Arianna Huffington, author of 'On Becoming Fearless: ...in Love, Work, and Life' spoke with AOL's Book Maven Bethanne Patrick. Here are excerpts of that interview:

Bethanne Patrick: Arinna, this book is a departure from your other books. This is a book about facing fear for women. You're someone who's run for governor of California; someone who's started her own popular blog/website -- you've done a little bit of everything. What started you on your path to fearlessness?

Arianna Huffington: I must say that my greatest fearless role model was my mother. I'm sitting here at my desk where I have a picture of her because she's my inspiration. She's a woman who was completely self-taught and absolutely fearless about taking on challenges. That started with her being part of the resistance in Greece during the Second World War, and being confronted by German soldiers and being asked if she was hiding any Jews, and although she was, saying, 'No. Put your guns down.' And saying it with such authority that they did. I remember her telling me this story when I was nine years old and thinking 'Oh my God! How could I ever be so fearless?'

Bethanne Patrick: Exactly. It's an incredible story and your mother is such an incredible role model for you and your own daughters.

Arianna Huffington: At the same time she gave her children such a sense of unconditional loving. The greatest gift I believe we can give our children, and which I'm trying to give to my children, is the sense that they can try anything, and knowing that when they do, they aren't going to be loved any less.

Bethanne Patrick: You wrote this book about fearlessness specifically for women. Why did you write it for women? Why not men and women? What form does fear take for women?

Arianna Huffington: Well, it is obviously for men and women. Most of the chapters apply to both sexes: 'Fear of Aging,' 'Fear of Parenting,' 'Fear in Health and Sickness' and in the face of God... But there are a couple of areas that are particularly relevant to women. One is the area of fear about our bodies. Somehow we really feel that we're never good enough: we're never thin enough, we're never beautiful enough. These fears are not just the prerogative of women who are overweight or obese. We see women in perfect shape who feel inadequate about their appearance.

Bethanne Patrick: Well this is a problem for women overall -- and I think you show this very well in the book. Even when we have great beauty or success or love, we often feel inadequate. Why do you think women often feel that inadequacy despite many blessings?

Arianna Huffington: Because I feel that sometimes we have a little voice that we hear constantly that bad-mouths us. It's like living with the most obnoxious roommate who really doesn't like us. It's in a constant state of negative talk. I really wish some major corporation would develop a little tape recorder that we could attach to our brains that would record what we say to ourselves about ourselves. From the moment we get up, we say: 'Oh God, another wrinkle!' Then we put on a pair of jeans and we say, 'I can't zip this up. What happened? Did I put it in the dryer?' It's a constant sense of inadequacy.

And of course, if a relationship goes wrong, how many women blame themselves? I'm stunned by the number of women that I talked to for the book who immediately say to themselves, 'I wasn't good enough. Of course he left me.' So beginning to address those fears is critical for women more than for men. And that's why I wanted to address that, in particular, to women.