Most of us vividly remember the joys and pains of adolescent friendships, and the dramas inherent in them. Thankfully, as adults our friendships with other women are deeper and richer, influenced and enriched by the shared experiences of...
Stories
Every woman and every girl inspires us. We are deeply grateful to those who have shared their stories about breakthroughs in their lives, the ways in which they have overcome fears, beliefs, or events that once kept them from connecting with their inner strength and recognizing their amazingness. Some of these stories are stories of pain and how a women or girl triumphed over it. As you read these stories, rather than focusing on the pain, choose to focus instead on the triumph and the ways that others have overcome what may once have seemed impossible to overcome. Let's celebrate their triumphs!
Every story of divorce is intensely painful and personal. Mine is no different. I had been married for seventeen years and had been unhappy for many of those years. Two years into the marriage we went to a couples’ therapist. She told me...
One moment does stand out for me. When I was a teenager, my father told me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. I can’t even remember what it was but still remember standing at the kitchen table and being furious and incredulous...
There was a time I wore my To Do List like a badge of honor. I did it all: held down a full-time job while raising three children; volunteered for local charities; entertained on the weekends. Want something done? Give it to the busiest...
Everyone has heard that expression at one time or another. By no means am I a religious person, but one day, when on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to India with my dad, its meaning became crystal clear to me. My parents are of Indian descent, but...
When I was 12 years old we (my mother and my three siblings) moved from Colombia to the US to live with my dad, who had migrated 7 years earlier. We arrived to discover that he’d become an alcoholic and was barely making enough money in his...
Trigger warning: Before reading this post, please be aware that it contains descriptions of childhood sexual assault. I can still, when I allow myself to think about it, remember the disgusting smell of beer and alcohol on his breath as he...
It was 1997 and I was a stressed 32 year old mom of 2 young children, working more than full-time at a major corporation. I felt pressure to perform and drive business results at work because the business demands were incredibly challenging. ...
The most challenging and ongoing struggle in my life is maintaining a relationship with my over-bearing, narcissistic mother. I constantly wrestle with how to preserve my sense of self when interacting with someone who can’t see beyond...
There have been so many breakthrough moments in which I crossed a barrier to self-acceptance and self-love, moments in which I chose to love me, and to stop sacrificing myself to meet someone else’s needs. I was in my twenties and was with a...