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“Why not you?” ask authors Mina Yoo and Hilary Meyerson in their new book, Be an InventHer: An Everywoman’s Guide to Creating the Next Big Thing (Sasquatch, October 22, $19.95), a manual for women eager to transform their creative ideas into marketplace reality. Yoo and Meyerson met when Meyerson, an outdoor gearhead (and regular Seattle magazine contributor), discovered the Heroclip, which happened to be Yoo’s invention and the item that launched her innovative gear brand. Yoo and Meyerson talk about why they teamed up to write this book.

What led the two of you to create this entrepreneurial road map for women?
H.M.: We believe women are naturally creative and crafty, and use these attributes in so many “traditionally female” outlets—we want to see them use their skills to create products that solve problems and build a business for themselves as well.
M.Y.: I wanted to produce a book that is written by someone who is right in the thick of things, going through [what] we talk about in the book, struggling and striving to make it big.
Is there an experience that was your inspiration to empower women in their professional lives?
M.Y.: Women are still not treated equally as men in the start-up world or the corporate world. Women juggle more than any human should; we just have more problem-solving ideas to make things more manageable. We wanted to do our part in bringing those ideas to life.
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
H.M.: One of the questions we pose in the book is “Why not you?” I think women suffer from imposter syndrome too much and constantly sell themselves short. I hope women will read this and say, “Hey, all these other women did it. I can do it, too.”

Note: Interview has been edited for clarity.