Gabrielle Douglas Releasing New Memoir
Gabrielle Douglas, the 2-time Olympic gold medalist, is gearing up to release her second memoir in four months.
Douglas, 17, made headlines last year with her historic wins at the 2012 London Olympics that named her the first African-American All-Around Olympic Gold Medalist and the first female to win both all-around and team gold medals at the same global sports festival.
After the release of her book, "Grace, Gold and Glory: My Leap of Faith" last December, publishers Zondervan are announcing that the gymnast will release a follow up memoir titled "Raising the Bar," next month.
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"'Raising the Bar' explores what it's like to be an everyday teen with a not-so-everyday life," Zondervan said in a statement.
Douglas spoke to The Christian Post about the importance of writing her first book: an introductory look into her life as she overcame poverty, racism and surviving in a broken home.
"I would hope that people take away from my legacy, my story or even my book, Grace, Gold and Glory that you can achieve your dreams if you just trust and believe in yourself 100 percent," Douglas told CP.
"I went through hardships, struggles, homelessness and blood disease and all of those things, and I still accomplished my goals. Know that no matter how much money you have, no matter what the color of your skin is, that you still can push 100 percent ... don't ever give up," she added.
Although it has been a few months since she won big in the Olympic Games, the teenager has stayed busy before the release of her new book with appearances at the Democratic National Convention, New York Fashion Week, the MTV Video Awards, on the cover of Time magazine and on special edition boxes of Corn Flakes cereal.
Still, the Christian athlete has made sure to glorify God, who she said has helped her reach her current level of success.
"It was definitely important for me to praise God because he's given me this God-given talent to go out there and represent him and share my faith with everyone," Douglas told CP last year. "I mean I'm not going to hold it in because he's blessed me so much throughout my gymnastics career."
"He's woken me up every single morning and he's just been so great to me, so I'm going to go and share it with everyone because it's a part of me and it's just who I am," she said.
