Little Miss Merit Badge: A Memoir

"I was hooked by the age of 6." So begins the memoir of a girl whose 17-year-old parents dropped ice cubes down her diapers to make her dance, whose bare-chested grandmother gave her singing lessons, whose brother tried to get rid of her with a strategically dropped boulder, and who moved so many times she barely got desk assignments at school, let alone had time to make any friends. The on-going, outrageous dysfunction, and denial in her life was enough to turn anyone into an addict. Nationally recognized university professor and internationally renowned speaker Ronda Beaman confesses her drug of choice was earning Girl Scout badges. Lots of them. And she never quite kicked the habit. LITTLE MISS MERIT BADGE takes readers through oddball adventures Beaman had earning her many badges as she explores the nature of resilience and the accomplishment addiction many young girls develop to compensate for growing up in a challenging environment. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Former Girl Scout, Dr. Ronda Beaman was the first recipient of the National Education Association's "Excellence in the Academy: Art of Teaching" award, as well as mother of USA Today's Most Creative Family, and is a faculty resource for the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) University. A highly regarded speaker, she also directs leadership studies at California Polytechnic University and is Chief Creative Officer at PEAK Learning, Inc. She is a national thought leader for The American Health Network and her work has been featured on major media including USA Today, CBS, NBC and Fox. Dr. Ronda Beaman is available to speak at troop meetings, book clubs and readings, or writing seminars. Find her at LittleMissMeritBadge.com. REVIEWS "...a warm and wise account of what it takes to build a life of merit and then pay it forward." -- Catherine Ryan Hyde, Author of PAY IT FORWARD and 16 other novels "...proves you can have the best of everything, even in the worst of circumstances, if you are willing to work at it." -- Barbara Hannah Grufferman, Author, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING AFTER 50 "...beckons you to look at life and learning in a whole new way and by the end makes you better at both." -- Nanci Bell, M.A., Co-founder of Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes "Funny, poignant and meaningful." -- Jerry Scott, Co-creator, internationally syndicated comic strips "...a journey of resilience, hard work and hope that can reawaken our own exceptional selves." -- Dr. Paul G. Stoltz, Bestselling Author, ADVERSITY QUOTIENT