Rising Troublemaker, published May 17, 2022, and an instant New York Times bestseller, is the young readers edition of Luvvie Ajayi Jones’ New York Times bestseller Professional Troublemaker. Created with 12-19 year olds in mind, this book uses Luvvie’s honesty and humor to inspire teens to fight their fears and start living their boldest life. Luvvie gives young students the permission some of them need to be the troublemaker they are, or wish to be. Gen Z is dealing with unimaginable pressures at a much younger age. Though they possess language and tools previous generations lacked, they must still learn how to navigate this life bravely and authentically and this book emboldens them to do just that. The goal is not to be fearless but to not let teenagers’ fears make them do less.
In order to increase the amount of ‘good trouble’ being made by these changemakers, Awe Luv – the media company of which Luvvie is CEO – organized a Rising Troublemaker Sponsorship Train. The movement started with Luvvie visiting her high school alma mater and donating 350 books to the students. The sponsorship train, which resulted in over 2,000 sponsored copies, was then launched to encourage others to get this book in the hands of young people across the U.S.
The purpose of this book is to inspire and affirm rising troublemakers across the country, however, Luvvie knew that her book wouldn’t be able to reach everyone that needed it due to economic constraints. To solve this, Luvvie launched a sponsorship train by putting a call out on her social platforms, asking her over 1 million followers across all of her accounts, to commit to buying and gifting books to schools. Luvvie also asked teachers and educators in need of books to complete a form so that Awe Luv could match teachers without budgets to purchase Rising Troublemaker with a sponsor who covered book purchase costs. These teachers were then able to supply the books to their students.
Initially, it was a challenge to ensure that all teachers – no matter if their request was for 10 copies or 200 copies – received as many books as possible while distributing copies to as many schools as possible. However, sponsors were extremely generous and believed in Luvvie’s mission wholeheartedly. This is how Awe Luv, led by Luvvie, were able to supply thousands of books to rising troublemakers all over the country.
As a result of the Rising Troublemaker Sponsorship Train, Awe Luv has directly provided 2,513 sponsored copies of the book to 81 educators across 16 states in the U.S. in 2022. This book is deeply valuable for young people and getting it in the hands of over 2,000 students is a huge success. Often, young people feel powerless in a world run by people who don’t value their opinions, needs, wants and desire for actionable change. With this book, students are encouraged to be ‘too much’ and take up space for good. These young readers, who otherwise may have never had the chance to read this book because of financial limitations, are now able to learn how to be a rising troublemaker who can enact positive change in their communities and around the globe.
