Actress goes viral after setting up a feminist book club on Twitter

14:06 - 18 January 2016

Emma Watson

Feminist, Harry Potter actor and UN ambassador Emma Waston has announced she is starting a feminist book group on Twitter, called ‘Our Shared Shelf’.

She announced this move on Twitter and asked people to suggest names that would fit the club perfectly.

After suggestions including ‘Wats Up Fems’, ‘Watson Your Shelf’ and ‘Hermione’s Army’, Watson announced later on that she “absolutely loved” Twitter user @emilyfabb’s suggestion: ‘Our Shared Shelf’ and foreshadowed further information about the book club was still to come.

So many people have tweeted that they would join the book club including retired American footballer Abby Wambach, actor Sophia Bush and singer Kate Voegele.

Watson, who is a goodwill ambassador for UN Women and figurehead of the gender equality campaign HeforShe, agreed to ask Harry Potter author JK Rowling and singer Taylor Swift to join in.

Watson elected American feminist Gloria Steinem’s latest memoir, My Life on the Road, a collection of the author’s reflections on her life and activism, as the first book the club would be reading.

Watson made headlines when she launched the UN’s HeForShe campaign in 2014, asking men to help women tackle sexism and for increased awareness of the negative impact masculine stereotypes had on men.

“Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong,” she said, in her speech to UN delegates.

However, she is not the first celebrity to launch a book club, actor Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg all have vibrant book clubs.