Featured photo – Tara Moss signing copies of her book at North Sydney’s Stanton Library. All photos by Ben Apfelbaum.

Model, crime author and public speaker Tara Moss’ empowering and enlightening book SPEAKING OUT, aimed at inspiring girls and women, delivers on many levels. And it begs the question, why aren’t there more books written on this subject?!

In Moss’s forward she says, “Having a voice is part of what makes us human…Language connects us. Our voices connect us. When we are silent or unheard our ideals and perspectives, our needs, our pain and our struggles remain unknown or unacknowledged and for this reason unchanged.”

Moss continues with this line of thought- she “examines the challenges facing women and girls – the external obstacles of silencing, dismissals, bullying and threats of violence, and the internal challenges of crises of confidence…”

Moss focuses on the inequality and the abuse women contend with and suffer from with particular mention and emphasis at the hands of the internet where, “technology is used to shame, bully and brutalise.”

The truth that men form the majority in the media and politics is discussed as well as the widely held belief that women verbalise more than men. Studies have shown that the opposite in fact is true and Moss presents this case eloquently and intelligently.

In the concise book, Moss provides many valuable tools and there are sections on the craft of writing, how to do your research successfully and to know your topics fully.

One of its main features is that SPEAKING OUT describes to readers how to be a well prepared and resourceful public speaker. I particularly liked the way she responds to unhelpful, negative criticism that she receives. Moss writes, ‘It is a skill definitely worth cultivating.”

Moss also writes extensively on speaking publicly about personal traumas and setting boundaries with the interviewer.

The book sees Moss quote from high profile women including Rosie Batty, Natasha Stott Despoja and Miranda Tapsel on how they have dealt with the online abuse that they have received.

The final chapter of the book deals with women looking after one’s needs in a physical, mental and emotional way. To quote Annie Lennox, “Sisters are doin it for themselves.”

It’s time for us women  to stand up and be counted. To be a force to be reckoned with. Read Tara Moss’ SPEAKING OUT. Available at book retailers and online. Published by Harper Collins.