Run like a Girl

A memoir of ambition, resilience and fighting for change

Run Like a Girl will be released in Canada and the United States on September 23, 2025, with a UK and Australian release to follow on November 4, 2025.

Read the press release

From Olympic dreams to the frontlines of politics and climate action, Run Like A Girl is a bold, unfiltered memoir from Catherine McKenna, Canada’s former Minister of Environment and climate Change. Known for leading the charge on Canada’s climate plan and enduring sexist attacks as “Climate Barbie”, McKenna shares an inspiring journey of reinvention, resilience and defiance in the face of expectation. 

With a unique scrapbook-style format, the book blends personal anecdotes, political battles, and reflections on balancing ambition, motherhood, and activism. McKenna recounts her fight for climate policy, the ups and downs of public service, the tough decision to leave politics and her new mission to empower women in leadership.

Run Like a Girl is an urgent, deeply personal story about finding your own path, breaking the rules, and fighting for the future - on your own terms. 

 "This is a bold, hopeful book for the next generation of changemakers written by someone who knows what it means to stand up, speak out, and keep going.” 
- Mary Robinson, First woman president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

"This book, like its author, is a game changer. McKenna’s engaging and audacious mix of words and pictures offers a behind-the scenes view on how a leader is made, in baby steps and giant leaps. Run Like A Girl is the stuff of an inspired and inspiring public and private life.” 
- Leanne Shapton, Artist and author of Swimming Studies, winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography

"Catherine McKenna's book is such a delight to read and experience. With disarming candour and charm, Mckenna charts her personal and political life in a book that will win the hearts of its readers, friends and foes."
- Heather O’Neill, best-selling novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent bestselling novel, The Lonely Hearts Hotel, won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction.

Catherine McKenna is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Climate and Nature Solutions. She is Canada's former minister of environment and climate change, and minister of infrastructure. She is chair of the UN Secretary General’s Expert Group Net Zero, founded Women Leading on Climate, practiced law in Canada and Indonesia, established a not-for-profit focused on providing justice for all, and worked for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Timor-Leste. She has three children, is an avid open water swimmer, and lives in Ottawa. 

For more information about Catherine McKenna, go to her website: www.catherinemckenna.ca 

Follow Catherine on:

Bluesky @cathmckenna.bsky.social
Instagram - @cathmckennaottcen
X - @cathmckenna
Facebook - @mckennaottawa
LinkedIn - @catherine-mckenna