Author Guide · Business Memoir
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Emma Grede grew up in Plaistow, East London, the eldest of four daughters, delivered newspapers as a teenager to pay for copies of Elle and Vogue, and left the London College of Fashion without a degree. In 2016 she co-founded the denim brand Good American with Khloé Kardashian, which sold about a million dollars of jeans on its first day; in 2019 she became a founding partner of SKIMS, and Forbes has listed her among America’s richest self-made women. In April 2026, at 43, she published her first book, part memoir and part guide to work and ambition. This guide covers her one key book, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 key books · 2026–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Emma Grede has written one book: Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life (2026), published by Avid Reader Press in the US and Gallery UK in Britain. It mixes her own story, from a working-class childhood in East London to running Good American, with a framework for dropping what she calls “Old Thoughts” about money, ambition and work-life balance. Start there; she also narrates the audiobook.
Where to Start with Emma Grede
If you want a business memoir
→ Start With Yourself (2026) — from East London to Good American and SKIMS.
If you want a practical guide to ambition
→ Start With Yourself (2026) — built around unlearning “Old Thoughts”.
If you want to hear it in her own voice
→ Start With Yourself (2026) — the audiobook is read by Grede herself.
1 Emma Grede Book, in Order
Start With Yourself
Part memoir, part self-help: Grede tells how she went from a working-class single-parent home in East London, leaving education early, to becoming one of America’s richest self-made women, and builds a method around “Old Thoughts” — inherited beliefs about work-life balance, money and ambition that she argues are biases, not rules. She also writes about raising four children while running companies. Published on 14 April 2026 by Avid Reader Press (320 pages) and Gallery UK, it became a New York Times bestseller; Oprah Winfrey interviewed her about it on The Oprah Podcast.
In What Order to Read Emma Grede
There is only one book, so there is no order to work out. Start With Yourself moves between her own story and the lessons she draws from it, so it reads best from the start rather than dipped into.
Readers who want more of her thinking after the book can turn to her podcast Aspire with Emma Grede, where she interviews other founders, or to her long interviews from the 2026 book tour, such as Goldman Sachs’s Talks at GS.
A reading path
1. Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life (2026)
The years · 1982–2026
Quick facts about Emma Grede
- Known for
- Grede is known as the co-founder and CEO of Good American, a founding partner of SKIMS and one of the most successful British-born entrepreneurs in American fashion.
- 1982
- Born in London
- 2008
- Co-founds the agency ITB Worldwide
- 2016
- Co-founds Good American
- Born
- 23 September 1982, London; raised in Plaistow, East London
- Education
- London College of Fashion, left without a degree
- Companies
- ITB Worldwide (2008), Good American (2016, CEO), SKIMS (2019, founding partner), Safely (2021), Off Season (2025)
- Television
- Guest investor on Shark Tank (US) and Dragons’ Den (UK, 2024)
- Podcast
- Host of Aspire with Emma Grede
- Family
- Married to Jens Grede, co-founder of SKIMS; four children
The red mark is 2026: Start With Yourself, her first book.
How Emma Grede Writes: Her Own Story as the Case Study
Start With Yourself uses Grede’s life as its evidence. The publisher describes it as part memoir, part self-help: the stories of her childhood in East London, leaving education early and building companies with the Kardashian family come first, and the advice is drawn out of them rather than presented as theory.
The core idea is the “Old Thought”: a belief about work-life balance, money or ambition that people inherit without checking, and that she asks readers to identify and drop. Reviewers have called the tone blunt and practical; she has said she is “allergic to toxic positivity”, and told Goldman Sachs that she wanted to “strip away the gloss and be honest about being a mother of four and the sacrifices that I have to make.”
Much of the book is about choices rather than balance: what to say no to, how to schedule time, and who to ask for help. For writers who cover similar ground, see Authors like Emma Grede.
Watch
Emma Grede at Talks at GS
Kim Posnett of Goldman Sachs talks with Grede, recorded on the book’s publication day in April 2026, about risk, resilience, saying no and why she wrote Start With Yourself.
Frequently asked questions about Emma Grede’s book
How many books has Emma Grede written?
One: Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life, published on 14 April 2026 by Avid Reader Press in the US and Gallery UK in Britain. It became a New York Times bestseller.
What are Emma Grede’s books in order?
There is only one, Start With Yourself (2026).
Where should I start with Emma Grede?
With Start With Yourself, her only book. The audiobook is narrated by Grede herself.
What is Emma Grede’s most famous book?
Start With Yourself (2026), the only book she has written.
What is Start With Yourself about?
It is part memoir and part practical guide. Grede tells how she went from a working-class childhood in East London to co-founding Good American and becoming a founding partner of SKIMS, and asks readers to identify and drop “Old Thoughts”: outdated, inherited beliefs about ambition, money and work-life balance.
Is Start With Yourself a memoir or a business book?
Both. Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, describes it as part memoir and part self-help book; the Los Angeles Times described it the same way. The business lessons come out of her own story rather than case studies of other companies.
Who endorsed Emma Grede’s book?
Oprah Winfrey interviewed Grede about it on The Oprah Podcast and called her “an inspiring force, a modern day business mogul and visionary”. The Wall Street Journal wrote that the book “makes the case for putting yourself first in work, life, and child-rearing”, and Jenna Bush Hager called it “so helpful…and vulnerable and real”.
What companies has Emma Grede built?
She co-founded the talent and marketing agency ITB Worldwide in London in 2008, co-founded Good American with Khloé Kardashian in 2016 and is its CEO, became a founding partner of SKIMS in 2019, co-founded the cleaning brand Safely with Kris Jenner and Chrissy Teigen in 2021, and launched the apparel brand Off Season in 2025. The book draws on all of this.
What was the “three-hour mom” debate about Emma Grede?
In April 2026, while promoting the book, Grede said she spends about three hours with her children at weekends by choice and described herself as a “high-impact, core memory mom”. The comments drew strong criticism online and a wider debate about the pressure on working mothers; the book itself argues for lowering expectations of yourself rather than your ambitions.
Has Emma Grede been on Shark Tank?
Yes. She was a guest investor on the US Shark Tank in seasons 13 and 14, and a guest dragon on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den in 2024.
Footnotes
- Emma Grede — Wikipedia
- Start With Yourself — Simon & Schuster
- Start With Yourself — Simon & Schuster UK
- Emma Grede on Building Iconic Brands — Talks at GS, Goldman Sachs, 2026
- Start With Yourself review — Influence, 2026
- 3-hour parenting on the weekends? — ABC7 New York, 2026
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I schedule joy like any other thing in my diary.”
— Emma Grede, Talks at GS, Goldman Sachs (2026)
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