Back to What Matters
In my work, I explore how mattering unlocks purpose, connection, and joy at home, work, and in the wider world.
✶ Announcing My Next Book ✶
Mattering in the Modern World:
A Solution for the Crises of Our Time
Loneliness, anxiety, burnout, and polarization are some of the biggest challenges of our time. A solution to these crises is rooted in mattering —the deep, universal human need we all have to feel valued and to add value to our lives and others. After our most basic survival instincts for food and shelter, it is the instinct to matter that drives human behavior, for better or for worse. Research shows that individuals with high levels of mattering thrive, while those with low levels suffer.
With skyrocketing levels of mental health struggles, disconnection in our relationships, and disengagement at work, understanding mattering and the critical role it plays in our lives is more urgent than ever.
In Mattering in the Modern World: A Solution to the Crises of Our Time, I present in-depth research about the power of mattering, share transformational stories from across the globe, and offer a practical and life-changing framework that every reader can use to unlock mattering in themselves and others at home, work, and in their communities.
(Forthcoming by Penguin Random House)
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Amazon Best Book of the Year | A Next Big Idea Club selection
“A pathbreaking introduction to one of the most powerful ways to protect our children’s mental health: mattering.” —Psychologist Lisa Damour, bestselling author of Untangled
In Never Enough, award-winning reporter Jennifer Wallace investigates the deep roots of toxic achievement culture, and finds out what we must do to fight back. Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and an original survey of over 6,000 parents, she exposes how the pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked into our larger society and spurred by increasing income inequality and dwindling opportunities.
About Jennifer
Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and author of the instant New York Times bestselling book Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It. Her second book Mattering in the Modern World: A Solution to the Crises of our Time is based on five years of research and an original global mattering survey.
After graduating Harvard College, Wallace worked as a producer at CBS “60 Minutes," where she was part of the team that won The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and frequently appears on national television programs to discuss her work.
“Your life becomes meaningful when you know the value you can bring to others. And the more you are able to add value to others, the more meaningful your life becomes.”
–Jennifer Wallace, Never Enough