This 19-year-old has gone from CEO to published author

What have you done with your life?

In case you don’t remember, we first met Ashley Olafsen last year as the freshman CEO co-running her own company. A year later, at the ripe age of nineteen, she has added publishing her own book to her long list of accomplishments. Yes, you read that correctly; SHE PUBLISHED A BOOK (And its on Amazon.com, meaning you get to use your prime perks when you buy it). 

Titled Survival of the Prettiest, Olafsen writes about topics such as body image, sexuality, mental health, and more. After helping out with her very first body image workshop experience at age 16, she had what she calls, “a crazy God moment,” where she decided to write a book. An obvious first thought to have . . . 

“I knew that if I wanted to keep doing this, I needed to start researching and doing more work on it. I wanted to write the book that I always needed growing up,” she says.

“The concept I was toying around with was that girls are so pitted against each other in today’s world. It’s such an automatic competition that girls are forced into – whether we want it to be or not – and no one is really ‘winning’.”

Olafsen chose to publish her book through CreateSpace, a branch of Amazon.com, because she didn’t want her words to be altered into something that was not her intent. All printing, shipping, and selling is handled by Amazon.com, and most of the profit goes to her.  

“I am very well aware of what the book is not. My book is not academic, it is not super professional, and it doesn’t go into great detail. Books like that have already been done. My intent was to write an extremely-accessible, introductory book for anyone who wanted to begin a conversation about these topics, especially young girls.”

The book includes written pieces from a variety of different anonymous contributors. In doing this, Olafsen hopes to close some of the gaps created by her singular voice. “I try very hard to acknowledge my own privilege. There are seven different sections that span a number of issues, including masculinity. A lot of people complain that I don’t include men in my work, but that isn’t true. I can’t add to this conversation because I am not a man. The section features writing from some good male friends of mine talking about what it’s like to grow up as a male in our society today.”

In addition to writing a book, Olafsen is co-CEO of M.O.V.E with friend Lexie Phipps, an organization that gives workshops on body image, self-esteem, and a whole gamut of similarly important topics, along with running a 5-day summer program that strives to teach young girls about these subjects in a more hands-on manner.

On her own, she is a contributor for The Huffington Post, runs a YouTube channel, and is a TedX speaker. Because she hasn’t done enough with her life already. AND she recently became a feminist ambassador for Feminist Apparel not only for the hell of it, but because she needs funding for a brand new, top secret project she has been working on this summer. If you use the code ASHLEY10, you donate $3.oo to her cause while getting a 10% discount for yourself. Do it. Support this wonderful gift of a person we are not worthy of. And keep checking her website for updates on all of the things she’s doing instead of sleeping.

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UMass Amherst