Award-Winning Author of Anybody’s Daughter Takes on the Bullying Epidemic

by 12/09/2019

We don’t have to wait for somebody to green light our projects. We can create our own intersections.

Attorney, author and anti-trafficking advocate Pamela Samuels Young has always abided by the philosophy that you create the change you want to see. While growing up in Compton, California, Pamela set giant-sized goals and used her talent, tenacity and positive outlook to accomplish them. She consequently achieved success in both the corporate arena and literary world simultaneously.

For fifteen years, Pamela served as Managing Counsel for Toyota in Southern California, specializing in labor and employment law. While still practicing law, Pamela began moonlighting as a mystery writer because of her desire to see women and people of color depicted in the legal thrillers she read. That required her to rise at 4 a.m. to write before work, after work and any other spare time she could find. Dubbed by one reviewer as “John Grisham with a sister’s twist,” Pamela is now a full-time, award-winning author of more than a dozen books and multiple short stories.

Her newest mystery, Failure to Protect, goes on sale in October 2019. The legal thriller examines the bullying epidemic and its devastating aftermath.

Pamela Samuels Young

Pamela’s thriller Anybody’s Daughter (2013), a gripping tale of a teen unwittingly drawn into the world of child sex trafficking via a Facebook scam, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction and was a Top Ten pick by In the Margins, the best books for at-risk teens. Her legal thriller Abuse of Discretion (2017) tackles a troubling teen sexting case that gives readers a shocking look inside the juvenile justice system. #Anybody’s Daughter (2018) and #Abuse of Discretion (2018) are young adult adaptations of the aforementioned mysteries. Pamela’s other novels include Every Reasonable Doubt (2006), In Firm Pursuit (2007), Murder on the Down Low (2008), Buying Time (2009), Attorney-Client Privilege (2012), and Lawful Deception (2015).

Pamela is a proud natural hair enthusiast and the author of Kinky Coily: A Natural Hair Resource Guide,a book dedicated to empowering women to discover the true beauty of their kinky coils.

Before her legal career at Toyota, Pamela served as Employment Law Counsel for Raytheon Company and spent several years as an associate with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, in Los Angeles. A former journalist, Pamela began her broadcasting career at WXYZ-TV in Detroit and later worked as a news writer and associate producer at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

A graduate of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Pamela has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from USC and a master’s degree in broadcasting from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles chapter of Mystery Writers of America and is a diehard member of Sisters in Crime-L.A., an organization dedicated to the advancement of women mystery writers.

A frequent speaker on the topics of sex trafficking, online safety, fiction writing, and pursuing your passion, Pamela is single and lives in the Los Angeles area. To schedule her for a speaking engagement or book club meeting via speaker phone, Facebook Messenger, Zoom, FaceTime or Skype, email Pamela at [email protected] or contact her via the email form on the Contact page of this website.

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