All the gold stars : reimagining ambition and the ways we strive / Rainesford Stauffer.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From journalist and author of An Ordinary Age , an examination, dismantling, and reconstruction of ambition, where burnout is the symptom of our holiest sin: the lonely way we strive.



Ambition--the want, the hunger, the need to achieve--is woven into America's fabric from the first colonization to capitalism. From our first gold star assignment to acceptance at the "right" college to hustle and grinding our lives, we celebrate our drive, even as we gatekeep who is permitted to strive--and how visibly. Even as we burn out. When we can't even. When we know: work won't love us back.



All the Gold Stars looks at how the cultural, personal, and societal expectations around ambition are driving the burnout epidemic by funneling our worth into productivity, limiting our imaginations, and pushing us further apart. Through the devastating personal narrative of her own ambition crisis, Stauffer discovers the common factors driving us all, peeling back layers of family expectations, capitalism, and self-esteem that dangerously tie up our worth in our output. Interviews with students, parents, workers, psychologists, labor organizers, and more offer a new definition of ambition and the tools to reframe our lives around true success. All the Gold Stars provides ways for us to reject our current reality and reconceive ambition as more collective, imaginative, and rooted in caring for ourselves and each other.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• I'll Go First: An Introduction (1)
• 1 So You're Calling Me a Striver, and Some Ihoughts on Sin (15)
• 2 Life's Good Behavior Chart (29)
• 3 Schoolhouse Rock (and a Hard Place) (43)
• 4 Parental Guidance Suggested (61)
• 5 "Just" a Hobby (81)
• 6 A Ticking Time Bomb (99)
• 7 Nine to … Forever (121)
• 8 When Gold Stars Shatter (145)
• 9 Good for Something (165)
• 10 Pal Around (171)
• 11 Worked Up (197)
• 12 Take Good Care (223)
• 13 All That Glitters (253)
• Acknowledgments (259)
• Notes (265)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Ambition: the cultural double-edged sword that has been baked into us since the very first gold-star sticker in childhood, deeply rooted in colonialism, capitalism, and ableism. Both praised and punished, gate-kept and judged, people strive to meet its requirements while battling burnout, at the cost of their mental health, and even when they know that in the end, it won't love them back. Stauffer, Teen Vogue "Work in Progress" columnist and author of An Ordinary Age, explores the abstract concept of ambition and its sometimes depressing concrete effects on society and people's lives. Drawing on literary, scientific, and anecdotal sources, this title is breathtakingly comprehensive and contains a lovely core of human empathy and gentle curiosity. Topics like race and gender discrimination are not ignored, and unlike so many other self-help books, this one avoids the pitfall of speaking only to the white, middle-class experience. VERDICT Well-paired with other contemplative titles such as Katherine May's Wintering and Casper ter Kuile's The Power of Ritual, and an intriguing counterpoint to popular productivity-focused self-help titles such as James Clear's Atomic Habits and Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism. An excellent, thoughtful, non-prescriptive treatise on a complicated idea.--Chrystopher Lytal

Publishers Weekly Review

In this mixed outing, journalist Stauffer (An Ordinary Age) examines the roots of ambition. A lifelong overachiever who sought good grades, gold stars, and praise from bosses, Stauffer burned out in her late 20s, she writes, leading her to reassess her ambition and its consequences. Productivity culture, she explains, begins as early as elementary school, when grades and standardized tests teach students their worth is found in external achievements, and children learn that good grades lead to good jobs and good lives, establishing a false link between accomplishments and economic safety. Meanwhile, in the adult world, "hustler" culture is glamorized, but it can lead to overwork and deepen inequality, as not everybody "is racing from the same starting line." The author calls for a wholesale reimagining of ambition: rather than adopting a go-it-alone attitude, readers should assign greater value to relationships and friendships, as true success can't be achieved solo. Stauffer is most convincing when she explores the intersection of ambition and injustice, as when she trenchantly critiques the ways student loans and academic tracking systems such as Advanced Placement classes reinforce racial inequalities--though she offers few concrete suggestions for systemic change. Stauffer takes on a fascinating social question, even if the answers remain elusive. (June)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Rainesford Stauffer is an author, journalist, speaker, and Kentuckian. She's the Work in Progress columnist for Teen Vogue , and wrote a column for Catapult, Gold Stars . Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Scalawag, DAME Magazine , Vox, and other publications. She is the author of An Ordinary Age , and is a 2022-2023 Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism.