Hilary Levey Friedman, J.D., P.h.D. is an author and attorney, trained as a sociologist with expertise in afterschool activities, beauty pageants, childhood and family socialization, and popular culture. She holds degrees from Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Cambridge, and the Roger Williams University School of Law and she previously taught at Brown University. Currently, Hilary is a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Rhode Island Attorney General, focusing on the juvenile justice system.

In August 2020 Beacon Press released Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America, which uses beauty pageants to trace the arc of American feminism from the 1840s to the present. A paperback version was released on August 24, 2021. Her first book, Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture followed families with elementary school-age children involved in chess, dance, and soccer covering the history of the activities, what they mean to parents and children, and implications for inequality and gender in the educational system. She often speaks to parent groups on this topic.

Dr. Levey Friedman was the President of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women (RI NOW) from 2018-2021 and also a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).