#WCW Feminist Profile: Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler is absolutely one of my favorite human beings on the planet. She is not only hilarious, but kind, genuine, talented, empathetic, and one heck of an activist. Plus, she created and brought to life one of my all-time FAVORITE fictional characters, Leslie Knope. Amy is an incredible writer and one of the most hilarious comedians of all time. She is also the creator of Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls, an organization dedicated to helping young people cultivate their authentic selves. They emphasize intelligence and imagination over “fitting in.” [Visit their website here]

Amy is an ultra-successful writer and actress; she's been nominated for three Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, two Golden Globe Awards, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. She is also an activist in women’s issues and serves as Ambassador for the Worldwide Orphans Foundation. “On screen and off, Amy believes in empowering women and girls everywhere. Her dedication to helping young women has gained her numerous accolades, including Glamour’s Woman of the Year. Through her digital series Smart Girls at the Party, Amy continues to acknowledge and support girls who are ‘changing the world by being themselves.’” 

As a woman working in government, Leslie Knope is one of my biggest heroes. As a woman, Amy Poehler is one of my biggest heroes. She is feminist AF and stands up for what she believes in, and dedicates her time to making her community, and the world, a better place. She’s written a wonderful autobiography, called Yes, Please! and has given (me) some of the best advice I’ve ever read. Amy Poehler is essentially my life coach (unbeknownst to her). So I thought I'd share some of her best advice with you, in this differently-styled Feminist Profile. Picking my top favorite pieces of advice was really difficult, but I managed to narrow it down to 15… you’re welcome! ;)

1. “Anybody who doesn’t make you feel good, kick them to the curb. And the earlier you start in your life, the better.”

She’s so right on target here. Sometimes we put up with awful things from people for various reasons. Maybe its lack of confidence or respect for ourselves, maybe it’s because we feel we owe that person for some reason, or maybe it’s because we don’t know how to stand up for ourselves. Whatever it is, follow Amy’s advice and give it up now. You deserve SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. You deserve to be happy and you don’t need ANYONE in your life that makes you feel belittled, insignificant, ugly, stupid, sad, angry, etc. They aren’t worth it, and the people who are would never make you feel that way!

2. “No one looks stupid when they’re having fun.”

I love this. I’m not the type of person who embarrasses easily. In fact, I’m more likely to embarrass you for being seen with me. I love to goof off and have fun and some people just can’t handle that. Sure, there’s a time and a place, but the list of places you shouldn’t goof off is pretty small compared to the list of places you should. There was a brief moment in my life when I started really caring about what people thought and it was awful! I never had as much fun! I know a lot of people are afraid to let go because they don’t want to look stupid or embarrass themselves, but I say, who cares!? Embrace it! The fun you’ll have will be well worth it in the end, trust me.

3. “Continue to share your heart with people even if it’s been broken.”

Smart lady. This was something I’ve definitely struggled with in the past. It’s a natural reaction; when we get hurt, all of our walls go up as our heart tirelessly prevents itself from having to endure that pain again. It’s a defense mechanism that’s really sophisticated and efficient and great at what it does. Learning how to lower your guard, to break down those walls and let people in again is truly difficult. But it’s absolutely vital. And totally worth the hard work it takes to get there again.

4. “Rooting for other people’s failure does get in the way of your success.”

Classy, classy woman. We should always be uplifting each other instead of dragging people down. There’s enough of that going on in the world, we don’t need to be doing it to each other too. I’m a firm believer that what you put out into the world always comes back to you.

5. “You can’t do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, and spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. No one is here today because they did it on their own.”

Sometimes you want to go at it alone because you feel like if you ask for help, you lose a little of the reward. It might feel like you don’t deserve the product if you had help with the development or maybe you might feel like you don’t want to share credit with anyone else because IT’S YOUR BABY and you’ve put your heart and a lot of hard work into it. I know I’ve felt that way before. But asking for help doesn’t mean any of these things. In fact, success is rarely accomplished by doing things alone. Ask for help, take other peoples’ opinions and ideas into consideration and create something beautiful and amazing together!

6. “Taking risks and making choices is what makes life so exciting.”

I used to be such a free spirit; I never thought that taking risks would be something I’d EVER struggle with. But when you get burned badly, when you break into thousands of pieces and you spend so many awful days trying to put yourself back together, you most often end up overcompensating by playing it safe. As mentioned before, those walls come up to prevent anymore heartache, but more often than not, they actually deprive us of truly experiencing happiness. Sure, we may feel safe when we don’t take risks, but like every cheesy Lifetime movie says, life isn’t about playing it safe. When we have something to lose, only then do we experience life at its fullest.

7. “Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it…doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that—that is what life is.”

BE BRAVE. When something scares me, I make myself do it (within reason). Obviously some things are incredibly dangerous and possibly detrimental to your health/job/life, and in those circumstances do not ignore your gut feelings! But with everything else, try things you wouldn’t normally try, eat things you wouldn’t normally eat, experience something you’ve been strangely interested in, but too afraid to do your whole life! Be uncomfortable, be afraid, but just do it!

8. “I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled.”

If Amy is anything, she’s real. I love how empowering she is for women. I feel like she’s that one friend who’s always your cheerleader, no matter what. With everything she’s accomplished, she’s really pushing the envelope in a male dominated field. AND I LOVE THAT ABOUT HER. She practically IS feminism.

9. “Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don’t know about. Limit your always and your nevers.”

Pretty good advice if you ask me! Keeping an open mind allows us to continually grow and challenge ourselves. And before casting an opinion or making up our mind about something, we should learn about it first.

10. “The earlier you learn that you should focus on what you have and not obsess about what you don’t have, the happier you will be.”

When does Amy NOT look happy? The answer is NEVER. She’s someone that you can totally trust taking advice on happiness from. Most of us would agree with her here if we were asked, but sometimes we lose sight of these simple but true principles. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the world. We work so hard to obtain what we want out of life that we sometimes forget to actually live it. Take a step back, re-evaluate yourself, your priorities, your plans, and make sure that what you’re doing is going to make you happy while reaching your goals. We can’t bank on living life once we’ve achieved them; we have to live it in the moment. We have to be in the present while looking forward to the future and not forgetting the past. We have to find happiness with what we have and who we are at that very moment.

11. “There’s power in looking silly and not caring that you do.”

This, I LOVE. Forget everyone else. Live your life the way you feel is best and don’t worry about what others think. If you’re happy, block everyone else out. And if you can’t help but be worried about them, just remember, confidence is the key. People won’t question you if you don’t let them.

12. “Sometimes painful things teach us lessons that we didn’t think we needed to know.”

It’s all about perspective. We don’t have to like the painful things in life, but we can accept them for shaping us into the people we are and will be. It’s important to learn to look on the bright side of things. And if that doesn’t work, then let’s look at the funny side of things.

13. “It’s just about honoring the fact that, yeah, I should be writing, producing, directing. I should be believing that the world is mine to have.”

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. Self confidence is the key that unlocks your true potential. Once you have that belief, you are strong, powerful, and the world is yours for the taking.

14. “When you do talk about yourself or to yourself and you have that tape running in your head about yourself, try to picture you are talking to your own daughter or your younger sister, because you would tell your younger sister or your daughter that she is beautiful and you wouldn’t be lying, because she is. And so are you.”

We need to treat ourselves better, that’s for sure. We are our biggest critics and sometimes our worst enemy. We cannot truly be happy until we love ourselves.

15. “You deserve love and you’ll get it.”

And last but not least, be patient and believe that good things will come your way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to sit idly by like a damsel in distress waiting for your Prince Charming to come rescue you from the Evil Queen, because let’s get one thing straight, we don’t need a man to save us, we can do it ourselves. But life requires a certain amount of patience. Go after what you want and don’t settle for anything less. You deserve it. And you’ll get it.

Empowered Women EMPOWER Women!

In mainstream feminism we talk about “empowering women” in a pretty generic way. We see the slogan “Empowered Women Empower Women!” on t-shirts, pins, buttons, posters at rallies, etc., but what does it really mean? And how do we actually DO it??

The United Nations Population Fund states that “the empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status is a highly important end in itself. In addition, it is essential for the achievement of sustainable development…Achieving change requires policy and program actions that will improve women's access to secure livelihoods and economic resources, alleviate their extreme responsibilities with regard to housework, remove legal impediments to their participation in public life, and raise social awareness through effective programs of education and mass communication.”

Before we get too far, because I feel like in order to have successful and informed dialogue, we need to be operating on the same definitions of key terms. Empowerment, in this article, will refer to: the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. Autonomy refers to: self-government or self-direction; being autonomous is acting on motives, reasons, or values that are one's own; freedom from external control or influence; independence. I believe the UN hits its right on the nail here, though without drawing serious attention to it: Empowerment comes from autonomy. 

Though I don’t think there is any one definition of an ‘empowered woman’, I think that there are many characteristics of empowered women that I have observed, whether in myself or in others. Empowered women feel free and motivated to make decisions about themselves and their lives without conforming [or perhaps in spite of] the demands of society; empowered women are conscious of the societal and cultural constraints that are placed upon them and actively fight to break these barriers down, to make choices on their own volition, and adhere to their own moral code of conduct. I think being an ‘empowered woman’ in a processes, and perhaps fluid in nature; I think even the most ‘empowered woman’ can sometimes let her ‘empowerment’ be stripped from her, can experience their empowerment falter based on experiences or circumstances they face, or even lose sight of our own power.

As empowered women, I think we have a moral charge to help empower other women. We have unique experiences, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, from others; these unique experiences provide us specific, additional, and stronger insight and understanding into the lives of other women. In the histories of the world, the empowerment of women has almost solely been provided or nurtured from/by other women. Power has almost never been given to women freely, rather something they have had to fight for, sometimes (many, many times) to the death, with countless women sacrificing themselves for their cause. Historically speaking, power, including personal power, societal, political, and legal, has been taken back by women, not given freely by the patriarchal domain. [That has included men that have fought alongside our sisters in the cause, but make no mistake that women have the amount of power (which is still unequal power) that they have because THEY have FOUGHT for it, DEMANDED it, and NOT GIVEN UP until they have received it.]

I raise up my voice – not so I can shout, but so those without a voice can be heard… We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.
– Malala Yousafzai

I feel like we’ve talked about the first question pretty well; I think we understand what it means to be an empowered woman. Now let’s get to the goods. HOW do we empower women??

1. Education

The U.N. stated that “education is one of the most important means of empowering women with the knowledge, skills and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development process”. Girls and women need opportunities for education and skill building. As a woman in STEM, this is very important to me. Girls’ interests or capabilities many times go unnurtured in fields of science, technology, math, and engineering. Studies show that the biggest time for girls’ interests to be supported in these areas is middle school. After school programs, summer camps, and social-educational groups can be a huge advantage to girls and help them to keep and pursue their interests in STEM. Beyond STEM programs, girls and women need to be encouraged to seek education, and supported in their educational efforts (not just by scholarship and/or child care assistance, but also with opportunities).

2. Mentorship

Perhaps one of the greatest things we can do as women is to mentor other women. This is HUGE for helping to advance women in all areas of work and volunteering. As I’ve stated before, women hold very unique experiences, and it’s vital to the success of other women, that we mentor and teach each other. Mentorship has shown to be so statistically significant when it comes to women's success at work, that it boggles my mind that there isn’t more push or efforts to do so. Women need to stand together and help each other.

3. Being Vulnerable and Transparent

Women have an innate tendency to compare ourselves to each other. I believe this is something that has been socially bred into us, but despite what the causes are, we know that it is a behavior women engage in more than men. (Innumerous psychological and sociological studies have been devoted to understanding this very phenomena) Being transparent and willing to be vulnerable about our experiences is crucial to empowering other women. Our experiences are tremendously powerful. We can harness this power and use to inspire the women around us; that kind of inspiration and power will spread like wildfire.

4. Encouragement

We need to be reliable support systems to each other. Our relationships with other women can be monumental in helping to shape our own empowerment, our own confidence, and our own self-love. Be a woman who stands up for other women, who encourages them to be strong, resilient, and make their dreams come true. Positivity is perhaps the strongest weapon against the dark perils of the world. Make sure you’re encouraging those around you, and you will also build yourself in the process.

5. Listen

Maybe this is one of the most important ones, I don’t know…I keep thinking that as I write each one of these! WE NEED TO LISTEN TO OTHER WOMEN. Women have been silenced, talked over, and ignored for so long, that people (including women) just accept it as part of everyday life, as a part of culture. THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY. It is absolutely IMPERATIVE that we listen, truly LISTEN, to each other. Speaking up or talking about certain things takes loads of courage and bravery; when women do have that courage to tell you about their experiences, you should actively listen to them. And RESPECT them. We’ve just gone through yet another horrible example in politics about when we silence women or ignore their experiences. LISTEN. BELIEVE WOMEN. BELIEVE SURVIVORS.

6. Help to Break Barriers

Intersectional feminism focuses on how all of us have a myriad of experiences and backgrounds and aspects of ourselves that come together to create the whole person of who we are. Whether that’s our race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, or our physical/mental/emotional health, we have many things that combined together to make us who we are. We first have to understand that all these intersect, and then we need to acknowledge our privilege, wherever it may be. Next, we need to think about these intersectionalities when listening or helping others, and ACTIVELY work to help the women around us break through these barriers.

7. Invest in Women

Time to put our money/resources/power where our mouth is. We need to INVEST in women, whether that’s financially (supporting women-owned/women-lead businesses, donating to scholarship funds for women, etc.), emotionally (supporting each other by being confidants, ears to listen, shoulders to cry on), with our time (mentorship, teaching, helping), with our contacts and resources, and especially with our own power (utilizing our power/privilege/platform to hand the mic over other women of different backgrounds to share their experiences and needs). We need to invest in each other!

8. SUPPORT

Much of what I’ve talked about above has been related to support. But it’s so important, I’m giving it its own section. When we support each other, we create powerful bonds of alliance, friendship, and respect. There are many ways we can show our support for other women, and many of them include all the numbers above, but also include things like showing up at marches, rallies, and town halls, participating in activism, wearing a certain color to support a certain cause, etc. We can make the effort to stand up for women, wherever we may be, in whatever ways we can. We can offer our talents, our means, and our resources to helping those women around us become confident, educated, successful women!

#WCW Feminist Profile: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is a psychology researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine and a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University. She has worked on Stanford University School of Medicine Collaborative Clinical Psychology Program and specializes in statistical modeling.

As an undergrad, she received her Bachelor’s degree in Experimental Psychology from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, her Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University, and her PhD in Educational Psychology from University of Southern California; her 1995 dissertation was entitled Measuring Young Children's Coping Responses to Interpersonal Conflict. She also earned an additional master's degree in Epidemiology, with a focus on the subject of Biostatistics, from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ford began teaching at Stanford University in 1988, and also currently at Palo Alto University, in which she participates in educational programs with the Stanford University School of Medicine as a member of a consortium group with Palo Alto University. She teaches courses in psychometrics, research methodology, and statistics. Additionally, Dr. Ford has consulted for several pharmaceutical companies, worked as the director of biostatistics at Corcept Therapeutics, and collaborated with FDA statisticians.

Ford is an expert within her field, and widely published in a vast array of topics.

Helena Chmura Kraemer, a Stanford professor emeritus in biostatistics who has co-authored a book and several articles with Dr. Ford, states that Ford "specializes in designing statistical models for research projects in order to make sure they come to accurate conclusions". She has written numerous academic/peer reviewed articles published in academic journals on topics such as depression, child abuse, and trauma. In 2015 she co-authored a book titled How Many Subjects? Statistical Power Analysis in Research. Additionally, in 2016 she published her research in the academic journal Behavior Therapy, which explores the social impact of hiding one’s sexual orientation. Psychologist William Gibson from the American Psychological Association stated that Dr. Ford’s research "demonstrates that issues of identity have relevance to mental health outcomes in ways that much of previous work misses”.

Dr. Ford is a subject matter expert in trauma. She is an accomplished and successful Psychologist, researcher, and professor. Amongst these amazing and noteworthy accomplishments, Dr. Ford is a wife and a mother to two sons. 

She is also a survivor of sexual assault.

I will not go into Dr. Ford’s story too much because she tells it herself in her compelling, heart-wrenching testimony at Judge Kavanaugh’s Senate hearing. But I will go into the events leading up to the hearing and the subsequent after effects of the Confirmation Vote.

In early July, 2018, Dr. Ford wrote to her representative, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, after seeing Judge Kavanaugh’s name on President Trump’s shortlist of nominees for Supreme Court Justice. In her letter, Dr. Ford detailed her experiences with Judge Kavanaugh as a teen, that he had sexually assaulted her at a party in high school, and asked to be kept anonymous, adamantly expressing her worry that her identity would become public. She stated that she was “terrified”. And for good reason, which we’ll talk about later. Congresswoman Eshoo found Ford’s account to be credible, and met with Dr. Ford, after which, they decided to take the issue to Senator Dianne Feinstein, their Californian Senator and ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was due to deliberate Kavanaugh nomination. Dr. Ford’s letter to Senator Feinstein accounted her sexual assault by Judge Kavanaugh when both of them were still in high school in Maryland. She then asked her story be confidential.

The next month, in August, Dr. Ford took a polygraph administered by a former FBI agent, who found her statement and accounts to be truthful. On September 13, in order to protect Dr. Ford’s identity, Senator Feinstein sent the letter Ford had written her to the FBI, who redacted Ford’s name, and sent the letter to the White House as an update to Kavanaugh’s background check. The White House, in turn, sent the letter to each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On September 16, because the media circus had begun to identify Dr. Ford as the accuser, Dr. Ford made her identity public. Dr. Ford then testified at Judge Kavanaugh's hearing, where she recounted the events and subsequent impact those events have had and continue to have on her life. She was strong. She was brave. She was courageous. And even though it took everything out of her, even though she faced mountainous ridicule and hateful vitriol from GOP and many of the Republican Senators and party members (who called her a liar, a political pawn in the Democrats arsenal to take over), SHE SPOKE HER TRUTH. She stood up, she spoke out, and she PUT HERSELF OUT THERE. She did so because she believed it was her “civic duty” to say something; she could not live with herself knowing what kind of person he truly is and not say anything, given the importance of the lifetime appointment as a Justice in the Supreme Court.

I am so grateful for Dr. Ford for being willing, and courageous, and brave enough to share her story, a story that so many, innumerous, women share. Dr. Ford is a hero. She has not wavered, even after the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HARSHLY, DISGUSTINGLY, AND DISTASTEFULLY MOCKED HER ON NATIONAL TELEVISION, IN FRONT OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. She has not wavered under the accusatory and malicious attacks from media and talking heads and Republican Senators. She has not wavered after receiving death threats to her and her family, who STILL cannot return home because of the intensity and extent to which those threats were made.

She has not wavered, even though the man that she knows, in 100% certainty because it is burned into her brain (AND SHE KNEW HIM BEFORE THE ASSAULT), sexually assaulted her at a party in high school when she was fifteen and he was seventeen.

SHE. HAS. NOT. WAVERED.

Dr. Ford’s resiliency has inspired thousands of women to speak up about their experiences (and several other women who have similar experiences with Kavanaugh), to speak their truths, to stand up to their assaulters, to take control of their narrative and fight back.

Dr. Ford has given hope to so many survivors and has demonstrated that survivors are not alone. Dr. Ford is a feminist icon because she has, inadvertently, ushered in a new wave of resistance fighters.

WE BELIEVE YOU. WE STAND WITH YOU.

WOMEN WILL NOT FORGET. 

The Importance of Rallies, Marches, Walkouts, Sit-Ins, and Other Non-Violent Protests

"Non-violent resistance (NVR) is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political non-cooperation, Satyagraha, or other methods, while being nonviolent. This type of action highlights the desires of an individual or group that feels that something needs to change to improve the current condition. It is largely but wrongly taken as synonymous with civil resistance. Each of these terms—nonviolent resistance and civil resistance—has different connotations and commitments.” 

“Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine the adversary's sources of power, both domestic and international. Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, and the creation of parallel institutions of government. The phenomenon of civil resistance is often associated with the advancement of democracy.”

Perhaps some of the greatest examples of nonviolent resistance and civil resistance have been at the hands of leaders and people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Nelson Mandela, Alice Paul, Rosa Parks, amongst many, many others. From the Freedom Riders, to the Marchers at Salem, to the #NeverAgain and #EnoughisEnough protests (Marjory Stoneman Douglas student activists), we have seen great political and societal change from these nonviolent forms of demonstration.

Let’s take a quick look at some historical NVR’s:

Exhibit A:
1848-1920: Unites States: Women’s Suffrage was a political movement that spanned over a century, where women protested in order to receive the right to suffrage, or the legal right to vote, in the United States. This movement emerged from the broader movement of women’s rights; in 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention (the first women’s rights convention) passed a resolution in favor of women’s suffrage. It was a long battle, and included many marches and much protest, but eventually, in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, giving women the right to vote.

Exhibit B:
1823-1829: Ireland: One of the first mass-membership political movements of Europe, the Catholic Association was founded by Daniel O'Connell to use non-violent means to push the British government to pass Catholic emancipation, which culminated in the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 by the government of the Duke of Wellington

Exhibit C:
1819: England: Peterloo Massacre: Famine and chronic unemployment, coupled with the lack of suffrage in northern England, led to a peaceful demonstration of 60,000–80,000 persons, including women and children. The demonstration was organized and rehearsed, with a "prohibition of all weapons of offence or defense" and exhortations to come "armed with no other weapon but that of a self-approving conscience". Cavalry charged into the crowd, with sabers drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured.

Exhibit D:
1955-1968: United States: The Civil Rights Movement included tactics of nonviolent resistance, such as bus boycotts, Freedom Rides, sit-ins, marches, and mass demonstrations, were used during the Civil Rights Movement. This movement succeeded in bringing about legislative change, making separate seats, drinking fountains, and schools for African Americans illegal, and obtaining full Voting Rights and open housing. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of "the Beloved Community" was inspired by his leading Christians in nonviolent resistance.

Exhibit E:
1968: Worldwide: The protests that raged throughout 1968 were for the most part student-led. Worldwide, campuses became the front-line battle grounds for social change. While opposition to the Vietnam War dominated the protests, students also protested for civil liberties, against racism, for feminism, and the beginnings of the Ecology movement can be traced to the protests against nuclear and biological weapons during this year. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that “nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” I’ve been thinking a lot about the innumerable wise words of Dr. King. Coretta Scott King, an author, activist, and civil rights leader (and wife of Dr. King) stated that “nonviolence is the only credible response to the violence we’re seeing around the world.” Many people question what the purpose of walk-outs, sit-ins, and protests are, saying that they don’t actually do anything. I would whole-heartedly disagree. I think there is great power in the collective, in unifying people under a cause, and standing with each other and supporting one another.

The example I often give when responding to the question “do you think that just wearing a specific color assigned to your protest day and showing up for a rally/march really matters?” is that of breast cancer awareness. Wearing a pink ribbon or pink clothing during Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a pretty standard and accepted social display of support. No one ever thinks twice about it. I’ve never seen anyone complain or riot about people walking for breast cancer awareness, raising funds for victims and survivors, or posting pictures on social media wearing pink for #breastcancerawareness. 

BUT WHEN IT COMES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT, THEY ALL COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK.

I cannot even comprehend the amount of backlash I saw and received for wearing black in support of Dr. Ford and ALL sexual assault survivors on our day of protest last week. I mean, literally, so many people blasted me on Facebook. I was truly dumbfounded and appalled. It rocked me, to my core. What was the difference? You have a victim, who took a polygraph test about her assault and showed ZERO signs of lying, who KNEW her assulter before she was assaulted by him, and spoke out about it when this person was being interviewed for a lifetime appointment to the highest COURT in the USA. And when millions of people want to stand up and stand with her and victims like her, wear black to unify together and draw attention to the issue, people really want to degrade all these women, say horrible things about them, disregard their democratic showing of protest and make them feel like trash?? Really?? 

So much of what I’ve seen and read these last couple weeks makes me sick. I am disgusted, appalled, outraged, and disheartened by the last of empathy and understanding and support of victims and survivors. But I (we) cannot let this stop us from using our voices, from standing up for our beliefs, from supporting each other because we fear the repercussions of doing so. THIS IS NOT FOR NOTHING. THIS IS NOT IN VAIN. What we’re doing is IMPORTANT. IT MATTERS. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. Even if that difference doesn’t come about quickly or visually, it matters to the millions of people who’ve experienced sexual assault, to know that WE BELIEVE THEM, that we support them and stand with them and will fight for them.

People make the mistake of thinking that the only goal of protests and nonviolent resistance is to reform law and change practices. While this is a main goal, of course, it is not the ONLY goal. We stand, we sit, we march, we chant, FOR THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THESE TRAUMAS. 

THIS IS NOT FOR NOTHING. 

THIS IS NOT IN VAIN. 

THIS MATTERS.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.

THIS DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

To All My Activists & SJW: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. #SELFCARE

Social Justice Warriors get a lot of flak out there. Many people see the “Social Justice Warrior” as a product of liberal-arts-school-brainwashing. You name it, I’ve heard it. Not just from older individuals, but even peers who don’t identify with what ‘social justice warriors’ typically identify with politically. As an activist, both in the government and non-profit sectors, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of this. People diminish the work you do, usually with hostility in my experience, because they don’t understand it or because they don’t want to. This post isn’t for them. This post is for all my sisters and brothers out there fighting for equality and justice and social/political reform.
Recent times have been trying, to say the least. The last two years have felt like Groundhog Day in a torture chamber. [This is not a post about Trump. Frankly, I cannot possibly summon the amount of emotional stamina to post about him right now.] This is a post for all those people with boots on the ground, who are part of grassroots activism, who volunteer, who attend rallies and marches and other forms of nonviolent protests, who strive to make a difference within your own circle. This is for all my social justice warriors out there who do so much work, who give so much of themselves every day, and never get any acknowledgement.

Here’s the thing. The last two weeks have been very difficult, for many of us. Most of the women I know, and including myself, have experience with sexual harassment and sexual assault. This issue is extremely close to home. As activists, we utilize our experiences and the experiences of those around us as fuel to power ourselves, our machines. Our experiences are like coal, burning in our hearts, boiling in our guts, producing steam that runs through our bloodstreams to power our generator and create energy. Being an activists requires accessing and using our emotional experiences on a daily basis, which can be an extremely daunting task, especially during these times of heightened duress.

And the past couple weeks have been just that. Heinous. In my speaking out in support of Dr. Ford and against Judge Kavanaugh, I have been on the receiving end of much vitriol and virulence. As an outspoken activist, this is a burden, an awful side effect, of what I do. Knowing this, and willingly taking it on, does not make it any easier. At the start of all this, I was full of righteous indignation at the mistreatment of Dr. Ford. But wave after wave of disgusting comments, news segments, and social media posts...my fire was beginning to burn out. This issue is so close to home, that it felt as if everything that being said to/towards/about Dr. Ford was also being said about me, also being said about women that I know and love.

This experience was extremely damaging. Again, as an activist, I am used to these feelings of sadness, disheartenment, of seeing inequality and injustice, and experiencing immense sympathy and empathy; I am used to channeling these feelings into action, into fire and steam and energy. But this time was different. This time was reminiscent of November 8th, 2016. This time felt like a new rock bottom, even though we thought we were already there.

My sadness and anger at the injustice and mistreatment of a victim of sexual assault morphed; I began feeling depressed. I began to feel resentful of the people that I know, who’d expressed beliefs and thoughts about this situation that I didn’t agree with. I began to feel hopeless. That’s a word I do not use frequently. Disheartened, baffled, appalled, angry, outraged, definitely. But hopeless…hopeless is not a word I use on the reg, nor do I use it lightly. Hopeless resembles parts of my life when I dealt with depression, when I dealt with life-altering experiences and the darkness of being sucked into a metaphorical black hole.

And after seeing the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA MOCK A VICTIM OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN FRONT OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE [thousands of which laughed and cheered in the background] MADE ME FEEL HOPELESS. It also made me feel so disgusted at humanity that I couldn’t eat. I was nauseous. I was beyond hurt- I was obliterated. 

The past couple days I have felt nothing but hopeless.

As a person who deals with anxiety on a daily basis, I could feel my anxiety pumping at a higher frequency. My hands were shaking for days on end. My chest felt fluttery, my blood like a live-wire under my skin. I was so anxious, and so depressed, and so utterly heartbroken, that I just powered off. I couldn’t deal with it anymore. For three nights in a row, after work I just went home and did nothing, because I couldn’t do anything. I felt hollow. I couldn’t stop feeling like at any moment I would implode. The feeling and level of anxiety that I normally felt right before a panic attack was constant. I couldn’t sleep. Those of you with anxiety or sleeping disorders know that feeling well. I went to work, at a job that I love and at which I feel fulfilled every day, and felt like crying the whole time. And I did at times. I cried in private moments of despair and grief, for not just past experiences, and just for what Dr. Ford was going through, but for what all survivors have gone through, for the world that we live in, and knowledge of the world we could live in.

I watched Tina Fey’s “sheetcaking” sketch on SNL’s Weekend Update many times. I read posts of others feeling the same way, I talked with friends and coworkers feeling the same things, but still felt empty inside. On an off-chance, a random thought that occurred to me in a deep hour of despair last night, I tweeted one of my favorite activists, Sophia Bush, and asked her what she does as an activist to stay positive and keep fighting. I know she must get a lot of tweets, so I didn’t expect anything in return. Maybe another social justice warrior, another activist would see it and respond with their tips and tricks to staying in the game when you feel like you have nothing left to give. To my utter surprise/relief/joy, she responded this morning. What she said was this: 

It was such a good reminder for me, it something I definitely needed to hear. TAKE A DAY OFF. In my past studies in psychology, they used the old adage “you can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.” Self-care is so important, and it’s vital to understand what self-care your body and soul needs, because none of us are the same!

Dr. Barbara Markway states, in an article titled “Seven Types of Self-Care Activities for Coping with Stress,” that “when we’re stressed, self-care is often the first thing to go. Why is this?

1. Our brains go into fight-or-flight mode and our perspective narrows. We don’t see we have options—options for coping with stress and making ourselves feel better.

2. We’re so busy trying to solve problems that we’re stuck in “doing mode”—trying to get more and more done—when switching to “being mode” may be just the break we need.

3. We may not have a “go to” list of self-care activities. Self-care has to become a habit, so that when we’re dealing with stress, we remember that, “Hey, I need to take care of myself in this situation.” And, you need a variety of activities to try—if one doesn’t work, you can switch to another.

Fortunately, there are several pathways to self-care, and none of them need be difficult or take a lot of planning:

SENSORY

When you feel stressed and need a calm mind, try focusing on the sensations around you—sights, smells, sounds, tastes, touch… This will help you focus on the present moment, giving you a break from your worries.

Breathe in fresh air.

Snuggle under a cozy blanket.

Listen to running water.

Sit outdoors by a fire-pit, watching the flames and listening to the night sounds.

Take a hot shower or a warm bath.

Get a massage.

Cuddle with a pet.

Pay attention to your breathing.

Burn a scented candle.

Wiggle your bare feet in overgrown grass.

Stare up at the sky.

Lie down where the afternoon sun streams in a window.

Listen to music.

PLEASURE

A great way to take care of yourself when you’re coping with stress is to engage in a pleasurable activity. Try one of these ideas.

Take yourself out to eat.

Be a tourist in your own city.

Garden.

Watch a movie.

Make art. Do a craft project.

Journal.

Walk your dogs.

Go for a photo walk.

MENTAL/MASTERY

You can also give yourself a boost by doing a task that you’ve been avoiding or challenging your brain in a novel way.

Clean out a junk drawer or a closet.

Take action (one small step) on something you’ve been avoiding.

Try a new activity.

Drive to a new place.

Make a list.

Immerse yourself in a crossword puzzle.

Do a word search.

Read something on a topic you wouldn’t normally.

SPIRITUAL

Getting in touch with your values—what really matters—is a sure way to cope with stress and foster a calm mind. Activities that people define as spiritual are very personal. Here are a few ideas:

Attend church.

Read poetry or inspiring quotes.

Light a candle.

Meditate.

Write in a journal.

Spend time in nature.

Pray.

List five things you’re grateful for.

EMOTIONAL

Dealing with our emotions can be challenging when we’re coping with stress. We tend to label emotions as “good” or “bad,” but this isn’t helpful. Instead:

Accept your feelings. They’re all ok. Really.

Write your feelings down. Here’s a list of feeling words.

Cry when you need to.

Laugh when you can. (Try laughter yoga.)

Practice self-compassion.

PHYSICAL

Coping with stress by engaging the body is great because you can bypass a lot of unhelpful mental chatter. It’s hard to feel stressed when you’re doing one of these self-care activites:

Try yoga.

Go for a walk or a run.

Dance.

Stretch.

Go for a bike ride.

Don’t skip sleep to get things done.

Take a nap.

SOCIAL

Connecting with others is an important part of self-care. This can mean activities such as:

Go on a lunch date with a good friend.

Calling a friend on the phone.

Participating in a book club.

Joining a support group.

It can also mean remembering that others go through similar experiences and difficulties as we do. We’re not alone. Simply acknowledging that we’re all part of this human experience can lessen isolation and lead to a calm mind. That’s the best self-care strategy I know.”

So please, take of yourselves! I’m working on taking care of myself too! And making self-care a true part of my daily routine!

“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”

-Eleanor Brown

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shyness-is-nice/201403/seven-types-self-care-activities-coping-stress

#WCW Feminist Profile: Sophia Bush

Sophia Bush is a Feminist Icon. But I have a little bit of truth to tell you first before I get into it, which I'm not proud of. The last year has been VERY difficult for me. For someone who is very loud and proud about feminism and social change, the November 2016 Presidential Election results knocked the wind out of me. I was more than disheartened...I was heart broken. You see, I'd been very actively working in my community with Non-Profit Organizations and State agencies to advocate for women's rights and fight for justice and change. It seemed as if we were on a forward propellant, climbing up and up...I could see our bright new future, it was on the horizon, but I could see it. 

I could see a world where women and girls were given equal opportunities and equal access to education and funding and pay equity. I could see a world where women and girls held 50% of the jobs in STEM fields, where they were 50% CEO's, leaders, lawmakers, judges, politicians. A world I could be proud of to show my nieces that whatever they dreamt of being, (a vet, a scientist, an artist, a ballerina, a mom, whatever they wanted!) they could grasp, as long as they did their part. A world where they felt safe at school, where they were treated with respect, where I didn't have to fear for them walking home. A world where bullies and sexual assault and violence against women had decreased to such an extent, that it was like talking about the Dark Ages in history class. I dreamed of that world. I knew we could become that world. And then suddenly...it was gone. The horizon now held only blackness.

I'm not proud that it took me a while to shake it off.  I'm not proud that at many times during the next several months, I thought, "Why even try." I'm not proud that I considered, truly considered, giving up the fight. 

But I am proud that I had the guts, the tenacity, the willpower, to get back up and keep fighting. And I did that, because of this amazing person, Ms. Sophia Bush, and her incredible strength. I watched interview after interview of her talking about feminism and social change. I followed her IG and Twitter accounts religiously, because it was the daily ((if not, hourly)) pep talk I needed to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep picking myself up defeat-after-political-defeat. [If you don't follow her on social media, stop reading this right now and DO IT!! They're both linked above] 

She has positively impacted me so greatly, that I wanted to share it with all of you, in case you also need the Sophia-Bush-Empowerment-Magic-Pep-Talks! Here are some of my favorites since election day: (Newest to Oldest)

1. "L.A., I love you. For your fight, your heart, your diversity, your tolerance. The food vendors, community organizers, legal teams, day laborers, storytellers, artists, chefs, farm workers, creatives, and more. The fabric of our community is colorful and fantastic. It was an honor to march with you, my neighbors, today. It was a thrill to speak before you. And I am endlessly inspired by the ways that you show up, stand up, and speak up. You are truly a City of Angels." -IG


2. "Speak your truth. Even when your voice shakes." -IG

3. "That’s the tremendous value of friends, right? People who can come into your sacred spaces, be it your home, your heart, your psyche, and help you see what’s in there in new ways. I’m so grateful ladies." -IG

4. "ALL HANDS ON DECK PEOPLE. Call and leave comments before the end of the day on the Trump administration's proposed rollback of contraceptive coverage for the ACA. This script will get you started! Birth control is HEALTHCARE. It’s a basic right for women who want to go to school, have careers, have families, and be able to PLAN those families. Do not let this archaic patriarchal moron strip you of your rights to control your own life. BURN UP THE PHONE LINES! 🔥🔥🔥 " -IG

5. "Here's to the fierce females. The choir getting louder every day. Anyone who has ever felt silenced, who now knows they can roar. Here's to each of you." -IG

6. "Thought & Prayers. Policy & Change. We demand action. Your pattern of offering lifeless condolences with no follow-through will not be tolerated any longer. You work for us. You are not keeping us safe. We can vote you out. Soon. Stop insulting us by hiding your profiteering behind religious words. It's ugly and painfully obvious. Sincerely, A Gun Owner Who WANTS Sensible Gun Laws + Every Other American Who Is Sick of the Slaughter." -IG

7. "sleep is not coming. anger is the gnawing, nauseating pang that keeps you up past 3am.
screaming is what your insides do when you give them just enough space to breathe.
fury moved in a long time ago and set its roots. joy still exists. make no mistake. they are not mutually exclusive. it is hard won, and worth fighting for. but if you mistake my joy, other women's joy, to mean there is an absence of pain? we will burn you to the ground when we open our mouths to share our rage. you are not entitled to more pieces of us than we are ready to share. be very careful what you wish for, when it comes to information.
you just might get it. and once you've seen, you can never unsee. sometimes we withhold to protect your eyes." -IG

8. "It's shocking to see how many men are shocked. That women they know, perhaps even EVERY woman they know, has been sexually harassed. Sexually assaulted. This problem reaches farther than Harvey. Or Donald. (Both of whom, by the way, I hope get their due.) We live in a country where 1 in 4 women is assaulted or raped by the time she leaves college. And those numbers come from what gets reported. Estimates put the true stats at 1 in 2. Half of all women. By the age of 22. And if you scoff at that reality, you are part of the problem. If you are feeling a little uneasy, wondering if your behavior is part of the problem? It is. I promise you. If you're a woman who has been manipulated or bullied into feeling like her assault was her fault? It was not. There is no excuse for the behavior of abusers. And so many abusers are adept at psychological and emotionally abuse, thus masterful manipulators. 

And if you're one of those men that I know? One of those men whose palms are sweating reading this? Wondering if your names are about to be exposed because of what you've done? How you've abused. How you've twisted. How you've lied. Good. Sweat. Be afraid. Welcome to our world. And watch your backs. We have looked over our shoulders in fear, every day and night, for long enough. Your turn. To you abusers and the ones who stood by and stayed silent? Consider this your notice. From me and from women everywhere. We are roaring, alright. #MeToo #WomenWhoRoar" -IG

9. "Did you know, on this #InternationalDayOfTheGirl, that 130 million girls worldwide are not in school? That's 130 MILLION potential doctors, coders, researchers, designers, future leaders. Stripped of their potential. That has to change. And it can. From @onecampaign:  We know (Girls) + (Education) = Unstoppable. Let’s make sure world leaders know that ALL #GirlsCount" -IG

10. "Some of you have come at me on social media recently, telling me that I deserve to die. That I'm a disgrace to America. That I should get shot and stop complaining. All because I am heartbroken and really, really f-ing angry about America's gun problem. I've had people tell me to give up my body guards. Guess what? I don't have any. Tell me that if I'd ever shot a gun in real life I'd feel differently. Guess what? I've been a sharp shooter since the age of 12, own my fair share of guns, & love nothing more than an afternoon at the range. Especially with the SWAT team and/or the servicemen & women I've visited on USO tours. I've had people tell me that I live in a "celebrity/coastal/libtarded bubble" & have no clue what real people go through. That my outrage is just band wagon jumping. Guess what? My cousin's 9 year old was murdered in a mass shooting. In Arizona. No coastal bubble in sight to save her. So STOP. If you're more outraged that I'd say "f- you" to a President & GOP masquerading as leaders, than you are that they're pushing laws to make silencers readily available (because they're getting NRA $$) the same week of a mass shooting? Well then you & I have different priorities. And that's fine. But on my end? I'm angry that the NRA wants to sell more crap that we don't need so they can make money. I'm angry that they're claiming it's about ear protection. Newsflash it's not. That's what cans are for. I'm angry that money is valued more than human life in this country. I'd happily go through more rigorous background checks, wait longer to get a gun, or give my guns BACK, if it meant we could work toward stopping this madness. Saying it doesn't work that way just ISN'T real. Data doesn't lie. Every country that's enacted some form of gun control has ended massacres. And for the "dangerous criminals who don't abide by laws?" That's what our police & military are for. And they don't think any of us need auto/semi-auto weapons or silencers either. So the next time you tell one of your fellow Americans to die/get raped/leave the country because she doesn't like that leaders value kickbacks over children's lives? Look in a mirror. Long & hard." -IG

11. "Donald Embarrassment-to-us-all Trump called an American citizen exercising his right to free speech, who is peacefully protesting violence + racism, a "son of a bitch." Trump called a group of NAZIS chanting racial slurs who murdered an American citizen "very fine people." Let that sink in. I'm damn proud to count myself as a son of a bitch by those standards." -IG

12. "Dear Senators who are willing to kill 35 million Americans to offer tax cuts to the super rich and get kickbacks from corporations who stand to profit off of your constituents dying? Shame on you. Where do you all think you came from? Pregnant women. Who will NO LONGER BE COVERED IF GRAHAM CASSIDY PASSES. Us. THAT'S WHERE. Though given your current disregard for the lives of human beings you're sworn to serve, perhaps you all crawled from the bellies of beasts.

And to the Senators taking the GOP bribe of YOUR states keeping the Affordable Care Act while others are stripped of its coverage? (Yeah Murkowski, I'm looking at you. Hard.) Shame shame shame on you. The richest nation on EARTH should be better than this. Too bad all we seem to have is money. Nothing "caring" about this." -IG

13. "If your house is burning, so is mine. If your liberty is threatened, so is mine. Your fight is my fight. Our fight. We stand with you and we will fight to #DefendDACA.
Sincerely, Me + Americans who know what, and who, makes this country great." -IG

14. "I'm tremendously grateful to have friends who are disrupting the world for good, prioritizing quality culture, and shining lights on the incredible women in their workforce. Not to mention proving that doing good is also good for business."- IG

15. "Silence is violence. Silence is encouragement. So hit the streets. Make some noise. Be safe. Hug your neighbors and let them know you've got their backs. Love people by showing up for them. That's what we are here for." -IG

16. "You are not alone. Humans, we are in this together. All of us. Injustice thrust upon any group is injustice thrust upon us all. Defend the brothers and sisters in your communities. Step up for the marginalized. They will step up for you when this monstrous "leader" inevitably threatens your existence and attempts to take away your rights. It's coming. In the same way that he lied when he held a pride flag and stumbled through the LGBTQ acronym to say he would defend our fellow man, he will lie to your face and eviscerate you behind barely closed doors to prove that he won and he can do whatever he wants. We are here to tell him that we will not abide by his cruelty and betrayal. We have to stand united in the face of this." -IG

17. "I've watched so many people kick off #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth with astonishing and beautiful vulnerability. That takes so much courage. And it got me thinking about how each of them has shared that while they may look like they have it all figured out to people peering in from the outside, they don't. No one does. Remember that whatever you perceive -- or are just "certain" about -- when you look at another person is quite simply a projection of yourself. You literally have no idea what anyone is going through, or experiencing. So meet people with love rather than judgement. Meet them in ways that allow them to expand, rather than causing them to contract. Nothing else matters." -IG

18. "That's the kind of thing that makes my soul cry out in a way it only does when it comes face to face with deeply universal truths. The kind that encourage human tenderness. Yes. There is only your way. You will learn the hard way. You will make mistakes. You will have great love. You will experience tragic loss. People will give you advice and it will, sometimes, be taken but it will not save you from the good or the bad. You will live in your own way and you don't need to apologize for ANY of it. There is only your way. There is only your heart beating in your chest. Serve it first. Do so with kindness and consideration for the world around you, obviously. But dammit. Own your own way. Grip it in your first and hold it tight. Be true." -IG

19. "The Resistance is WORKING. Making noise works. Giving a s- works. Demanding that people be held accountable and treat others with some gd decency and respect WORKS. Keep it up y'all. Keep changing the game. And don't let them forget that we are watching. We both expect AND deserve better." -IG

20. "They say that it takes 100 positive thoughts to undo a negative. Our little human brains have evolved over time to keep us alive based on our fear responses, but in modern times these evolutionary traits have gotten out of whack. Harboring a deep and paralyzing fear that you are not enough, and thus hating yourself, isn't going to keep you alive the way that knowing you should fear a lion or a rattlesnake will.

Almost everyone I know struggles with the negative self-talk spiral. It's a silent killer of fun, creativity, self worth, romance ... the list goes on. So let's, for the next few minutes, start to beat it back to where it came from k? Great. Really sit, and be thoughtful. It might be scary. It might feel weirdly hard. Avoid the desire get snarky or to say, "I'll do this later." See what happens. Maybe it'll make you feel surprisingly free! You can keep them to yourself or share them if you like. But I'd love for each of you to change your day, even momentarily, by coming up with three things you like about yourself ... go for it." -IG

21. "#PrettyMighty is ... every woman out there using her inspiring brain and worthy voice to stand in defense of her community. They define strength. Commitment. Grace. Gumption. The willingness to head toward the fear. They are beautiful and bold. They have my utmost gratitude." -IG

22. "You deserve better. Examine the ways in which you deserve more, and also look at the ways that others deserve more from you. Make sure you're being shown up for, and make sure you're showing up to the best of your abilities. Life is a two way street. Own your successes and failures so that you can keep growing. You deserve to." -IG

23. "I still believe in us. I do. I think if anything this should motivate us. This should wake us up. We've clearly been complacent. We haven't sought out one another and had the tough conversations and really LISTENED to each other. People are hurting. You don't decide to risk throwing the whole country out the window to "change the system" if you aren't hurting. People who feel like they've lost everything today are hurting. Their rights as women, the LGBTQ, POC, environmental champions, union members, and the list goes on. People are terrified. So please... Instead of giving in to the fear and reacting with savage hearts, let's come together now. Have conversations with people who believe in different things than you do. And instead of needing to be right, try to hear them. Then ask for the same respect in return. Build bridges, not walls. Let's sew the broken pieces of ourselves back together again, and remake the fabric of America. We can." -IG


***I didn't intend for this to be so long, but then I couldn't stop choosing things and I couldn't kick any of these off my list!! So anyways, here's to you, Sophia Bush, for being a beacon of light in these dark, dark times. For reminding us to keep fighting, to stand up, to make noise, to care for each other and fight for each other. You are a goddess and a Feminist Icon. An incredibly smart, vibrant, kind, talented, beautiful, powerful human being with a soul of compassionate fire. Thank you for your words, your empowerment, your courage to scream from the hilltop and not care what the haters have to say. You are an inspiration, and you truly got me through this though time, and helped motivate me to continue to fight the good fight for social change. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. 

Sincerely,
Ashley, aka: Brown Eyed Girl