– Start the fire. Shannon Watts is best known as the woman who tackled gun violence. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 20 children, Watts started Moms Demand Action.
More than a decade later, Watts is still passionate about gun safety—but she’s widening her remit as well. Last month, she published her new book Fired Up. She wants to help other women “come alive” the way she did when in rapid succession she left behind corporate communications, her first marriage, and stay-at-home motherhood to start what became the largest women-led nonprofit in the U.S. “I was in a career I didn’t love and when I started Moms Demand Action, it felt very much like alchemy, like magic,” she remembers. “I watched thousands of other women have the same experience. What I realized was, we transformed the issue of gun safety … but the issue also transformed us.”
