Read an Excerpt from Dear Rebel

Dear Rebel Girl, 

I am a rebel just like you. But what does it mean to be a rebel, anyway? To explain to you the kind of rebel I am, I am going to tell you the kind of rebel I am not. 

I am not the kind of rebel who ignores my parents when they ask me to wash my dishes. I am not the kind of rebel who skips doing my homework for school. 

I am not the kind of rebel who disobeys my teachers. That’s not the kind of rebel I am or will ever want to be. I am a different kind of rebel. A special kind. A kind of rebel who is not only respectful to my parents, on top of my schoolwork, and authentically myself, but is also so much more. 

I grew up in a world that believed that girls were not as capable as boys. I am a rebel who believes that education is important, and that knowledge is my superpower. 

I grew up in a world that did not teach me everything I wanted to know. I am a rebel who works hard and uses the internet to teach myself. I learned how to break-dance, make flowers from watermelons, and build apps just by watching videos on YouTube. 

I grew up in a world where girls were engaged with social media all the time. I am a rebel who believes that technology is not meant to be used to assess people’s lives and compare them to my own. Instead, I believe it’s a tool that can be used to access knowledge. 

I grew up in a world where many people did not believe in me and who I wanted to be. I am a rebel who dares to believe in myself despite what other people think about me and my abilities. 

Rebel Girl, just like me, you were born into a world full of so much knowledge, yet so little belief in rebels like us to attain it. You were born into a world that teaches us what we should love, such as princesses and makeup, and what we should find embarrassing, such as being good at math. 

Rebel Girl, if the world’s expectations do not feel right, you do not have to follow them. We get to decide what we love and what we find boring. We don’t have to listen to what everyone else tells us about ourselves. We are from a generation with so much access to knowledge at our fingertips. I learned almost everything I know from free courses online and YouTube videos. You can learn anything too, and therefore, you can be anything. 

You know what the best thing is about being a rebel? Belief. What matters most is that you believe in yourself no matter what other people think. The world may not think you are capable, but from one Rebel Girl to another, I know you are. 

Being a Rebel Girl means using technology as a superpower to learn about anything you find interesting. Being a Rebel Girl is about proving to yourself that you can be whoever you want to be. So, join me, rebel with me, learn, discover, and dare to believe in yourself just as I believe in you. Welcome to the family of daring Rebel Girls. 

Love, 

Miriam 

Miriam Haart is an American engineer, innovator, and speaker who was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. She stars in the reality show My Unorthodox Life and hosts the podcast Faking It.