BREAKING NEWS: Amanda Gorman’s Girls on the Rise Aims to Empower Kids and ‘the Village Raising the Child’.giang

Amanda Gorman is honoring the strength of girls in her new picture book.

Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history at age 22 when she performed “The Hill We Climb” — a spoken-word poem about the pursuit of justice in America — at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Since then, she’s co-chaired the Met Gala, been nominated for a Grammy Award and established the “Writing Change” initiative to support grassroots organizations dedicated to advancing literacy as a pathway to social change. She’s also written three children’s books, with an aim of inspiring the next generation.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the poet and activist opened up about the message behind her new picture book Girls on the Rise, illustrated by Loveis Wise.

“I really wanted to focus on the idea of us being stronger when we stand in solidarity, and that that’s a message that I think is particularly relevant to young girls, but I think it also transcends them as well,” Gorman says. “Hopefully, the young boys or non-binary children who read this book feel a sense of allyship across gendered lines.”

Girls on the Rise is a celebration of young girls, “all beautiful, not for how they look but for how they look into the face of fear,” according to the publisher, Penguin Young Readers. The text that accompanies Loveis Wise’s illustrations is based on Gorman’s 2021 poem ‘We Rise.’

Though the genre and format of the book naturally lends itself to a younger audience, Gorman hopes her new book finds itself in the hands of people of all ages.

“You’re writing, not just for the child, but the village that is raising the child,” Gorman says. “And so you have to create a story that is complex and heartfelt enough, and it speaks to multiple generations and multiple backgrounds, but has the same place in that family’s heart.”

As the project came together, she put a lot of thought into how readers would actually read her book — from adult to child, from child to younger child. The latter was Gorman’s experience growing up, she says, and she hopes her writing inspires children to read to other children in the same way.

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For those looking to follow in her footsteps as a writer or creative, Gorman offers a bit of advice.

“Read as much as possible. Read what you don’t like, read what you do. Write as much as possible … then try to find kinship and allyship where you can,” says Gorman, who finds support within her own writing group.

“Writing can feel like such a solitary act that when you find friendship within it, it’s one of the most pivotal assets that you’ll have as a creator,” she adds.

Girls on the Rise is available now, wherever books are sold.