Amanda MacKenzie Benchley '83

Her shoes, her story.

How do authentic learning experiences that happen in childhood lay the groundwork for the intentional and thoughtful career decisions one makes in adulthood?

For Amanda Benchley '83, the first hint of her future career path began during her formative years at The Peck School in Morristown, NJ.

And at the time, she had no idea that she would eventually become an author: a creator, a teller of stories, and a documentor of communities and tradition. “I remember when children’s author Jill Krementz came to visit us at Peck,” Benchley recalled. “She was really inspiring and a great role model.” And thus, a seed was planted.

A talented athlete in field hockey, basketball, and tennis, it was this author’s visit during a school book fair that left an indelible mark that manifests in her work today in the literary and publishing world. “Growing up, the only professions I knew of were doctor, lawyer, or Wall Street,” she said. “I wasn’t exposed to any other professions other than maybe teacher. To have that exposure at book fairs gave me a little taste.”

After Peck, Benchley went on to study at Kent Place School in Summit and Princeton University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art and archaeology. Upon graduation, Benchley took an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had a taste of what working in a museum and the arts world was like.

But her nagging curiosity about publishing caused her to take a role at Random House.

“It was the best first job you could have,” she said. “Unlike working in a museum, this was all about overcoming shyness and picking up the phone and pitching authors and escorting famous people around on their book tours.”

Benchley had the opportunity to meet the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Anne Rice. While accompanying an author to promote a cookbook in 1994 on a new cable channel called The Food Network, Benchley realized she would rather work on the production side of publishing instead of the publicity side.

Following a move to London, an art history course through Christie’s, and a return to the MET with a role in the publicity department, Benchley finally began to explore her talents as an original creator.

She began to work on documentary films for A&E, the History Channel, and the Smithsonian. In fact, several videos she produced on the American Presidents are still shown at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. today. Many years and two children later, Benchley attended Columbia Journalism School to master the art of writing. “It was something I always wanted to do,” she said.

It was from here that her first published book was born. "Artists Living With Art" is an inside look at the art that some of the most famous living artists, such as Cindy Sherman, Chuck Close, and John Kerne, have in their own homes.

Coming off the success of that book, Benchley is now co-authoring a new collection of stories with friend and actress Bridget Moynahan. "Our Shoes, Our Selves" is 40 stories of 40 women and 40 pairs of shoes.

As Benchley explains, “Bridget and I wrote the first chapter about how one day she was out shopping and she bought tough motorcycle boots. Years later, cleaning out her closet, she stumbled upon those same boots. Despite the fact that she’s now 45, has a child, and isn’t likely to ever wear those boots again, something was preventing her from throwing them away.”

“Then I thought about the shoes in my closet,” Benchley said. “This book is about using the shoes as a vehicle for story telling. If they are significant, they are so for a reason.”

The publisher notes that: The stories explore what most women already know: that what we wear can have power and significance beyond merely clothing our bodies. The book chronicles these remarkable journeys, and the literal and figurative steps these women have taken to get there, with the hopes of encouraging all women to forge their own paths. The book includes stories from women both famous and not, including three senators, Katie Couric, and Misty Copeland.

Benchley said a big part of her need for collaboration today comes from the sense of community and tradition she learned while a student at The Peck School. “I like, value, and need collaboration, either with a writing partner, a photographer, or with a publisher,” she said. “I love meetings and spitballing ideas with other people, and I love producing a final product—be it a book or a video—as a team.”

"Our Shoes, Our Selves" is scheduled for release on April 9, 2019 and is currently available for pre-order online.