A companion to the 2013 documentary of the same name, Tanya Lee Stone’s Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time offers an in-depth examination of the social and cultural entrapments that serve as education barriers for girls in developing countries.

You have a wide range of expertise in a number of areas. How have your own educational opportunities inspired your advocacy for girls’ education?

Since school is free in this country, I did indeed have a great start! I went through the public school system through high school, and I also attended a magnet performing arts high school (which was also free). I was then lucky enough to be able to attend Oberlin College, where I was an English major. My education at Oberlin shaped me in countless ways that I was likely not even aware of at the time. Oberlin was the first college to grant degrees to women and African-Americans, and that history permeates the culture there. I went out into the world from there a much more aware person.

How does your book distinguish itself from the 2013 documentary Girl Rising?

The book was inspired by the film, and the collaboration between me and the filmmakers meant that they entrusted me with their raw video footage of the interviews they conducted with dozens and dozens of girls in many countries. The filmmakers had to condense what they learned into 9 stories, but I was able to include more than 25 girls’ stories. I was also able to take more time to really unpack the major obstacles to education and provide more content for people to be able to sit with and digest and revisit.

During your research, what has been the most memorable instance of education breaking the poverty cycle in developing countries that you have come across so far?

There are really so many of them that it’s hard to choose. But just recently, Sokha, from Cambodia, who was literally living on a dump and picking garbage five years ago, is now a college student at Kendall College in Chicago and doing marvelously. Quite incredible.

What kind of impact do you hope your book will have on readers who do have access to educational opportunities?

The goal is really to educate and increase awareness of these terrible obstacles to education for girls that are happening all around the world—early child marriage and childbirth, modern-day slavery such as trafficking and forced labor, and limited or no access to education—which are all symptoms of poverty and gender discrimination. By increasing awareness of these issues, we hope to inspire more activism as well. The whole third part of the book is dedicated to both large and small ideas to give readers ideas for how they might be able to get involved—and how to connect their own passions to making a difference in someone else’s life.

Many of your stories incorporate themes of strong, empowering women. Who has been the most inspiring woman in your life?

I am lucky to have had many inspiring women in my life, starting with my grandmother when I was very young, some very important first female bosses when I was a young editor in New York, and today my closest friends who, every day, are making the world a better place in a myriad of meaningful ways.

Tanya will be a guest expert at the next #ILAchat, which takes place on March 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET. You can meet her in person at the ILA 2017 Conference & Exhibits in Orlando, FL, where she’ll be taking part in the Young Adult Author Meetup on Saturday, July 15.

Clare Maloney is an intern at the International Literacy Association. She is currently seeking a BA in English from the University of Delaware.