious girls

This book is a love letter to women longing to break free of the boxes their postcode, skin colour, gender and bank balance put them in. Its title is a rebel yell to ambitious women and girls hungry for more.

Growing up on the whitewashed Central Coast in the 1980s and attending an elite school as a scholarship student from the wrong side of the tracks, Lebanese-Cypriot Simone Amelia Jordan felt like an outcast among her peers for years. Her lifeline was hip-hop, then in its golden age. From girlhood, Simone recognised the art form's pro-Black consciousness, and the rappers' resonant words inspired her to embrace her own identity and back herself.

From founding Australia's most successful hip-hop and R&B publication to moving to New York City and interviewing the biggest stars of the time as the editor of the world's most beloved rap magazine; falling in love and getting her heart broken; grappling with her family ties to culture; and struggling through illness and sexual grooming, Simone's inspiring story is about defying the odds to reach for your dreams. But it is also about figuring out those dreams can change as you do.

Tell Her She's Dreamin' is a deeply personal story of family, culture and music that disrupts the long-held view that women, and racially diverse women especially, are limited in their power as bold, playful explorers. It is a timely manual for those hellbent on going places and an inspiration for anyone who has ever been told they can't. (Spoiler alert: you can!)