Double-Edged

Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose by Jennifer Breheney Wallace
Penguin Random House, January 27, 2026

“Mattering is double-edged – powerful when we feel it and destructive when we don’t.” In the classroom as in other spaces where we live and learn, human thriving depends not just on what we can know, accomplish, and achieve, but on how we understand our impact on and relationship to others. In an era of increasing disconnect, Jennifer Breheney Wallace’s Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose argues for an urgent rediscovery of our “Mattering Core” – of how we are needed as well as what we need. While not explicitly directed at educators, the book’s message resonates with questions facing students (and teachers!) on a daily basis: Where can I contribute? What is my purpose? Wallace’s 2023 book, Never Enough, counseled parents and others about the dangers of an increasingly pressured academic journey and proposed mattering as one way forward. This new work extends and deepens that conclusion through interviews and research illustrating how feeling that we are valued by others can serve as a “protective shield.” Even as Wallace expands her focus across life stages and contexts, her stories about shaping resilience through trust, building deeper relationships, and attunement to the needs of others serve as provocations and invitations that matter deeply for the way we teach and learn.