woman wednesday – Page 63 – The Woman Wednesday Blog

Woman Wednesday: Julianne

April 17, 2019April 17, 2019Posted in inspiration, Uncategorized, womenTagged advice, blog, blogger, bloggers, blogging, blogs, business, cool, entrepreneur, entrepreneur blog, environment, family, happy, health, health blog, healthy, home, inspiration, Inspirational, inspire, inspire blog, learning, life, mental health, motivation, motivational monday, motivational speaker, motivational words, news, photos, physical health, speaker, spiritual health, support women, support women entrepreneurs, support women in business, today, trends, true stories, truth, wcw, WCW Blog, wellness, wellness business, woman, woman crush wednesday, woman entrepreneur, woman wednesday, woman wednesday b, woman wednesday blog, women, women bloggers, women entrepreneur, women leaders, women stories, women today, women wednesday, womens clothingLeave a comment

*Note: Woman Wednesday is a part of our blog. Each Woman Wednesday post will feature a woman who would like to share information in the hopes of inspiring and motivating other women. Comments are welcome below.

Q and A with Julianne, Hartford County, Connecticut

“It’s all up to us whether we decide to use our broken pieces as a weapon or as a crutch.”

Q: What are you passionate about?

A: Teaching others to fish. I saw a picture in a National Geographic when I was 13. This imprinted on my heart how I wanted to serve during my lifetime. The picture was actress Drew Barrymore in another country feeding a very long line of children. The kids did not have anything to eat, so their hands were out waiting for the “slop.” Their expressions seemed to be so grateful, yet they were so malnourished. It’s been 28+ years since I stumbled upon this photograph, but I see and feel like it was yesterday. I long to work full time with the youth in underprivileged areas to have an impact on the rest of their lives.

Currently, I speak in front a few hundred at a time. I just launched my 3rd stream of income in a wellness project. The C word is everywhere. (Cancer). It stole my big sister when she was 27. This was also a huge variable that has shaped me and my grit. I train folks on “tapping into their own human potential” and the importance of multiple streams of income. I’m excited to see it laid out. And I am always happy to inspire others.

Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?

A: We all bleed the same. Everyone has a story. Those of us with the toughest experiences make the toughest humans. It’s all up to us whether we decide to use our broken pieces as a weapon or as a crutch.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A. I grew up with my mom, who is a genius, literally. She has worked for the government for 35 years. And my dad is 100% American Indian, the Lumbee tribe. My younger years were, um, toxic and LOUD to describe it lightly. I found soccer to escape. Soccer offered me friendship, peace, confidence, and family. I clung to the soccer ball for so long. I was awarded almost a full scholarship to play Division 1 at a local state university. Soccer had a lot to do with who I am today.

Pictured: Julianne and her parents.

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Pictured: Julianne and her daughters.

Q: What does feminism mean to you?

A: Feminism means strength. Women are absolute warriors. So often, I’ve found, women have fallen into a trap behind a man. Or behind our children. Being a mother of 3, I’ve found out how capable and strong I really am. We get even more dangerous (in a good way) when women unite…Watch out world!

Connect with me! I’d love to chat with you!

Instagram:

http://www.instagram.com/Julianne.j

Phone number:

860-866-6365

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Woman Wednesday: Jessica K

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019Posted in Uncategorized, womenTagged advice, animals, authors, blog, blogger, blogs, books, business, businesswoman, cats, cool, copywriter, education, empower, empowerment, environment, experiences, family, feminism, freelance, Freelance writer, freelance writing, freelancewriter, happy, health, home, inspiration, job, learning, life, money, motivate, news, people, photography, photos, stories, story, technology, travel, trends, truestories, Truestory, wcw, WCW Blog, woman blog, woman crush wednesday, woman wednesday, woman's story, womanwednesday, women, women empowerment, women wednesday, womens blog, writer, writingLeave a comment

Q and A with Jessica from Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

“We are human. We can only learn from that and try to be better next time.”

Q: What are you passionate about?

A: I’m passionate about so many things! I’m an enthusiastic person by nature, and everything I discover is always “the best thing ever” [laughs]. Things I love that have stuck are reading, cooking, red wine, and hiking.

I’m also super invested in (and passionate about) helping other women succeed in their own entrepreneurial businesses. Once upon a time, I was a freelance copywriter and found such success that I was able to quit my full-time job to focus on my writing. Now, I’m giving back and helping other women achieve success like I once did, and girl, it feels amazing!

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: It’s funny because I don’t really feel like my younger years influenced where I am now. I’m completely different from my family and have always marched to the beat of my own drum. My family is very much the “you get a good job, work all day, come home to live your 4 hours of normal life until it’s time to wake up and do it again” mentality, whereas I’ve always been extremely expressive, creative, and nontraditional.

My mom often asks where the heck I came from [laughs]!

But you know what? I really enjoy that part of me. I love being able to teach my family new things and hearing the surprise in their voices when they hear my latest endeavor because it’s just so different from anything they are used to. We certainly learn from each other!

Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?

A: I’m an extremely positive person by nature and genuinely love helping others find their way. Over the years, I’ve really learned to be accepting of others and keep the judgment at the door because you never know what someone else has been through. Above all, always be kind!

Of course, I’m not perfect and neither are you. Try and practice these things, and if you catch yourself being judgmental, don’t beat yourself up. It happens, we are human. We can only learn from that and try to be better next time.

Q: What does feminism mean to you?

A: To me, feminism is about equality. No matter what gender we are, we all deserve to be treated as equal human beings. And that’s it. It’s quite simple really. Treat others with kindness, respect, and equality. Women are strong, and we deserve the same treatment as any man. Girl power!

Connect with me!

You can find me here:

Facebook

Instagram

Website

https://www.bravedigitalcoaching.com/

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Woman Wednesday: Chanel

February 20, 2019Posted in Uncategorized, womenTagged advice, art, beauty, beauty blog, beauty inside and out, blog, blogger, blogs, business, empowerment blog, entrepreneur, entrepreneur blog, environment, family, fashion, feminism, happy, home, inspiration, inspire, inspire blog, inspiring mom, learning, life, love yourself, makeup, mother blog, motivation, motivational blog, motivational words, next generation, photography, photos, professional photography, real life, self-love, story, support small business, support women, trends, True Life, true story, woman, woman crush wednesday, woman entrepreneur, woman stories, woman story, woman support, woman wednesday, women, women empowerment, women supporting women, women wednesday, womens rights, womens storiesLeave a comment

Q and A with Chanel, Annapolis, Maryland

“Staying true to yourself is important in any industry. It’s easy for others to laugh or joke or not take you seriously, so try and tune out those voices. No one else is responsible for your happiness or life successes.”

Q: What are you passionate about?

A: I am passionate about empowering women in the form of positive thinking, learning independent lifestyle habits to allow us to not have to fully rely on anyone else, and body positivity. I am currently a lifestyle, boudoir, and wedding photographer. This career allows me to meet so many different people. We have a self-love project going on right now. I also have spent two years working as a distributor for a makeup company, Senegence International. This has opened many doors from opening a team of over 120 ladies all over the USA and helping others learn makeup skills with a cruelty-free brand.

Pictured: Chanel ready to take some amazing photos!

Pictured: Some shots of Chanel promoting self-love.

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Pictured: Photos Chanel took while collaborating with My Lilianas.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: My younger years were focused around finding myself. I studied early childhood education in college, but I never fully dove in. My passion became photography.

My parents have a huge influence on my life. They’ve encouraged me to make my own path, money, and success since high school. I immediately worked multiple jobs from 15 and up. Savings was my main focus versus spending money on some of the things that friends were. It helped fund the start of multiple businesses. My mom is very much into makeup and helping women find confidence within themselves. She’s constantly showering others with praise. My dad is a businessman who has paved a way of multiple streams of income, hard work, and goal setting.

Pictured: Chanel, her husband, and their three children.

Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?

A: Staying true to yourself is important in any industry. It’s easy for others to laugh or joke or not take you seriously, so try and tune out those voices. No one else is responsible for your happiness or life successes. Making goals and understanding that plans will change is crucial in finding growth. I also feel it’s important for women to make their own money, save some for life-changing events, and invest in themselves and their family. I would love for ladies to learn that you can honestly become anyone you want to be. Whether it’s a teacher, photographer, life coach, makeup artist, or something else entirely.

Pictured: Chanel and her friends, Brittani and Kristin.

Q: What does feminism mean to you?

A: I feel it means not letting others have a hold on you. Feminism means knowing you’re the one in charge of your life’s outcome. One of the hardest things for me to see in relationships and marriages is a male figure seeking dominance over someone based on income or working status. Or when couples separate seeing a female say she has nothing to her own name or has nothing for herself. I hope to one day design a course for ladies in high school and college to help encourage women to protect themselves.

Pictured: Chanel and her daughter.

You can check out the variety of services Chanel provides by clicking here.

Chanel Photography services, click here.

Chanel’s SeneSite, click here.

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Woman Wednesday: Justine

January 16, 2019December 23, 2019Posted in Uncategorized, womenTagged 2019, advice, animals, art, beauty, blog, blogger, blogs, book publicist, books, comfort, cool, dreams, education, environment, family, feminism, follow us, goals, happy, how to make a difference, Hunterdon County, Iceland, inspiration, inspirational story, Ireland, Italy, job, learning, life, making a difference, money, my lilianas, New Jersey, news, people, photos, reading, real women, role model, role models, stories, teaching, tips, travel, travel blog, travel blogger, travel goals, travel guide, travel woman, true stories, true story, twenty-first century, wcw, woman, woman crush wednesday, woman wednesday, women, women inspiring women, women today, women wednesday, womens stories, work goals, young womenLeave a comment

Q and A with Justine, Somerset County, New Jersey

“People always ask me how I can afford to travel as much as I do at this age. Something I’d like others to know is that whatever you want to do is possible if you really want to make it happen. I make traveling and seeing the world a priority. This isn’t to say that I spend an extreme amount of money on it either. I budget it into my expenses just like groceries. I need to see the world. And while I love my job, I always feel a constant urge to know that the world and my life is bigger than sitting at a desk or on a train. It’s always worth it, and it is totally possible!”o

Q: What are you passionate about?

A: I love my job and the field I am in! I am a book publicist so basically, I get to tell people how great certain books are and then organize events and book tours for authors. I have always loved books; this is absolutely my dream! I majored in creative writing and English, did a bunch of internships, got my master’s in English literature, and was hired at the last company I interned at! Now, I’m working at a company that works with a lot of books in translation that ranges in genre from thrillers to biographies and art books. I love being able to work on all different types of books and just talk about how amazing books are all day.

Pictured: Justine in her element. As a book publicist, she loves reading books and helping authors.

Q: What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?

A: Sometimes you can give something everything you have and work your very hardest and fall short. It doesn’t mean that you failed. So much of adult life is about timing, working hard, and luck. At times, you can go every extra mile, outwork people around you, and still not succeed as quickly or as much as you would like. These shortcomings put things into perspective, and when you can look back on them and actually say, “I gave that everything I had,” then you know you did your very best. Just because the outcome may not be exactly in our favor, we have to take these experiences and use them to make us stronger for the next time. In short, life is not always fair, and you can’t let it break you! Learn from it, and don’t give up!

Pictured: Justine in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I always liked to keep super busy when I was growing up. I loved shuttling between softball, soccer, basketball, piano, gymnastics, ballet, cross country, track, and any other summer camps or art classes I could weasel my way into. Looking back, I feel so sorry for my parents who had to drive me around everywhere, but I am also so thankful and grateful for them always encouraging me to try everything and practice everything I was doing. I learned about committing to something and following through from a young age, and I also learned how to be part of a team, which is something I think absolutely translates to adult life in work and relationships. Even growing up, I was obsessed with books! I remember being in second grade and spending every free second reading to win more personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut’s Book It program. While pizza initially stimulated my infatuation with reading, I quickly knew that I just loved books! I still very fondly remember my first author event during a first-grade assembly where a children’s book author, Dan Gutman, came to visit us and gave us each a signed copy of his book. I spent all my allowance buying all his books and thought that him coming to visit us was just about the coolest experience ever. Now, I get to go to author events all the time!

Pictured: Justine at the New Jersey Balloon Festival.

A part of my story that I haven’t mentioned yet is my passion for traveling. I love taking vacations to countries that I haven’t been to yet and going on adventures. I do this at least twice a year. People always ask me how I can afford to do this at this age. Something I’d like others to know is that whatever you want to do is possible if you really want to make it happen. I look online on tons of different websites to find the most affordable flights and places to stay. I use my vacation days around small holidays to make the trips longer. I make traveling and seeing the world a priority. This isn’t to say that I spend an extreme amount of money on it either. I budget it into my expenses just like groceries. I need to see the world. And while I love my job, I always feel a constant urge to know that the world and my life is bigger than sitting at a desk or on a train. It’s always worth it, and it is totally possible!

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Pictured: Justine enjoying the water and beautiful views in Italia (Italy).

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Q: What does feminism mean to you?

A: To me, feminism means equality. I do not like being talked down to by men, being treated like I can’t do something as well as a man can, nor do I like being treated like I am a man’s property. However, to be honest, I’m not big on movements like the women’s march or large scale protests to assert feminism. I think that by showing the men you associate with that you are just as strong and smart(er) as they are, and asserting this belief into who you are is the best way to change the conversation. I think we need men to uplift women just as much as we need women to uplift women.

Pictured: Justine and her significant other, Nick, traveling together in Iceland.

I really think that the conversation about feminism needs to include men. I feel like there are two types of men: men who repress women and men who uplift women. The men who uplift women are able to do this because they are associated with strong women who are their equals. In my opinion, a great example of this is Barack and Michelle Obama. This may not be a popular opinion, but as much as I am rooting for women and “feminism,” I do think there is a lot of hypocrisy. I think that if a woman claims to be a “feminist,” she shouldn’t depend on her dad or her partner to do things like dealing with her car issues or squashing bugs. Once you get to this point, you can’t ignore other things that have become gender norms like men proposing to women, because we all still want our dream proposal and diamond ring. So, it’s not black and white for sure.

As a side note, I also believe that “feminism” is the cop-out men have been waiting for, and in 10 years, I believe “stay at home dads” will be the norm. So it’s a conflicting subject, to say the least, and this is a very loaded question. I could go on and on!

I think that this quote from the book, “How to be Parisian,” sums up how I feel about feminism: “Of course you can open a bottle of wine by yourself. But let him do it. That’s equality too.”

Pictured: Justine taking a stroll in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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Woman Wednesday: Megan

December 5, 2018December 6, 2018Posted in Uncategorized, womenTagged adventure, advice, animals, author, baltimore, beauty, blog, book, books, brand, business, camera, Child, college, comfort, cool, cute, dreams, education, environment, Faith, family, fashion, feminism, film, food, for women, friendship, future, happy, home, inspiration, inspire, inspire women, job, life, life lessons, love, Maryland, Maryland lady, Maryland woman, mass media, memories, model, money, mother, motivation, movies, people, photography, photos, published woman, reading, stories, story, teaching, tips, travel, travels, trends, true stories, tv, university, value, wednesday blog, woman author, woman crush wednesday, woman wednesday, women, women authors, women inspiring women, women power, women wednesdayLeave a comment

Q and A with Megan, Baltimore, Maryland

“The future. Earth’s governments have fallen, succeeded by a unified military order. An elite group of soldiers, the Sentinels, protect Cotarion from marauders and neighbors alike. Within, shadowy forces at the highest levels conspire for the power they need to enact a mysterious agenda.

But now, something has changed.

Men and women have emerged, displaying superhuman abilities powerful enough to threaten the established order, and the High General commands Sentinel Cameron Kardell to track a superhuman gone rogue. A superhuman who holds the key to these powers’ origin. Who happens to be Kardell’s best friend. Who will reveal the truth of Cameron’s own origins.

The Altered now wake.” –Megan Morgan, Author of “The Altered Wake”

Q: What are you passionate about?

A: Stories are definitely my passion! I love reading them, writing them, and listening to them. I love figuring out what makes a story work and picking apart why some stories don’t work. I love discussing what stories mean to people. They’re everywhere, and we are all telling ourselves stories all the time about who we are and how we impact the world. They’re almost so ubiquitous that we often don’t realize just how important they are.

That impact of stories on our personal and larger social psychologies are why I’m so focused on writing stories that defy conventions. As a kid, I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and I loved how these kinds of stories could invert our perspective of the world. A lot of the main characters in the stories I read were male, and women usually had supporting roles. Things are better these days, but I still crave women as leading characters who drive the narrative of the stories they’re in, so that’s what I write. In fact, all of my characters defy stereotypes, or at least, that’s what I hope.

Now that my first novel, “The Altered Wake”, is out, I’m working on the second in the series, “The Altered Rise”. And like a lot of storytellers I know, I have more story ideas than I will ever have time to write!

Q:What is something valuable you’ve learned that you’d like others to know?

A: I’ve been an army wife, and later, a single working mom to two awesome kids while writing my novels. I’ve written during ideal circumstances and completely awful circumstances. I’ve written when the words were easy and when they were hard. I’ve received heartbreaking rejection letters and even an email from a friend who was devouring my novel in a dental office. I boxed up all my manuscripts and put them on a shelf more than once. And eventually, I made the decision to get my work out into the world, even if I had to do it myself.

If there’s a lesson in all that, it’s that you just never stop. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. And don’t be afraid to work your butt off on what you believe in. Keep that little ember burning in the dark times, so that when there’s some kindling, it can ignite.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in Fairmont, West Virginia, which is a really beautiful place. As a kid, I spent a lot of time catching frogs and swimming. My mom loves to read, and so she took my siblings and I to the library on the weekends. My dad was a schoolteacher, and he read us books every night before bed with the most amazing voices. I was so lucky to grow up with two parents who believed in the value of reading and who encouraged me so much as I began to write my own stories.

In junior high, I started writing longer mini-novels for my friends, and as they devoured the chapters I supplied to them, I was hooked. I could make my own narratives, worlds, and characters. Then other people would believe in them. I found that, for me, it was the best way to reach other people. And sometimes, putting words down on paper is the best way for me to understand myself.

Q: What would you like others to learn from your story?

A: I think it’s really important to pay attention to the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we surround ourselves with. Not just books, TV shows, and movies, but the stories that are there in our minds. We all have narratives about who we are and what our value is, and we can absolutely change ourselves for the better by nudging those stories in different directions.
I had a college professor who, day one of class, talked about how we introduce ourselves to other people by telling them stories about our lives so far. It’s sort of how we package and present ourselves. I think it’s a good idea to look at those tales we’ve curated and see what they say about us, and also, to realize that the stories society tells us impact which narratives are worth keeping.

Question that!

Q: What does feminism mean to you?

A: Feminism means (to me) that people can be who they are without shame or ridicule. To me, it means we all have opportunities to fulfill our goals. The idea is that we have an even playing field, and “feminine” qualities aren’t ridiculed, and men aren’t shamed for having complex feelings. I see it as equality.

So, feminism means that my daughter can play in the mud (or not, as she prefers), and my son can paint his nails. We can be the complex people that we are. I think that’s good for everyone.