Joe Kelly

About Joe Kelly

Joe Kelly is a father, best-selling author, blogger, activist, and primary media source on fathering, appearing on the Today Show, Talk of the Nation, Fox News, as well as in Time, People, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Parenting, and dozens of other outlets. He has written for Parents and Mothering, and blogs for www.DadsandDaughters.com and Deepak Chopra's IntentBlog.com.

Kelly speaks and teaches across North America on fathering, media and marketing’s impact on families, successful strategies for raising girls and boys, and how professionals can mobilize fathers as allies in their work.

His best-seller, Dads and Daughters: How to Inspire, Understand and Support Your Daughter has been called “an essential aid for the fathers of adolescent girls.” Kelly won Father of the Year Awards from iParenting.com and the Women’s Sports Foundation. He belongs to the Center for Family Policy and Practice, the Men’s Task Force of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Save Title IX Task Force, and serves on the board of the national Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Minnesota Fathers & Families Network, and is a consultant for the Men's Resource Center for Change, American Psychological Association Task Force on Sexualization of Girls, Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day, and other nonprofit organisations.

Here are my most recent posts

Do You Know Her Best Friends

October 11, 2010 by Joe Kelly Leave a Comment

How well do we know--and how much do we know about--our daughters' best friends? The answer to that question seems like a pretty good barometer of where our father-daughter relationship stands. I always seemed to know my daughters’ best friends fairly well. When Nia was 19, I asked her why she thought that was so. "Well," she said, "you're friends with … [Read more...] about Do You Know Her Best Friends

Why Teen Magazines Might be Bad for Your Daughter?

April 8, 2009 by Joe Kelly Leave a Comment

Back when you and I were kids, girls read Seventeen magazine hoping to learn how to look and good get a date. Today, even with cable and the internet, young girls still turn to Seventeen, Cosmo Girl and Teen Vogue (and their websites) with the same hopes. Girls today have many more life opportunities than they did a generation ago, so why are their most widely-read … [Read more...] about Why Teen Magazines Might be Bad for Your Daughter?

The Big (Capital “T”) Talk

March 1, 2009 by Joe Kelly Leave a Comment

I happen to be an alcoholic and, thankfully, I got sober before my daughters were born. As of today, they’ve never seen me drink. I used to think that, because I didn’t drink, I hadn’t modeled for my kids an example of responsible alcohol use. I felt I hadn’t said enough to my daughters about alcohol; that maybe I should have a big “T” Talk on the subject. I never had that … [Read more...] about The Big (Capital “T”) Talk

Why Aren’t There More Groups for Fathers?

January 5, 2009 by Joe Kelly Leave a Comment

A lot of dads have to be doing something else before we feel ready to start talking to each other about our kids. A jog, a card game, a yard project, a round of golf, or any number of other “guy” activities can serve as safe places for us to jump in, or at least stick our toes in to test the water. For others of us, a more formal, organized setting dedicated specifically to … [Read more...] about Why Aren’t There More Groups for Fathers?

Listen, Listen, and Listen Some More

January 5, 2009 by Joe Kelly Leave a Comment

Girls tend to be a riddle to fathers and stepfathers. Like any mystery, the relationship with our daughter can be frightening, exciting, entertaining, baffling, enlightening or leave us completely in the dark; sometimes all at once. If we want to unravel this mystery, we have to pay attention and listen, even in the most ordinary moments.Why? Because a girl’s voice may be … [Read more...] about Listen, Listen, and Listen Some More