The Basics

I’m a writer, life coach, speaker, teen advocate, editor, media maker, creative consultant, wife, mother, daughter, sister, runner, wannabe Broadway singer, dog lover, and friend. I live in Seattle, where I probably spend way too much time discussing the weather, eating gelato, and exercising with my friends. Oh, and even though most of my professional credits say I’m “Deborah,” to my friends, and to you, I’m just “Debbie.”

 

The Highlights

• I’ve written more than a dozen books, mostly for teens, and mostly personal growth nonfiction fare. My favorites are Chill: Stress Reducing Techniques for a More Balanced, Peaceful You which was named a 2009 Quick Pick for the Reluctant Reader by the ALA and In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers which was included in the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age, as well as the Amelia Bloomer Project’s List of Recommended Feminist Books for Young Readers in 2008. I also created and edited the first-ever series of teen-authored memoirs, Louder Than Words. For a whole list of my titles, visit my Writing page.
• I completed Martha Beck’s Life Coach Training program in August 2011, and became a Martha Beck Certified Life Coach in November 2011!
• For the past two years, I’ve been named a Champion for Dove’s Movement for Self-Esteem, which invites all women to join in in creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. In 2011, I was featured in Fast Company Magazine’s article “Six Degrees of Inspiration.” In 2010, I was named a Top 25 Amazing Women of the Year by Stiletto Woman Magazine. From the article: “Debbie is an empowered woman because she learned not to make fear-based decisions. She is able to trust her gut, and has essentially reclaimed her story.”
• I love speaking to groups of girls, parents, and mentors alike, and have keynoted luncheons and conferences and led workshops big and small for organizations like Girls Inc., the Girl Scouts, the Jenna Druck Foundation, BodyWise, AllyKatzz, Expanding Your Horizons, Girls Rock, and more.
• I created and maintained the popular blog for teen girls, Smart Girls Know, from spring 2007 until the end of 2011. At SGK, I covered news and information relevant to young women and girls.
• I do editorial and content consulting for a number of different media companies, including: Razorfish, Kaplan, Disney, Workman Publishing, Girl Scouts of America, and McGraw Hill.
• I’m the editor-in-chief of Heart of Gold, a new online destination for teen girls with an interest in entrepreneurism, social activism, and volunteerism.
• I support good organizations doing good work for girls in any way I can. Currently I’m on the Advisory Board for Seattle Girls’ School and the Los Angeles teen mentoring organization, WriteGirl. Girls on the Run is another favorite, and I either act as a coach or running buddy each season.
• I’ve produced a handful of documentaries in my former life, including Seven Days in Somalia, a film about the famine and civil war in Somalia in 1993. This documentary remains one of my proudest pieces of work.

The Whole Story

It’s taken me most of my adult life to figure out how to answer what’s probably the most common question anyone out of college is asked…What do you do?

I used to dread that question. If I stuck to just my “job,” my answer would have been video producer and communications consultant for CARE and UNICEF, manager of special projects for Blue’s Clues, or pitch-taker of shows for Cartoon Network, depending on the year. And though those labels were technically accurate, they didn’t feel completely honest. I saw myself as so much more—an advocate for at-risk teens, a volunteer, a runner, a documentary filmmaker, a published author.

When I traded in my office at Cartoon Network Studios for a terribly uncomfortably green Ikea chair and a “desk-in-a-cabinet” in 2003, I thought all my confusion would clear up. I would be Deborah Reber: Author.

But after a few months on my own, I came to realize my passion wasn’t just writing…it was empowering teen girls and young women, giving them the insights I wish I’d had when I was younger. And I was doing more than just writing—I was speaking at events, creating curriculum for clients like the Girl Scouts, generating content for girl advocacy organizations, and offering workshops for girls on things like stress reduction and career planning. I couldn’t believe I was actually getting paid to create media that inspired girls.

By 2008, I was experiencing some new shifts—with my career, with where I lived (by this point, Seattle)…with my life. My husband and I had started a family, and parenting a young son with some special needs had taken its toll on the both of us. My steady stream of freelance clients had starting to peter out and my last few book proposals hadn’t sold. Everything that once seemed so clear to me was starting to look murky.

Then I got a call from a fellow girl-advocate, Courtney Macavinta, founder of The Respect Institute. She was wondering if I would be a practice client for her as she completed her life coach training. I wasn’t exactly sure what life coaching was, but I knew enough to say hell to the yes! Three months turned into eighteen, and over the course of that year and a half, my life was irreversibly transformed. I learned how to question and rewrite my personal story, how to ask for what I wanted, how to be me with no apologies, and how to show up for life in an authentic, real way.

I also learned that, at my very core, I was a coach. I’d been doing it in some capacity for most of my life, but it soon became clear to me that coaching people was something I was meant to weave into my life as an entrepreneur. So, a year later, I decided to take the plunge.

In January 2011, I began life coach training with Martha Beck, the fabulous self-help author, life coach goddess, and guru of purpose finding. I spent the next eight months formally learning how to coach, filling my toolbox with a plethora of tools to support me in working with clients, and going to the deep end of the pool on my own personal journey to uncover and dissolve the limiting beliefs that were still standing in my way.

In November 2011, I became an official Certified Martha Beck life coach. And, well, that brings us very happily, and very purposefully, to now. So what is now, exactly? Now is Debbie 2.0. Now is me, taking everything I’ve learned over the past twenty years as a writer, producer of media, speaker, advocate, volunteer, and now, coach, and putting it all together. Now I get to expand who I work with and how I work with them. Now I get to design the life I want.

I can’t wait to see where this new chapter takes me. One thing I know for sure? It’s going to be good.

To be in touch, fill out the form below, or follow the links on my Coaching and Speaking pages!