About The Authors
Joanna Schroeder
Joanna Schroeder is a writer, editor, and media critic who is known for her bold voice and unique perspectives on parenting issues. Utilizing her degree in Gender Studies from UCLA, Schroeder gained valuable insights into modern masculinity while serving as Executive Editor of The Good Men Project. She currently serves as managing editor of the YourTango Experts program, where she works daily with experts such as psychologists, child development experts, life coaches and parenting consultants. She is mother to two teenage sons and a young daughter.
She is also co-host of the podcast Open Relationships: Transforming Together with Andrea Miller, where’s she interviewed expert guests like Dr. Helen Fisher, Dr. Stan Tatkin, Terrence Real, Marianne Williamson, and Drs. Helen LaKelly Hunt & Harville Hendrix.
Joanna has been published in The New York Times, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, The Boston Globe, MSN, The Huffington Post and more. Her television and radio appearances include shows like “Red Table Talks” with Jada Pinkett-Smith, “AC360” with Anderson Cooper, “CBSN Originals” with Adam Yamaguchi, and interviews on networks such as CBC News, PBS, NPR, and The BBC. She’s a contributor to 'The Talk', an Edward R. Murrow Award winner in Excellence in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Joanna gained national attention in 2018, after she wrote a series of tweets about teen boys and online extremism that went VERY viral. The experience was documented in the Washington Post, and then polished into an essay in the New York Times: “Racists Are Recruiting. Watch Your White Sons.”
For more about Joanna, including links to all of her social media, visit her LinkTree, and subscribe to her newsletter, Zooming Out.
Christopher Pepper
Christopher Pepper is an award-winning educator with a unique background that includes work in teaching, journalism, rape prevention, and curriculum development. He coordinates San Francisco Unified School District’s Young Men’s Health Project, which brings middle and high school boys together in small groups to talk about relationships, emotions, and healthy masculinity. In addition to being a father of two boys, he’s also helped parent a foster son.
After seeing a need for better sex ed lessons in his own classroom, Christopher helped create Be Real. Be Ready., a groundbreaking sexuality education curriculum that is now used in schools around the world. He also worked with the New York Times to develop “The Reckoning: Teaching About the #MeToo Moment and Sexual Harassment,” a collection of lessons, discussion prompts and activities build around #MeToo news stories.
Christopher speaks regularly at state and national conferences focusing on education and teen health, and works to help parents and teachers understand how to effectively address topics like dating, pornography, and vaping with young people today.
He’s been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, Edutopia, and Greater Good Magazine, and interviewed in USA Today, Mother Jones, Mic, and on National Public Radio. He’s a member of Shape America’s Health Education Council, and serves on the Content Advisory Board of TheNewDrugTalk.org, which helps parents learn how to talk about substance use in the age of fentanyl.
For more about Christopher, visit his website, and subscribe to his newsletter, Teen Health Today..