Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced she’ll be writing a book, expanding on her unique style of leadership – one that’s both kind and able to make a difference.
In an Instagram post on Friday, Ardern shared that one of the questions she’s been most asked since leaving office is “will you write a book?”. And while her answer was at first “no”, it looks like she’s reconsidered and will be working with publishers Penguin in NZ and Australia, Macmillan in the UK and Crown in the US.
“When I left parliament there were a few questions I got asked quite often – are your family happy to have you back (mostly 😂) and will you write about your time in office?”, Ardern wrote in her post.
“At first, my answer was no. I didn’t want to write a book that hauled over the internal politics of the last five years, and then someone convinced me that I didn’t have to. That maybe it might be worth expanding on some of the things I talked about in my valedictory instead—like the idea you can be your own kind of leader and still make a difference. And so that’s what I’m planning to do.”
While the release date is still to be determined, the book is likely to garner a significant amount of attention and anticipation.
“There’s no set date for when it will be done- the Christchurch call-work on violent extremism and terrorism online is keeping me pretty busy- but I hope when it’s done, it’s the kind of book that would have made a difference to my 14 year old self,” wrote Ardern.
Her “Christchurch call-work” is part of an entity she founded after the Christchurch massacre that saw a lone white supremacist gunman attacking two mosques. Ardern told the media that she still felt a “sense of duty” to the victims.
In January, Ardern resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister after five years of leadership. She delivered her valedictory in April, saying she hopes she demonstrated that “you can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother or not. You can be an ex Mormon or not. You can be a nerd, a hugger a crier. You can be all these things and not only can you be here. You can lead just like me.”
Since then, Ardern has been reporting to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on the progress being made to counter violent extremism on social media. She also works for Harvard University and is a trustee on Prince William’s climate change charity, the Earthshot Prize.