“All our efforts to guard and guide our children may just get in the way of the one thing they need most from us: to be deeply loved yet left alone so they can try a new skill, new slang, new style, new flip-flops. So they can trip a few times, make mistakes, cross them out, try again, with no one keeping score.”

American essayist, speaker, and presidential historian

Nancy Reid Gibbs is an American essayist, speaker, and presidential historian. She is known for writing and speaking on American public life, with a particular focus on the presidency. Her work combines essay writing with public commentary and historical analysis. As a presidential historian, she studies the office and its place in American history, and her writing often reflects that interest in politics and leadership.