Being born into a Pakistani family, it’s not easy to stop listening to what people are saying about you: about the way you dress, you walk, you talk, or you smile. I had to choose between...
Self-Empowerment
The Power of Periods
The first time I was embarrassed of my period was the first moment I got it. There was no pretext to that feeling of shame. It was as innate as my breath. There isn’t anything specific...
Life Advice from a Life Advice Addict
I am asked more often than I thought I would be how I got to where I am today. It’s a position I wouldn’t have believed I’d be in ten years ago. When I was nineteen, I was close to...
Steel is often Strengthened By Fire
Steel- Noun: a hard, strong, gray or bluish-gray alloy of iron with carbon and usually other elements, used extensively as a structural and fabricating material. Verb: mentally prepare...
Sisterhood
What do you love about Girls on the Run? I love the bond we have they treat like i’m their sister and the dedication they have on running. My favorite lesson is the one about empathy...
How my traumatized childhood shaped who I am today
I grew up in Calgary, Canada. I grew up with a lot of family issues and these fights in my family (physical and verbal) have traumatized me. My dad is a very aggressive, abusive man and I...
Be Encouraged
Whenever life sometimes makes us feel discouraged, we should be encouraged by the simple fact that we have the power to change our situation. Recently I wrote a poem that allowed me to see...
Transparency will ignite unity
Trigger warning: Before reading this post, please be aware that it includes references to childhood rape. My name is Zoe van Zyl. Life has been a struggle, and in the last year I have...
Never Allow Anyone To Tell You What You Are Not...
Being dyslexic was a struggle for me growing up as a kid but I got through it by going to a school for kids with special needs, taking speech therapy classes, and learning different...
Recovery
Once my grandmother passed away, my mother had to leave to country. I was given immense stress and I fell prey to whenever people called my ugly. I starved myself down to the weight I am...