“I read every book that I could get my hands on about parenting which was very helpful, but it wasn’t until I actually joined a group of like-minded moms who learned and grew together discussing parenting that things really started to click for me.”
Q and A with Leah from Miami, Florida
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I have six children and am passionate about raising good children, creating supportive families, personal growth, and reaching goals. I am an only child and wanted to have a large family, which I did! I am working on building the best positive parenting FB group for busy professionals, entrepreneurs, and busy moms who want to accomplish their goals but still create a warm, nurturing environment for their children and families.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I originally majored in psychology, then became a teacher. I eventually earned an LBS1 and became a learning and behavioral specialist and then earned a master’s degree in education. Parenting didn’t come easily to me initially. I had many goals that I wanted to accomplish and the physical and emotional demands of raising a large family were overwhelming. I read every book that I could get my hands on about parenting which was very helpful, but it wasn’t until I actually joined a group of like-minded moms who learned and grew together discussing parenting that things really started to click for me. That is why I decided to create this group for moms with goals.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: The parenting group will clarify timeless principles of parenting and why some of the popular modes of parenting may not be working for moms today. We discuss the real problems that parents are having today with the goal of helping them become more confident, joyful, and skilled at building the calm, nurturing homes that everyone wants for their families. I grew up in Baltimore and, being an only child, I longed for siblings to play and interact with. Because of this, I wanted to build a large family, which aligned with my religious beliefs. I also believe in the power of family being a tremendous support throughout life.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: I think women have tremendous power and above all a unique insight that literally enhances the world. Women are using that insight in great ways and will continue to do so.
I have written two children’s books and an extensive Jewish curriculum for middle and high school students.
“By decluttering, we make room for the joy and fulfillment that truly matter.”
Q and A with Jennisha from Suffolk, England
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I’m incredibly passionate about personal development, well-being, and spreading happiness. Life can be tough, but it’s also filled with beauty and uniqueness that I love exploring. During a low point in my life, I realized the need for change and discovered the magic of decluttering and organizing. It transformed my world, bringing clarity, peace, and productivity. Now, I’m on a mission to help women clear the chaos from their lives. Through my business, I empower them to create harmonious spaces that align with their dreams. By decluttering, we make room for the joy and fulfillment that truly matter.
Q: Can you tell us more about how your business helps women declutter?
A: I assist women in decluttering by offering personalized face-to-face or online video chat sessions. Starting with an initial consultation, I understand their goals and challenges. Together, we sort and categorize items, optimize space, address sentimental belongings, and implement effective organization strategies. I provide community, support, accountability, and follow-up sessions for long-term success. Excitingly, I am currently writing an ebook, set to be released on June 28th, which offers practical tips and insights on cleaning. This goes hand in hand with home organisation as when done correctly will save you a ton of time. Additionally, I am developing a coaching program that comprehensively covers home organization. Clients will learn how to streamline their spaces, again, creating more time for activities they love. The program includes personalized 1:1 sessions tailored to their specific needs. If desired, I can also provide hands-on assistance during the decluttering and organizing process.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: During my younger years, I had a wonderful upbringing surrounded by a close-knit family. We shared a strong bond, and I have fond memories of spending time with my cousins and engaging in various activities that brought us joy and laughter. We played games like Kirby, 40/40 home, manhunt, and football, and immersed ourselves in the world of Pokémon and exploring. Those carefree times were filled with fun and created lasting memories.
While I enjoyed the playful side of life, education wasn’t a top priority for me during my early years. However, around the age of 14 or 15, I found God. Around the same time, I had an epiphany about the importance of education. This realization sparked a significant shift in my attitude, perspective, and behavior. From that point onward, I committed myself to academic excellence, consistently achieving high grades throughout my educational journey.
Despite my initial dislike for school, I am now pleasantly surprised by how much I have grown to love learning. It became evident to me that God and knowledge opened doors to opportunities and personal growth. Eventually, I graduated from university with a degree in marketing, advertising, and public relations. It’s remarkable how my perspective on education evolved, transforming into a genuine passion for acquiring knowledge and expanding my horizons. Reflecting on my early years, I recall a specific interest in decluttering and organization. Even as a child, I found joy in clearing out my nanny’s junk drawer and assisting my aunt in tidying her flat. Little did I know back then that these experiences would shape my journey in helping others with decluttering and organization tasks. These early memories of creating order and finding harmony within spaces laid the foundation for my current passion and expertise in home organization.
Q: When you say you found God, how did you find God?
A: I found God through my beloved nanny, Evadne. She introduced me to the church at a young age, and I cherished the time we spent together singing and praising the Lord. Sitting beside her, I was always excited as I knew she always carried mints and biscuits in her bag. As I grew older, around the age of 13, I discovered God for myself when I attended a youth group held at a Church on a Friday night. From there, I was invited to a church service, and since that day, I have continued in faith. I embraced the word of God and the significance of being a follower of Christ. Along this spiritual journey, I have been blessed to meet incredible people, including my partner, with whom I now have two beautiful children. The love, guidance, and support I have received from my faith community and my loved ones have truly shaped my relationship with God and enriched my life in countless ways.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Through my experiences, I have learned valuable lessons that I would like others to embrace. Shifting perspective and recognizing the importance of certain aspects, such as education, can lead to personal growth and success. Embracing lifelong learning allows for ongoing development and the pursuit of knowledge. Childhood interests should not be overlooked, as they can provide a foundation for pursuing meaningful endeavors. Self-reflection is a powerful tool for personal growth, allowing for positive changes in attitude and behavior. Lastly, it is essential to pursue passions fearlessly, as they can bring joy and purpose to life. These lessons aim to inspire others to approach life with an open mind, embrace personal growth, and pursue their passions with dedication and enthusiasm.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: To me, feminism represents female empowerment, where gender doesn’t limit one’s potential. It involves recognizing and valuing women’s experiences, identities, knowledge, and strengths. Feminism promotes equality, treating individuals fairly without discrimination. It encourages women to pursue their aspirations, challenging societal expectations and gender-based limitations. Feminism advocates for women’s rights, gender equality, and the empowerment to fulfill their dreams. It envisions a society where everyone, regardless of gender, thrives with respect, dignity, and fairness.
MORE FROM JENNISHA: The importance of having an organized home, especially for busy women and mothers, cannot be overstated. An organized home provides a sanctuary amidst the chaos, promotes efficiency and productivity, and contributes to mental well-being. It saves time and energy by eliminating clutter and streamlining daily routines. Helping women achieve a decluttered, clean, clear, and organized home, it empowers them to focus on what matters most and experience greater joy and fulfillment in their lives. This is why I have dedicated my career to this please join me on this movement.
“Nothing is personal. Nothing. I spent a lot of years thinking everything was about me. I still do it sometimes. But, when I figured out that everyone is just as self-conscious as I am and are all worrying about themselves and not me, it freed me to be a little more myself and hopefully be more compassionate to others in the process!”
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: My passions are my family, yoga, and being in nature. I am a homebody and love spending a lot of time at home with my husband and two dogs. My boys are grown now, but I love seeing them whenever I can. Yoga is my passion because it changed my life. I love how it makes me feel and the philosophical side too. It has helped me change my perspective on lots of things; it helps me keep an open mind and reminds me of my purpose. It is why I wanted to teach it.
I have been teaching yoga since 2007. After a long time of driving around all over to teach, I got burnt out. So, I took a break so that I can refocus and get connected to my own practice again. Right now, I am working on taking my teaching online. I only started last year, but I am finally feeling like I am getting better and getting over my fears of being on camera. I teach a few free classes weekly on Zoom, and I am loving it! As for nature, I am now working part-time and am a docent at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It has awakened my passion for all things nature and the desert I live in. It has made me see everything through new eyes, even yoga! The desert museum is my happy place. Every time I go there I see something new, I learn something new and I can feel that I am part of something bigger than myself there. I also love hiking and learning more about the desert has really turned all my hiking into learning adventures.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: As a child, I was very active but not really into sports or anything like that. I loved jumping on the trampoline, roller skating, and swimming. When it came to competition sports, I guess I was just too sensitive for that. So, as I got older, I found myself avoiding physical activities. The thing was, I loved being active, I just found myself feeling self-conscious about it. Looking back, it makes me realize why I love yoga so much. As a kid, without realizing it, I was always on an inner journey. Thinking about God and purpose, solving mysteries of humanity, and trying to figure out the world and my place in it. I believe yoga ignites that same passion I had as a child. As a little girl, I was very sensitive and I was made fun of for it, and yoga has helped me explore that and accept that about myself. By teaching yoga, I want to impart that self-acceptance to others and help them learn to love every part of themselves too.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Being alone doesn’t mean being lonely. My grandma once told me, “There are worse things than being alone.” She said that in the context of a bad relationship I was in at the time but now I realize she was right but not because of a bad relationship. It is pretty awful being alone if you’re lonely. Over time, I have realized that loneliness is an attitude problem. It is a lack of relationship with myself. Loneliness isn’t about who I am with, or what relationship I am in, being lonely is about how good my relationship is with myself. It is not about me. Nothing is personal. Nothing. I spent a lot of years thinking everything was about me. I still do it sometimes. But, when I figured out that everyone is just as self-conscious as I am and are all worrying about themselves and not me, it freed me to be a little more myself and hopefully be more compassionate to others in the process! We are all worthy. I have a problem with the word deserve, just because, in life, none of us are promised or entitled to anything. That said, it is important to know my worth. It took me many years to realize that I am worth working for, so long as I was the one willing to do the work. I am worth taking care of. I am worth having an amazing life. That shift in thinking really opened me up to the possibilities for me. As long as I am willing to do the work because, I know my worth, I can make anything happen for myself!
Q: What does feminism mean to you? A: That women are respected in all positions in society. A woman who decides to stay at home, a woman who decides to work a career, and a woman who decides to stay single, or not have children are just as worthy as anyone else to make the best choices for herself without judgment. All life paths are just as valid as any other. I also see it as a frame of mind that women need to have with other women. Many women are communal in nature, and we really know how to build each other up! So, when we are given the opportunity, we need to not see each other as competition. We are allies. We don’t need to look outside of ourselves for validation. We are strong enough to create it for ourselves. Our nature is to help each other so we should not let societal ideation stray our standards from that.
“…learning, continuous learning, and investing in ourselves always pay off…”
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I have always been passionate about making the world a better place. This was inspired by my parents, who both had a strong interest in world politics, literature, culture, and people’s lives generally. Since college, I have worked for 30 years in international development on poverty reduction for disadvantaged communities, economic development, and natural resources management. I want to see economies growing, enterprises thriving, the environment staying healthy and beautiful, and people’s lives improving.
I have also been strongly interested in sharing my knowledge and experience and supporting people’s growth. I used to be a dedicated manager and team leader. For the United Nations, I managed and motivated a team of senior, older female, and male staff colleagues to stay strong and deliver during a transitional period for human resources in its Hanoi office in the early 1990s. For the UK Aid program in Vietnam, I was part of and then led a team in 2015 of an economist, climate adviser, and program manager to design and implement projects worth hundreds of millions of US dollars. In addition, capacity building for member countries was one of the priorities in my work on socio-economics with the Mekong River Commission Secretariat until late 2022.
About eight years ago, having survived depression due to a family crisis, I realized I lacked the knowledge and “soft” skills to build good relationships. I had always been kind, dedicated, and responsible, but at times I had also been unaware of other people’s feelings and thinking and in many cases may have thought I was always right. I started to focus my learning on these soft skills, or people skills, to understand men and women more, and above all to focus on my relationship with myself. I learned to love myself, accept myself, and take better care of myself, to be in a much better position to love, accept and care for others, as a woman. I recognized deeply the values of self-love, inner strength, and feminine confidence, and the benefits these can bring to a woman’s happiness and inner peace. After my job as an economist with the Mekong River Commission, I decided to become a full-time happiness coach for professional committed women, who, like me, may have focused and succeeded in their professional lives, but less so in their personal lives…women who would benefit hugely in all aspects of their lives by improving their confidence and inner strength and achieving the happiness they deserve and desire. Here is my LinkedIn page minh-nguyen-050299102 and website www.minhzenliving.com.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in the North of Vietnam when the country was still going through war and then reconstruction. My parents were loving and also strict, and taught me a lot about discipline, hard work, kindness, and respect for others. We were poor, like many other families in Vietnam then, but always rich in our thirst for knowledge and information about our country, and about the larger world. My father would bring back books he borrowed from his university library every week of subjects ranging from history to geography to politics and literature. He would also listen to radio programs from America, the UK, and France (which were considered “enemy” influences then). He wanted me to do the best I could, so he bought me books in drawing, music, and maths for me to explore. I did not do well with art but was much better in maths and English, and I was successful in a highly competitive entrance examination for one of the most prestigious high schools in Vietnam, thanks to guidance from my dad.
Each week I left my family, for boarding school, with high-performing students from all over the North of Vietnam, only returning home with my family on Sunday. It was demanding but also very rewarding. We considered our teachers as our second parents, and classmates as special friends that I still keep in contact with after nearly 40 years, and visit from time to time. I then went to college for teaching English as a foreign language. I did not become a teacher but an administrator with the United Nations office in Hanoi, Vietnam, thanks to my English capacity, hard work, and positive attitude. I also did a second degree, in economics as I wanted to do more substantive work, which I did also with the United Nations as a program assistant managing regional projects. I then got a scholarship to do my master’s in development economics in the UK in my early thirties, with my mum’s strong support in taking care of my small children together with my family. In reflection, I am always grateful for the good education opportunities I had, my parents’ relentless support, and my family’s care for my children.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Through the ups and downs of life, I have learned that hard work, discipline, and consistency are important to do well in your work and life. But I have also realized the importance of softer skills such as self-love, understanding of ourselves and others, believing in ourselves, taking care of ourselves, accepting ourselves and others, choosing happiness and positivity, raising ourselves up, and moving on…whatever life throws at us, it is an opportunity for us to explore, to learn, and to further grow. Once we develop the ability to have a basket of tools to use and stay strong and positive inside out, including embracing our vulnerability, we are and will always be fine. And learning, continuous learning, and investing in ourselves always pay off, quickly and sustainably.
Q: What does feminism mean to you? A: Working previously for a long time in international development, I have been trained in gender equality extensively. I have also been lucky to work in organizations where women receive equal treatment and a lot of support. However, I feel I did not fully understand the “feminine power” as somehow it was widely believed and propagated (at least before in our society) that women may suffer more than men, or that women are disadvantaged (and this latter view is still true in many societies). Only after I improved my knowledge and skills about men and women, and about relationships did I come to know and fully appreciate that being a woman is a beautiful thing, and in fact an advantage in many ways.
Feminism to me is to recognize and take into account the differences between men and women in all activities and environments, and to give equal opportunities to men and women, as all the gender equality rhetoric often says. More personally, and more strongly than ever, feminism to me is about empowering women to appreciate their unique roles and power, at home and in the society at large, as loving, nurturing, supporting, and compassionate forces. I would not seek to compete with men at work or at home. We all have unique and valuable energies to make the partnerships work, at home and at work. And once we women believe in ourselves more, and most importantly love ourselves the right way, we can be successful and happy in all our important relationships. We can live a truly “zen” balance with the world and our loved ones.
Life is beautiful! trust yourself! And trust the Universe! And thank you to The Woman Wednesday Blog for featuring me and other women, all working hard in our different capacities to improve the lives of ourselves and others.
Q and A with Kaitlyn from South Dakota, United States
“My hope is just to work hard to let my success speak for itself and encourage other young girls that we belong in music just as much as anyone else.”
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I am a music educator with a master’s degree in music education. I started my own music school because I wanted to use music to inspire people and teach learn life skills. I have students all around the world and we are currently working on recording our second student-featured album to be released early this summer.
My husband and I are both passionate about music. We actually met in the high school band. We became friends in high school and stayed in touch. A couple years later, we started dating. Now, we have a music school, two kids, and a third on the way. Our music school covers all instruments and voices. I specialize in woodwinds. He does pretty much everything. He started on trumpet in high school, but he can play piano, guitar, and any fretted string instrument.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I always had a passion for music when I was younger. Who doesn’t love music? But so many times I was told to only practice certain types of music. I had teachers who told me music wasn’t for me or that maybe I should pursue something else. The biggest reason I got into education was to stop that pattern of thinking. Music is for everyone. There are many ways to learn and various styles to explore. I structure my lessons and classes to focus on improvement, but the outcome of that often looks different depending on the student’s interests and goals. Every student can’t fit into the same mold or method. I train my other teachers to take the same approach and encourage the students to help set the learning objectives in their learning path.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Something that I’d like everyone to know is that music is for everyone. I commonly hear things like “I wish I would’ve learned when I was younger” or “I can’t learn music because I’m tone deaf.” These are common misconceptions we place on ourselves due to the fear of failure. I did my master’s research on this and tone deafness affects less than 3% of the population and is most often a result of severe brain injuries. Here’s a quick test to see if you are tone-deaf. Ask someone near you to make a sound like “Ooo”. Tell them to start with their voice low or high and then switch. If you can hear that person’s voice go from a low sound to a higher pitch, congratulations! You’re not tone-deaf.
I have students from ages 3-83 and they all have different journeys that are equally impressive. Anyone can learn to sing or play an instrument.
Q: What does feminism mean to you? A: Feminism is simply about supporting women to follow their dreams and know that they are valuable. More than 70% of college music students are male. I was often the only female in many of my classes. My teachers always assumed I was a vocalist because that’s what girls do in music. We just love to sing. When I would tell them I was a wind player, sometimes they’d be surprised. I think sometimes men have felt intimidated by my success as a musician and business owner. My hope is just to work hard to let my success speak for itself and encourage other young girls that we belong in music just as much as anyone else.
MORE ABOUT KAITLYN: My husband and I own Tilghman’s Academy of Music. We have a highly experienced and passionate group of teachers that work with us. We offer music lessons to students in our hometown and also teach students through our virtual classrooms around the world. We offer private lessons and classes. We also do something I haven’t seen any other music school do. We have a subscription service for the independent learner at a very affordable price where we include personalized content for each student. Each student is assigned to a teacher who checks in on their progress, answers questions, and gives feedback when needed. Students have access to our music library and video content to learn at their own pace. Our website includes some sample content of what that looks like. We really enjoy reaching new people with our programs.
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