Meredith Walker

Meredith Walker is an author, speaker, and co-founder of Amy Poehler's Smart Girls⁠, a media platform and community dedicated to helping girls and young women navigate the challenge of becoming themselves in a world full of expectations about who they should be.

For more than twenty years, Walker has worked with young people through media, education, and youth development. She began her career at the Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning television series "Nick News," where she worked under acclaimed journalist Linda Ellerbee. She later led the Talent Department at "Saturday Night Live⁠," where she met Amy Poehler. Together, they went on to create Smart Girls.

Through nonprofits focused on girls and women and programs of the U.S. Department of State, Walker has worked with young people in refugee camps and participated in international initiatives supporting girls and communities in countries including Haiti, Malawi, and Jordan.

Walker has served as a Distinguished Lecturer at the Clinton School of Public Service, hosted a White House Champions of Change summit, participated in the White House Summit on Breaking Down Gender Stereotypes in Media, and joined Poehler at the United State of Women to discuss expanding opportunities for girls and women.

She has served on the advisory boards of the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, Common Sense Media's Gender Equality Advisory Board⁠, and the UN Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change.

Walker is the author of “Be Yourself and Other Bad Advice: A Teen Girl’s Guide To Unlearning The Rules.” Praised by Kirkus Reviews as a “reader-friendly guide to knowing yourself” and by Booklist as a “sharp guide” that offers “valuable support,” the book helps readers explore identity, values, purpose, emotions, and independent thinking.

Whether speaking to educators, parents, students, nonprofits or corporate audiences, Walker’s talks offer practical tools for building self-trust, clarifying values, navigating uncertainty, and thinking for yourself in a rapidly changing world.