AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want

Kathleen Hanna’s band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl” and “Double Dare Ya” are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band” in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the influential Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its exclusivity.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful—and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.

This landmark feminist memoir pulls no punches.

Riot Grrrl Origins: Go behind the scenes of the grassroots feminist movement she helped ignite, with a candid look at both its power and its problems.

90s Punk Scene: Experience the raw energy and real dangers of the 90s music world, with stories featuring icons like Kurt Cobain, Joan Jett, and Kim Gordon.

Kathleen’s Career: Follow Hanna’s journey leading seminal bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, fighting for a place on stage in the face of antagonism and violence.

Format: Trade Paperback

Author: Hanna, Kathleen

Publisher: Ecco

Pub Date: June 24, 2025

Category: Biography & Autobiography / Music

ISBN: 9780062825247

Evening House Books

Filters

Biography & Memoir

Rebel Girl

Three Roads: Labor, Music, Climate Activism

Thunder Song: Essays