Misfit: A Survival Guide

The ultimate guide to recognizing untapped potential by celebrating imperfection. Learn to take the path less travelled with direction from misfit guides like Tony Hawk, Mark Mothersbaugh, Michelle "Estrojen" Steilen, Shepard Fairey, and many more.

Introduction by Tony Hawk.

"You're weird." "Sorry." "No, that was a compliment." --Donnie Darko

When the whole world appears designed to make you just fit in, Misfit urges you to listen to your oddball self and seek out an original path.

Will it be easy? Predictable? Understood and supported by the masses? No.

But will it be dynamic, full of wild expression, and fill you with a joyful sense of discovery? Yes.

Sean Mortimer--a celebrated writer who started as a skateboarder alongside Tony Hawk--collaborates with internationally acclaimed misfits whose unconventional heat has warped how the world perceives music, sports and art. These iconic nonconformists did not start out as the celebrated renegades we see today. Each pushed through the initial pain and isolation of social rejection, overcoming self-doubt with erratic experimentation to reach a destination overflowing with conviction, gratitude, and their own version of success.

Steering readers through the subcultures of alternative music and sports, Dungeons & Dragons, "illegal" art and other disenfranchised movements, Misfit shows how deep drive, relentless innovation and unregulated creativity are the survival skills of misfit life. Detailing stories of awkward childhoods, teenage angst and unconventional adulthood from game changing outcasts, Mortimer demonstrates how the will to break rules, fight blind obedience, and reject "normal" ultimately sparks a curiosity that leads to a new form of confidence and a thriving, open-minded approach to life.

Author: Sean Mortimer
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.40h x 6.50w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780593726679

About the Author
Sean Mortimer books include HAWK: Occupation: Skateboarder (coauthored with Tony Hawk), and The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself (coauthored with Rodney Mullen). In a previous life, he was a sponsored skateboarder and editor of SkateBoarder magazine, and he has written about outcast lifestyles for the LA Times. He lives in Southern California with his wife and sons.