The Book

The authors’ book, The Fatherless Daughter Project: Understanding Our Losses and Reclaiming Our Lives, is being published by Avery of Penguin Random House in Spring 2016.

Fatherless Daughters is the book that Denna and Karin wish they’d had thirty years ago. They want to save this generation of girls and women a decade of emotional fall-out by giving them the tools, real-life answers and encouraging insight that they need to step out of the stigma of being fatherless and step into the amazing life that is waiting for them.

At this moment, tens of millions fatherless daughters of all ages are struggling to make these same life-enhancing choices for self-survival and success. Losing her father can impede a woman’s emotional and relational development – that’s tough to overcome.

She may be an overachiever, but fail miserably—and repeatedly—in love. She may not even know what a healthy, fulfilling relationship with a partner looks like. She may have already succumbed to addictive behaviors to mask the pain, or perhaps her need for control makes her panic and keep pushing the eject button at the first hint of trouble in a relationship. That can destroy even a good marriage.

Fathers disappear from their daughters’ lives because of death, divorce, geography, abandonment, emotional absence, incarceration, addiction, or abuse. Whenever you talk about the pressure points where families shatter and break, you’re entering treacherous emotional terrain. We will go there with our reader, because we must. But we’ll bring along a deep well of compassion, knowledge, and insight so she can finally understand why some big pieces of her life have still not come together in the way she desperately wants them to.

The book focuses on things that every fatherless daughter should know about herself, from why she picks the men she does to how the specific circumstances of her father loss play out in her life … and so much more that will make you laugh, cry and think deeply about who you are and how amazing you really can be.

Through stories from celebrities to the girl next door, we combine other fatherless daughters’ experiences with research and our own insight to guide women to live triumphant lives. Your past does not define your future.

We are ready to start talking about everything from relationships to resilience … sex to success … Mr. Wrong to Motherhood … and every date, decision and dance in between. We’ve lived it, researched it, and are ready to talk about it in hopes of changing change the lives of women who are ready to join us.

Stay connected here as we continue the conversation and make room on your book shelf and in your heart for the book that we believe will change your life in a wonderful way.