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In 1997, in Alabama, a girl told Tarana Burke that she was being abused, and Burke found she did not know what to say. Later she wished she had answered with two words: “me too”. She began using the phrase for her work with survivors of sexual violence in 2006, eleven years before it became a hashtag after the Harvey Weinstein allegations of October 2017. That December, Time included her among the “silence breakers” it named Person of the Year. Both of her books came out in 2021: an anthology on shame and the Black experience, edited with Brené Brown, and a memoir of her own life. This guide covers her two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2021–2021 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Tarana Burke has published two books, both in 2021: You Are Your Best Thing (April), an anthology she edited with Brené Brown, and Unbound (September), her memoir of her childhood in the Bronx and the start of the Me Too movement. Start with Unbound; it tells the story behind the phrase in her own words.
Where to Start with Tarana Burke
If you want her own story
→ Unbound (2021) — from the Bronx to the birth of Me Too.
If you want many voices on shame and healing
→ You Are Your Best Thing (2021) — essays by Black writers, artists and activists.
If you already read Brené Brown
→ You Are Your Best Thing (2021) — Brown’s research on shame, applied to the Black experience.
2 Tarana Burke Books, in Order
You Are Your Best Thing
An anthology of about twenty essays by Black writers, organisers, artists and academics on vulnerability, shame and healing from the trauma of white supremacy, edited by Burke and the shame researcher Brené Brown. Contributors include Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds and Austin Channing Brown. The title comes from a line in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Published by Random House in April 2021, it entered The New York Times bestseller list.
Unbound
Burke’s memoir of growing up in the Bronx, being raped at the age of seven, and the shame she carried into adulthood, through her years as an organiser in Alabama working with Black girls to the moment her phrase became a global hashtag. Burke has said the book is about survival and sexual violence rather than the fame that followed #MeToo. Published by Flatiron Books in September 2021, it was a New York Times bestseller.
In What Order to Read Tarana Burke
The two books are very different in form: one is her own life story, the other a collection of other people’s essays that she co-edited. They came out five months apart in 2021, so publication order says little; read by what you are looking for.
Unbound is the natural way in, because it explains the work behind the phrase and why shame sits at the centre of it. You Are Your Best Thing then widens that subject beyond sexual violence, to race, masculinity, faith, grief and mental health, in about twenty different voices.
A reading path
1. Unbound (2021)
2. You Are Your Best Thing (2021)
The years · 1973–2021
Quick facts about Tarana Burke
- Known for
- Founding the Me Too movement in 2006, more than a decade before the phrase became a worldwide hashtag in 2017
- 1973
- Born in the Bronx, New York
- 1997
- Meets the girl in Alabama who inspires “me too”
- 2006
- Begins the Me Too movement
- 2017
- Time Person of the Year, as a “silence breaker”
- 2021
- Unbound
- Born
- 12 September 1973, the Bronx, New York City
- Education
- Alabama State University; BA, Auburn University at Montgomery
- Founded
- Just Be Inc. (2003), a nonprofit for Black girls aged 12 to 18; the Me Too movement (2006)
- Worked
- Girls for Gender Equity, Brooklyn; consultant on the film Selma (2014)
- Honours
- Time Person of the Year (2017, with the “silence breakers”); Time 100 (2018); Ridenhour Prize for Courage (2018)
- Books
- Two, both published in 2021
The red mark is 2021: Unbound, her memoir of her life and the birth of the Me Too movement.
How Tarana Burke Writes: Survival Before Celebrity
Burke came to writing from decades of organising, not from journalism or literature, and both books stay close to that work. Unbound spends most of its pages on the years before 2017: her childhood in the Bronx, the abuse she suffered at seven, and her work with teenage girls in Alabama. The hashtag arrives late. She told the Associated Press that the book was about survival and sexual violence, not about celebrities.
Shame is the thread through both books. In Unbound she traces how it shaped her own sense of self; in You Are Your Best Thing she and Brené Brown asked Black writers and activists to apply Brown’s research on vulnerability and shame resilience to their own lives, from mental illness and masculinity to faith, disability and grief.
The memoir is written in the first person and plainly, with doubts left in: Publishers Weekly noted her moments of uncertainty, including her reaction when the hashtag spread, and her respectful portraits of the young people who confided in her.
Watch
Tarana Burke on Unbound with Glory Edim
Glory Edim talks with Tarana Burke about her memoir Unbound, using personal story as activism and her path to becoming an author, on The Well-Read Black Girl Podcast (posted February 2022). From the official Well-Read Black Girl channel.
Frequently asked questions about Tarana Burke’s books
How many books has Tarana Burke written?
Two. Unbound (2021) is her memoir; You Are Your Best Thing (2021) is an anthology of essays she edited with Brené Brown.
What are Tarana Burke’s books in order?
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience (April 2021), edited with Brené Brown, and Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement (September 2021).
Where should I start with Tarana Burke?
Unbound. It tells her own story, from her childhood in the Bronx to the origin of “me too”, and gives the context for the anthology.
What is Tarana Burke’s most famous book?
Unbound (2021), her memoir, published by Flatiron Books. Both of her books were New York Times bestsellers.
What is Unbound about?
Burke’s life: growing up in the Bronx, being raped at the age of seven and living with the shame of it, her years as an organiser working with Black girls in Alabama, and how a phrase she had used since 2006 became a global movement in 2017.
Did Tarana Burke start the Me Too movement?
Yes. She began using “me too” for her work with survivors of sexual violence in 2006. In October 2017 the actor Alyssa Milano encouraged women to post #MeToo after the Harvey Weinstein allegations; Milano later acknowledged Burke’s earlier use of the phrase.
Who wrote for You Are Your Best Thing?
Black writers, artists, academics and activists, among them Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Sonya Renee Taylor and Austin Channing Brown. Burke and Brené Brown edited it; the title comes from Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
What awards has Tarana Burke received?
She was among the “silence breakers” named Time Person of the Year in 2017, was on the Time 100 list and won the Ridenhour Prize for Courage in 2018, and was on the BBC 100 Women list in 2022.
Is Tarana Burke still alive?
Yes. She was born on 12 September 1973 in the Bronx, New York City.
Footnotes
- Tarana Burke — Wikipedia
- Tarana Burke — Britannica
- First she was a survivor: #MeToo’s Burke tells her story — Associated Press, 2021
- Unbound — Publishers Weekly review
- You Are Your Best Thing — Kirkus Reviews
- You Are Your Best Thing — Penguin UK
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.
“Shame is insidious. It’s all-consuming.”
— Tarana Burke, interview with the Associated Press on Unbound (2021)
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