Lenore Skenazy is co-founder and president of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting independence as a critical part of childhood. Ever since her column “Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone” created a media firestorm, Lenore has been declaring that our kids are smarter and stronger than our culture gives them credit for. She is the author of Free-Range Kids, the book-turned-movement that garnered her the nickname, “America’s Worst Mom.” At Let Grow, Lenore oversees school programs, an online community, and legislative efforts all promoting the idea that when adults step back, kids step up, growing resourceful, resilient -- and ready for the world. Lenore lives in New York City with her husband. Their sons have flown the coop, which is good for “proof of concept” purposes…but she misses them.

Before all this, Skenazy was a reporter and columnist at the New York Daily News and New York Sun. And, bragging here, she also used to write for Mad Magazine. (And Cracked.)