Ann Muno was just 10 years old when her 16-year-old sister, Kim, was murdered by a male classmate after her shift at the mall. The crime rocked her family and the small community of Libertyville, Illinois, about 30 miles north of Chicago.

Muno, a Seattle resident, is now executive director of the Justice for Girls Coalition of Washington State, a nonprofit that works with girls and young women affected by violence and negative childhood experiences.

Muno just released Powerful Girls: Raising Strong, Just, and Compassionate Young Women, a book that gives parents tools to help their daughters build confidence and self-esteem.

Muno has published articles about empowering girls in academic and peer-related journals, and in 2017 won a Robert Wood Johnson Interdisciplinary Research Leadership fellowship to help her promote the needs of girls, often overlooked in governmental policy decisions.

“Through my work, I’ve seen how girls who learn to stand up for themselves as a group stay safer.”

“After Kim’s death, I discovered that girls in her class had felt ‘creeped out’ by her killer. My sister, like most of us, had been socialized to ignore gut feelings and prioritize politeness. This socialization kills,” Muno wrote in a recent op-ed in the Chicago Tribune.

“Through my work, I’ve seen how girls who learn to stand up for themselves as a group stay safer. When girls build positive friendships, understand who they are, learn to challenge racism, question what they see in the news media and know they control their bodies, they become better at recognizing unsafe situations and asking for help when they need it.”

Powerful Girls: Raising Strong, Just, and Compassionate Young Women — published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers — is available in bookstores and online.