Women who
Inspire me
This page is a space where I'll be highlighting women who inspire me deeply, to both promote the simple act of uplifting the women around you, as well as hopefully inspiring YOU, through sharing these women's' stories.
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Rachel Hollis
Entrepreneur, mother, motivational speaker, and author.
^^ image retrieved from msrachelhollis.com (click photo to be directed to the page this was retrieved from!)
To start off this new section of the site, I had to begin with a woman whom I feel this deep connection with, yet I've never met. Her name is Rachel Hollis, and if you haven't heard of her, I'm peer pressuring you to go google her stat. This woman's messages have legitimately changed my outlook on life, how I view my goals and reminded me of my capability to achieve said goals. Rachel has created a multi-million dollar media company: the Hollis Co. ground up. She's written New York Times best-selling books that have changed both my life and so many other women's' across the globe. Rachel's also created both women's', and business conferences that are now traveling outside the U.S. Oh! And she has two majorly successful podcasts centered around growth + development, as well as business advice for entrepreneurs at all stages. (Check out: The Rise Podcast, and "Rise Together" podcast). Y'all. This woman is badass. Rachel preaches reaching for more in a world that' urges us to shrink, to make those around us comfortable. She works to eliminate toxic mom guilt, which has been extremely powerful for me to learn more about, without me even being a mom! It exposes the toxicity and harm that this does for so many women, as well as their daughters, and reiterates my crave to call it out when I see it/hear it, because I do, and I bet $10 you do as well, you just may not be aware that that's what's occurring, due to it being normalized in many environments. Rachel has a powerful voice that's spoken to my soul so deeply and will continue to be a large mentor for me personally, as well as regarding my entrepreneurial goals. I strongly feel that every woman, and man, can take something valuable away from Rachel's words, and her story.
Patrisse Cullors
Activist, artist, organizer, "freedom fighter".
^^ (photo taken by Drew Escriva, found on TeenVogue; click on photo to be directed to the site this was retrieved from!)
Y'all. Y'ALL! I am vibrating with love as I'm typing these words. This afternoon,I came across this bawse-ass, empowering, radiant, justice speaking woman and I cannot wait to dive deeper into her website and read more of her words, and I NEED to share her with you.
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I was browsing blacklivesmatter.com and noticed Patrisse had a video, titled: "What Is the Future of BLM?", and I instantly was drawn to her powerful voice and message. I googled her name, thinking: "where can I find more of this woman?", and came to find out that she is creating SUCH momentum towards a more inclusive, less-violent, KINDER earth, for the Black community. Let's give you the run-down of this powerhouse woman:
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Patrisse Cullors is a performance artist, organizer, activist, and artist from Los Angeles, California. Cullors is a co-founder of the Black lives Matter movement (#BLM), yes that's right, she was one of the brains behind this now globally spread movement (pretty freaking powerful), AND (yes sis, there's more), Patrisse has received NUMEROUS awards for her outstanding work regarding human justice issues.
Let's list these out, shall we?:
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- Sydney Peace Prize winner
- Defender of the Dream Award winner (from the AFL-CIO Executive Council Committee on Civil and Human Rights)
- Revolution Award winner (from the Freedom from Imagenation Cinema Foundation)
- Justice Award winner (from National Center for Lesbian Rights)
- Community Change Agent Award winner (from BLACKGIRLSROCK! Inc.)
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A N D ...
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- Glamor Women of the Year Award (for the Justice Seekers category).
If this brief description of this powerful, world-changing woman isn't firing you up with excitement and passion, you must be reallll tired because HOLY.
I will be linking Patrisse's website at the bottom of this segment, where you can read a more in-depth overview of who Ms. Cullors is, read up on her blog posts, and browse her amazing words + resources she includes on this inspiring, educational page.
I'll also be leaving a link to one of my new favorite sites I've been browsing periodically throughout my weeks, where I was first introduced to Patrisse. This site also holds some important, and informational resources for any of the white ally's, or striving ally's reading this post.
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ALL my love.
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I am always cheering for you.
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Keep. Going.
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The world needs your voice. Use it. Even if it shakes.
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-J
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L I N K S:
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- Patrisse Cullon website: https://patrissecullors.com/
- Black Lives Matter Website: https://blacklivesmatter.com/
Kiran Gandhi
Music producer, drummer, artist, activist, & powerful example + inspiration for us all to dismantle the patriarchy.
(^^ photo retrieved from periodaisle.com - to be directed to their site, click this photo!)
Where do I even begin with this wonderful woman?! She is paving the way for generations to come to fiercely embrace and LOVE their femininity, rather than succumbing to societal standards that tell women which parts of themselves are "okay" to show to the world. I found Kiran while searching for period activists, as that is an area I'm deeply passionate about, and wanted to highlight on this website. I found an article titled: "Here's why I ran the London Marathon on the first day of my period- and chose not to wear a tampon". And when I tell you my jaw dropped, I mean my jaw: dropped. Not because I had a negative reaction to this sentence, quite the opposite. I wanted to squeal with joy. This woman. Ran. A marathon. While: free-bleeding. And I thought to myself: how sad is it that a woman embracing her natural bodily function; allowing it to be seen and embraced, was something so unique for me to read/see. I rarely see acts of total patriarchal-crushing such as this. And it sent me into a sea of: "Woah. How BONKERS is it that 50% of our world experiences the process of menstruation every single month, yet, we've been trained it's something that should be kept in hiding and is an area we must hold a "hush-hush" tone when speaking of?" And in order to do what, exactly? Ponder that. Someone can stand up from their seat at a dinner table, and say the words: "I have to go pee", and no-one flinches. "Okay, see you in a few." would be a common response or a simple nod of the head. Or, when a child (or adult for that matter) skins their knee, and they start bleeding, because that's the body's' natural response to a cut, people put aside any fears or gross-related feelings they have regarding blood + scabs, and help that person find a band-aid, help clean the wound, etc. Someone wants to talk about another natural bodily function, let's say: they stubbed their toe and it kills. We're all in agreement that's the actual worst and have no problem talking about it. Now, let's talk periods. Where's that same energy?
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Kiran Gandhi shared some brilliance in her article for "Independent", sharing her wisdom on period stigma, and her intention behind free-bleeding whilst running the London marathon, so I'm going to let her words speak for themselves, and share a few lines from her article below:
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"As I ran, I thought to myself about how women and men have been socialized to pretend periods don’t exist. Through period-shaming, society prevents us from bonding over an experience that 50 percent of the world's population share monthly.
By making it difficult to speak about, we don’t have language to express period pain in the workplace. Such differences between women and men should be accepted, but they're not. Because it's all kept quiet, women are made to think that they shouldn't complain or talk about their own bodily functions, since no-one can see it happening. And if you can’t see it, it’s probably “not a big deal.” Why is this an important issue? Because "this" is happening, right now, everywhere.
And so I started bleeding freely."
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This woman had the tenacity and courage to stare judgment and stigma in the eyes and say: "Nah. Let's talk about it."
She chose to let a process that the majority of the world shames and hides (with a harsh "out of sight, out of mind" mentality), freely be shown.
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The biggest takeaway I took away from this story isn't that we necessarily need to all free-bleed to end menstruation stigma (unless that's yo thing; I'm not condoning it:), but rather, that, this is a process that shouldn't be shamed, and that we NEED to talk about more. Kiran freely bled to make a statement: she could've easily hidden this, and no-one would've known, but she chose to embrace it, and let it be seen. Just because periods have been trained to be a process that happens in "secret", and are rarely talked about, doesn't mean they aren't happening, that they aren't difficult to deal with, and that they don't affect 50% of the population.
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Your cycle is not a "gross", "inhumane" process. It is a natural bodily function, that is unavoidable.
Why not embrace it?
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Others have no say on which parts of that process are okay to talk about or express to the world.
If you want to talk to someone about your cramps, do it my love.
If you don't, then that's entirely okay too!
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To re-emphasize Kiran's wonderful point:
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"Through period shaming, society prevents us from bonding over an experience that 50% of the world's population share monthly."
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Let's open up that convo, shall we?
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And, while you're at it, go find the queen herself, Kiran Gandhi on Instagram, and read her article that totally rocked my world for the better. (I'll link both below:)
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Kiran Gandi's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/madamegandhi/?utm_source=ig_embed
"Here's why I ran the London Marathon on the first day of my period - and chose not to wear a tampon" article:
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