Linda Kay Klein

Linda Kay Klein is a storyteller, social innovator, and spiritual strongwoman. She is the founder of Break Free Together, a story exchange project committed to helping people release shame and recover from shame-based trauma. Her critically acclaimed book is PURE: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free.

“PURE an important book for this moment in history, as women come to the collective understanding that the institutions we spend our lives serving are not created to serve us.” – Glennon Doyle

Linda is also the the founder and former director of the award-winning Work on Purpose program—a leadership development model that helps people find their purpose and put it into action. Faculty and staff at over 200 colleges, universities and nonprofits have adopted the Work on Purpose model to train emerging leaders.

Linda and her work have been featured in the New York Times, NPR, CBS, NBC, Elle Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vice, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune and more.

She has spoken around the globe. Presentation, workshop and training topics include Break the silence, Break the shame; Claim your body, Claim your story; Women, religion & shame; Stepping stones: Building community one step at a time; Finding and following your purpose; Focused presence; and more.

A woman sitting on the ground wearing jeans and an orange sweater.

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“Linda Kay Klein takes us inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can. She shows us how the system of mind-and-body shaming works within a religious movement so culturally and politically influential that it must be understood by us all.” –Gloria Steinem

“Linda Kay Klein’s PURE is an important book for this moment in history, as women come to the collective understanding that the institutions we spend our lives serving are not created to serve us. Women are canaries in religious coal mines—and PURE emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedom.” —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior

“Linda Kay Klein is the perfect woman for the job, with her personal experience with the subject matter, willingness to critically examine long-held beliefs, and deep empathy for her interview subjects. Every woman–in fact, every person, religious or not–would do well to read this heartbreaking but hopeful book.” Splash Magazine

“An important book from an important new voice.” —Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration

“Eye-opening….compelling….For those who seek spiritual community without gender bias, Klein offers empathy and new choices.”  ―BookPage

“A young woman raised as a conservative Evangelical Christian reflects on her community’s sexual shaming and the psychological scars that it left… Klein’s personal story is fascinating, but it is the larger context that makes the book important… Timely and relevant, particularly in the age of Trump and #MeToo.”Kirkus Reviews

Books, Films & Projects

Clips

Linda Kay Klein at TEDxMileHigh: "Surviving purity culture: How I healed a lifetime of sexual shame."

Linda Kay Klein at Barnard College TEDxWomen.

Linda Kay Klein on Working on Purpose.

Linda Kay Klein with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

News

Introducing the Break Free Together Soundscape–an inspirational audio collaboration between Linda Kay Klein and musician Didier Michel Sylvain. The 15-minute meditation features 12 stories of breaking free from purity culture and the silence and shame it engenders.

Elle Magazine speaks with Linda about what it’s like growing up in the Evangelical Purity Movement. Read the interview.

Mother Jones interviews Linda about her book, PURE. Read “The Evangelical Church’s Sex Shaming Meets a Fiery Reckoning in This New Memoir.”