The country is at war. Your boyfriend about to be taken for the draft. Sent far away to an unknown country, Vietnam. A government heedless of protest. I am seventeen years old. Newly arrived at smart Wellesley College. It is 1966, the eve of a convulsive time. Hillary Clinton lives across the hall. Henry Kissinger and John Kenneth Galbraith are teaching at nearby Harvard. I am in a crucible of clever young women, demure, conservative and gently-reared; a tiny and elite minority of girls. Back then a mere 7.4% of women went to university. We are coming of age in a place where birth control for single women is illegal. This is the story of how the Vietnam war, racial strife and the birth of women’s liberation fundamentally changed our lives, leading us to grow into very different women than the ones we were expected to become. "For me, this was a true trip down memory lane. Stephanie's book brought me right back to Davis Hall and those heady days on Wellesley's campus, finding feminism and our political will. A rich and stirring history of a moment when everything was changing for women in higher education." - Hillary Rodham Clinton During the pandemic, I worked with three close friends to record this story, using letters, diaries, and memories. Materials never before published Imagine a country at war. Your boyfriend taken for the draft. Sent far away to an unknown country, Vietnam. A government heedless of protest. Living in a place where birth control for single women is illegal. I am seventeen years old. Newly arrived at smart Wellesley College. It is 1966, the eve of a convulsive time. Hillary Clinton lives across the hall. Henry Kissinger and John Kenneth Galbraith are teaching at Harvard. I am in a crucible of clever young women, demure, conservative and gently reared; a tiny and elite minority of girls. Back then a mere 7.4% of women went to university. This is the story of how the Vietnam war, racial strife and the birth of women's liberation fundamentally changed our lives, leading us to grow into very different women than the ones we were expected to become. The country is at war. Your boyfriend about to be taken for the draft. Sent far away to an unknown country, Vietnam. A government heedless of protest. I am seventeen years old. Newly arrived at smart Wellesley College. It is 1966, the eve of a convulsive time. Hillary Clinton lives across the hall. Henry Kissinger and John Kenneth Galbraith are teaching at nearby Harvard. I am in a crucible of clever young women, demure, conservative and gently-reared; a tiny and elite minority of girls. Back then a mere 7.4% of women went to university. We are coming of age in a place where birth control for single women is illegal. This is the story of how the Vietnam war, racial strife and the birth of women's liberation fundamentally changed our lives, leading us to grow into very different women than the ones we were expected to become. A Canadian, Stephanie grew up moving frequently across Canada, to Germany, England and the United States before studying history at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. In 1970, she moved to London. Since then she has travelled widely, working as a journalist. In 2005 she published a memoir of her Russian grandmother, Olga's Stor y. Married with two children and six grandchildren, she lives in north London.