Red Emma’s

You are smart, brilliant, and beyond talented, but if you’re a woman, particularly a Black woman or woman of color, you’re likely prone to doubting yourself. What’s more, society often reinforces the idea that you—that we—don’t deserve the success we do achieve. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

You just need to believe in yourself and trust your own greatness.

Award-winning journalist, motivational speaker, and blogger L’Oreal Thompson Payton is a self-professed success junkie and poster girl for “overly” ambitious high achievers everywhere. She also knows firsthand how imposter syndrome and self-doubt can derail your dreams. She’s experienced the growing pains that come with big career and life changes. But she’s also come out the other side ready to kick ass, take names, and bring everyone she possibly can along with her.

In STOP WAITING FOR PERFECT, she’s doing just that: using that hard-won insight to be your guide, your big sister, your best friend, and personal cheerleader to help you through your own journey. She’s penned the pocket-sized pep talk to walk with you through any obstacle in your career or personal life.

This book will force you to stop playing small and encourage you to fully step into your power and walk in your purpose. It will awaken the dreams you buried deep within your soul long ago because you thought they were impossible, unattainable—available to other people, but not you. Until now.

Learning to trust your dopeness isn’t a one-time achievement to unlock; it’s a lifelong journey. No matter where you are in your life, it’s time to stop doubting and start living your best life.

L’Oreal Thompson Payton is an award-winning journalist and the author of the forthcoming book, STOP WAITING FOR PERFECT (BenBella Books, August 2023). She is also a health and wellness reporter at Fortune. Her professional writing is often inspired by her own personal experiences of trying to navigate the world as an ambitious Black millennial woman.

Her personal essays, feature stories, and celebrity interviews have been published in esteemed media outlets such as Bustle, Essence, SELF, Shondaland, People, Publishers Weekly, and Well + Good. Her writing, speaking engagements, and wellness facilitation work pull from her personal struggles with issues such as self-doubt, imposter syndrome, infertility, and postpartum depression to encourage and inspire other Black women to see, trust, and believe in the beauty of who they are as enough even as they strive to become more than that. L’Oreal lives just outside of Chicago with her husband and daughter. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @LTIntheCity. Subscribe to her motivational newsletter and listen to her podcast at ltinthecity.com.

Lisa Snowden is the Editor-in-Chief of Baltimore Beat, a digital and print-based news product based in Baltimore City. At Baltimore Beat, Lisa uses decades of experience as a reporter and in leadership to help re-imagine a new approach to news and storytelling. Previously, she was an editor at Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Sun, and The Real News Network. Her work has appeared in Essence, Washington Post, Baltimore Magazine, and many other publications.