Caralena Peterson

Caralena Peterson is the author of the upcoming book The Effortless Perfection Myth about the gender issues today’s women run into in college. Chapter topics include self-esteem, confidence, assertiveness, body image, hook-up culture, rape and raunch culture, belonging, and identity. Caralena graduated from Duke University in 2015 with majors in Women’s Studies and Public Policy. She has published articles with Inside Higher Ed, The Week, She Knows Media, Ms. Magazine, Rewire News, Bustle, the National Eating Disorder Association, Garnet News, Women’s E-News, and Elite Daily. She has been invited to speak for audiences including Cornell University, Duke University, and the National Women’s History Museum. Caralena is also a mixed-medium artist whose feminist mixed-medium work has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Life Magazine. When she is not busy with her side hustles, Caralena works full-time as a high school History and Media Literacy teacher at an all-girls school in New Orleans, Louisiana.