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Wise beyond her years?

September 28, 2005

BY PAIGE WISER Staff Reporter

Teri Hatcher, the slapstick star of "Desperate Housewives," will write an "inspirational collection of life lessons and advice," to be published next spring.

Hatcher is 40. And was voted "Most Likely to Become a Solid Gold Dancer" in high school.

The book, to be published by Hyperion Books, will probably be a best seller. But still, 40 seems a tender age to start officially telling other people what to do. After all, sisters Sadie and Bessie Delany waited until they were at least 100 to write Having Our Say.

It's a big question: When does a woman become wise?

Forty sounds about right to Aliza Pilar Sherman, author of PowerTools for Women in Business: 10 Ways to Succeed in Life and Work. "I do think fortysomething is a turning point time in women's lives," she says. In her 20s she felt "enthusiastic" and in her 30s, "knowledgeable." At 40, "I finally feel wise."

"Wisdom is knowing what you don't know," Sherman says, "but it is also knowing that what you have experienced to date is valuable knowledge and if you can articulate and share it, others can gain from it."

Debbie Mandel, a stress-management specialist and the author of Turn On Your Inner Light, doesn't believe it's a matter of age. "We all grow at different rates," she says. "The only question is: Do we know that we are wise beyond our years?"

Hatcher seems to have a handle on it, even if her life experiences include playing a singing, dancing mermaid on "The Love Boat" and achieving historically large hair in the '80s.

But sociologist B.J. Gallagher can think of a few other people worthy of book deals. "I think one of the mistakes we often make is assuming that only famous women have wisdom to share," she says. "We give them more credit than they merit, simply because they are celebrities." So Gallagher deliberately chose un-famous women to cite in her book Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Other Women.

They might have to rely word of mouth, though. "When is a woman old enough to share her wisdom?" asks New York author Stephanie Pedersen. "When a publisher is willing to pay for it! Last year I was so sure my life-changing advice would make a best-selling book that, even though I author fashion and beauty books, I pitched a 'how to live and love' book to my agent."

Pedersen is just 37, but feels she's had plenty of life experience, including "the requisite hard-knock childhood."

"Who better than me to help women let go of the past, live in the present and enjoy the same warm fuzzy feeling that I do?"

Um. Teri Hatcher?

Pedersen's agent told her, "Regular women don't get paid for wisdom. Only celebrities get paid to tell women how to live better." Her suggestion: "Why not write a book about shoes instead?"

Pedersen wised up.

Her latest title, Shoes: What Every Woman Should Know, will be out at the end of October.