From recruiting talent at Google and Uber to writing “Reclaim,” Heather Henderson brings an insider’s perspective to the fight for presence and choice. 

Before Heather Henderson became an author writing about technology and attention, she spent years working inside the world helping shape our digital future. 

Her career took her from higher education to some of the biggest names in corporate America and Big Tech. Along the way, Henderson began noticing something increasingly difficult to ignore: people were more connected than ever, yet distraction, exhaustion and disconnection seemed to be growing alongside that connection. 

Today, those observations sit at the center of her new book, “Reclaim: How to Stop Scrolling Through Your Life and Start Living It.” 

Henderson’s journey did not begin in Silicon Valley. A first-generation college graduate who grew up on a college campus, she started her career as an academic advisor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She later moved into recruiting and spent more than a decade recruiting talent for Visa, Accenture, Google, and Uber, including engineers involved in creating many of the digital products people use every day. 

It was a career that gave her access to an unusual perspective. 

Henderson understood the people behind the technology, but she was also living with that technology herself. 

The collision became personal. 

In “Reclaim,” she describes a pattern of pushing herself through demanding roles and repeatedly reaching a point of exhaustion. What appeared from the outside to be ambition and professional commitment increasingly felt unsustainable from the inside. Staying connected longer, checking another message and carrying work into evenings gradually became normal. 

Eventually, Henderson began looking more closely at the relationship between technology, achievement and attention. 

She had already encountered the familiar solutions. Turn off notifications. Create better habits. Put the phone somewhere else. Yet she discovered that knowing what to do did not necessarily explain why she kept reaching for the device. 

That realization became crucial to her work. 

Henderson began asking a different question: What are people actually looking for when they reach for their phones? 

The answer, she argues, is often more complicated than entertainment. Technology can offer stimulation, escape, validation, relief and connection. Understanding the need underneath the behavior can therefore be more useful than simply criticizing the behavior itself. 

Her media work now centers on helping audiences recognize those patterns without treating themselves as the problem. As Henderson puts it in her talking points, people have been adapting to technology designed to shape them. Her message encourages audiences to replace shame with awareness and awareness with choice. 

That approach also explains why Henderson is not positioning herself as anti-tech. 

It would be an unlikely stance for someone whose professional life has been so deeply intertwined with the technology industry. Instead, she advocates for a healthier relationship with digital tools, one in which technology occupies an intentional place rather than quietly becoming the architecture of everyday life. 

Her work is also shaped by years spent supporting students and emerging professionals. Henderson has seen how ambition can coexist with distraction, exhaustion and a feeling that one must always be available, productive and visible. 

Now, through writing and speaking engagements at universities, conferences and organizations across North America, she is bringing those observations to a broader audience. 

Perhaps the most revealing thing about Henderson’s work is that she does not promise perfect digital habits. 

“Reclaim” instead argues for something more human: noticing, choosing and returning. 

Returning to a conversation. 

Returning to quiet. 

Returning to the work that matters. 

Returning to a life that does not need to be documented before it can be meaningful. 

For Henderson, reclaiming attention is not ultimately about becoming better at managing a phone. It is about becoming more deliberate about how we live. 

And after years spent on both sides of the screen, she is asking readers to consider whether the life they are building is one they consciously chose. 

Learn more about Heather Henderson and “Reclaim” at www.iamheatherh.com  

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