On the surface, former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern’s memoir is a conventional autobiography – beginning with her childhood in an economically downtrodden town in the rural Bay of Plenty region, and tracing her breakneck rise through national politics to become the world’s youngest female head of government at just 37. We now know she also fell pregnant shortly before assuming office.

As history shows, Ardern faced two of the biggest sociopolitical challenges in New Zealand’s modern history: the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. And while she handled both with intelligence, grace and leadership, it must be said she emerged at a time when global leadership comparisons worked in her favour.

Ardern had her daughter while in office and raised her in the public eye. Her memoir shares many inspiring stories about the struggles millions of mothers face—running from the parliamentary chamber in Wellington’s Beehive building to express milk, feed her daughter, or hand her over to her endlessly saintly partner, Clarke.

A Different Kind of Power expresses the doubts, fears, hopes, and impostor syndrome she grappled with. Would voters and colleagues take her seriously at such a young age? Could she be both an effective mother and a competent leader without sacrificing one for the other?

Even though Ardern never lost sight of why she entered politics, her confidence, self-belief, and hopes for real change wavered daily—sometimes hourly. As she reminds us more than once: politicians are human.

Is Ardern a feminist icon? Perhaps – but with a self-deprecating humour characteristic of Aussies and Kiwis (and often misunderstood by Americans and Europeans), it’s a label she’d likely reject.

But when we ask why the media obsesses over a female politician’s appearance while sparing male counterparts the same scrutiny, we’re already answering the question. Her gender shouldn’t matter.

What matters is that, despite being caught up (inevitably) in the mire of party politics and legislation, Ardern claims she mostly conducted herself in pursuit of the idea that gives the book its title.

She closes by addressing anyone with political aspirations: channel your doubt and fear into a hunger for better information. Worry that you’re too sensitive? That just means you’ll lead with more empathy. The qualities you once thought would hold you back may become your greatest strengths. That, she says, is how to embody a different kind of power.

Reviewed by Drew Turney