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‘Babe’ is a four-letter word for a reason. It’s loaded with the baggage of Wayne’s World-esque exclamations  and evokes Amy Dunne’s scathing take-down of the misogynistic fantasy of ‘the cool girl.’ It makes me cringe and initially set me up to dislike the Badass Babe Workbook, which was sent to me to review. You know what they say about not judging a book by its cover? It turns out you shouldn’t necessarily be turned off by a title, either.

“This empowering art book highlights the accomplishments and messages of more than 100 badass babes and includes prompts, art activities and writing exercises that will encourage you to unearth, fuel and cultivate your own inner superpowers, unleash your imagination, and find your voice.”

That’s what it says on the back of Julie van Grol‘s 176-page book, and to be honest, it’s a lot more compelling than the title.

That blurb is actually right on. Badass Babe Workbook is about connecting to your creative side through the lens of feminism, inspired by feminist icons — and not just the usual suspects, either. I finished Patrisse Cullors’ When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir earlier this summer, so her inclusion made me cheer. Coco Chanel, on the other hand, collaborated with Nazis, so that one’s a little bit less ‘rah-rah, let’s go girls.’ (Others, like Leslie Feinberg or Pema Chödrön, might react the same way to ‘babe’ as I do.)

Aside from the bookends of introduction/conclusion, there’s five sections. ‘Self-Care, Creativity and Our Stories,’ ‘Steps to Empowerment,’ ‘Redefining “Feminine”,’ ‘Expanding What We See As Possible’ and ‘More Tales of Badassery.’ It’s a gender studies textbook (van Grol is an educator, according to her author’s bio) crossed with an activity book. The illustrations, also by the author, keep things friendly and light. Van Grol also includes art coaching sections to help break down any resistance on the part of a reader who might shy away from the workbook aspect due to self-consciousness.

This is a book to be taken lightly and to cherry-pick the positive (though that feels a little white-feminist-y) because I genuinely believe that someone might get something empowering out of it. If they ignore that damn title.