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Jemele Hill is a  beast at what she does, and now she’s finally releasing her highly-anticipated book called UPHILL: A MEMOIR. The Emmy Award winning journalist is also the co-founder of Lodge Freeway Media and a contributing writer for The Atlantic, but her biggest claim to fame arrived in the form of distress. During her time as an ESPN host, Hill took to Twitter to call President Trump and his political allies “white supremacists,” which resulted in suspension and eventually departure from the company altogether.

Now, she turns that adversity into a positive, inspiring young females all around the world to speak their truth and never be afraid to stand for what you believe in. On Friday, October 21st, Hill hosted her book release party at 1010 Wine and Events in Inglewood, California, as friends, family, and select media conjoined to congratulate her on this milestone in her career.

Sheen was present, asking Jemele about her new book and advice for other women who are facing obstacles in their own lives.

Talk about what it means to be here and if there’s one one thing you want people to take away from your book, what would it be?

This is a really exhilarating moment. I’ve always dreamed about being an author. Now to be totally honest, I didn’t expect to write a memoir first. I really wanted to write fiction. And I still will write fiction, let me say that. But any time that you can get a book published, it’s a big deal. I hope that when people read it, they not only understand a little bit more about me and my story, but if there was any advice I really really want people to understand is that while the people that you love are here, make sure you ask them as much about their life as possible. Especially, we all got parents right? Ask your parents what were their hopes? What were their dreams? Before you even came long, who did they imagine themselves to be? Even ask them about some of the big failures in their lives, because it helps you understand them as full people and not just as your parents. 

Obviously you’ve been through trials and tribulations. If you had advice for women out there who are struggling, having a hard time, what would that be?

You have to approach healing as if you’re doing it for yourself. You can’t approach healing like you’re doing it for another person. You’re waiting for forgiveness from somebody else, so you’re waiting for somebody else to release you from whatever pain that you’re feeling. You have to be able to release yourself and the way that you can do that, is by being honest about what your feelings are. Living in them for a moment, sitting in them, and being okay with that.