Win a Brave Girl Shirt!
So Women's History Month is coming to an end. But when the month is over please don’t stop celebrating! Women and girls are creating change and making history every day.
I wanted to open this up for you to write about brave women and girls. Please post here about someone you know or someone you admire from a far.
On April 1st I'll pick one of the posts out of a hat and that person will get a free Brave Girl t-shirt!
Shirts come in kids sizes up to Adult XXL.Labels: activism, brave girls, women's history month
posted by Ariel Fox @ 3/23/2008 06:14:00 PM
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12 Comments:
My daughter is a brave girl. She is my hero. She is 5 years old and very wise. When she falls on the ground and gets a boo boo, we apply her very special brave girl band-aid to make her smile. Then, she gets up and goes back to playing. She is my hero because we are presently going through a divorce from a very mean man. When he has been yelling at me, my daughter advises, "Mommy, when he yells at you, just tell him 'So'. and don't talk to him". She is my hero because she reminds me that each day is a beautiful day, "Mommy look at those pink clouds. They are beautiful". She is my hero because she makes us laugh when we both need it. She is my hero because she faces each day with a smile despite the pain and confusion that she feels. She is the bravest girl I have ever met in my 32 years. She is my hero. Her super powers are her voice. (and her hugs) ~ amberv
My friend Viki is amazingly brave! Instead of feeling sorry for herself or claiming she doesn't have time for things, she makes time. She is going to school to become a social worker, works full time at a domestic violence agency, volunteers as a rape crisis hospital advocate and is the go-to girl for all her friends and their problems! She helped me cope with my mom passing away even though at 27 she is still dealing with the loss of her dad and some bad relationships. There's no one braver or more amazing!
When I saw this come across my e-mail I tried to think of who I consider a brave girl/women. The only answer I became happy with was all of the girls in my life. Why do I need to pick one? All of my friends each have something unique to share and an beautiful personal story to tell. Lorrie is a survivor of breast cancer, Denise is an outspoken woman who would go to the ends of the earth to help someone, Natalie is called Nifty Natalie for a reason, she puts together rallies and organizes out community, Brenda has stopped a pimp and ho party from happening because she got someone to realize it was degrading to others, Cheryl has raised two children on her own and then turned around and adopted another child even though she was struggling. The point is yes, we owe each other some credit for being brave and wonderful so why do we only have a month for it? Everday we should recognize a brave girl/women in our life. Everyday we should make it a point to say thank you! In conclusion, THANK YOU for writing this blog and getting us to recognize someone brave/wonderful although you did have to put in the chance to win free gear for someone to write in! I suppose it is like the rice game. . .some may have done it if you had not put in the free gear but the added incentive never hurts in this society!
My 13 year old daughter Bailey is the bravest girl I know. She is usually quiet and shy, especially in school. She is constantly amazing me, but most recently, she stood up at school and spoke out against disecting animals in her science class. She politely refused to be a part of the experiment and told her teacher that she felt it was "wrong for animals to be bred just to be killed again when I can see everything I need to on a computer picture." She also told her teacher that she had an aquarium full of fish at home and that she couldn't imagine cutting into one of them, so she didn't want to cut into the one in front of her. I am so proud of her for sticking to her convictions. Bailey says that her teacher was displeased at her statements, but didn't make her continue with the disection. Bailey said she turned her head and faced the window away from everyone so that she wouldn't have to watch everyone else performing the disection. She's not even a vegetarian! Bailey is just a cool animal lover and the bravest gal I know!
I am surrounded by brave women in my family: my mom for raising two children on her own and her never failing optimism; my sister for her independence and corageousness; my Aunt Patsy for surviving the death of her husband; my Aunt Soni for living through 2 abusive husbands; and my cousin Wendy for being a single mom. I have these women to thank for my strength, compassion, and the will to keep going.
I am going to go ahead and nominate myself. On October 9th, while walking across the street, I was hit by a car. It was not known whether I would survive and if I did, it was doubtful that I would ever walk again. I suffered a broken neck (C1 and C2) a tib/fib fracture that required surgery to insert a rod into my leg, a broken nose and a traumatic brain injury.
I was in a wheelchair for a month and a halo (the big metal kind that they drill into your head)for three months. I was hospitalized for 16 days and within a week of getting out, I went back to finish a class on gender crime and justice.
A month and a half after the accident, I wheeled on in to complete the GRE, while still in pain and not able to sit up for very long.
I smiled when strangers would comment on the appearance of the halo and continue to do so regarding the comments on the neck brace and cane that I still need to use.
I endure physical therapy three days a week and countless other appointments. Throughout the whole thing, I have remained brave for my children. I have smiled when I wanted to cry and have worked hard to ease their fears of losing their mother as best I could.
I have not let my injuries ruin my life or stand in the way of my dreams and goals, I am one brave girl.
I would have to say the bravest girl i know is my dear friend Lisabet. At the young age of twenty five has been battling breast cancer for a few years now. And on top of that juggling the struggles of single motherhood. Throughout all the obtacles that have came her way she still keeps her spirits up and looks on to a new day. Her smile is so uplifting to me.... no matter what she stays strong and lives each day as if it were her last. May she continue to be strong and overcome this sour time of life. Right before i found out she had breast cancer i had a scare myself but turned out to be non cancerous..... i wonder to this day if i would have been as strong as her.....she truly is the bravest girl i know! =)
I nominate every single one of the women who posted before me! Brilliant and touching!
I want to add one more woman to the list, though: my friend, Julianne. Julianne is a smart, savvy, sweet, and constantly politically active 25-year-old whose life goal is to shine the light of social justice in the dark places.
Julianne is a tireless social activist who first and foremost battles for animal rights. She volunteers several days a week at a local shelter and has even started up her own rescue organization, into which she pumps all of her spare money. She has directly saved the lives of dozens, if not 100+, dogs and cats. Most recently she pulled and is fostering a 4-month-old kitten who was scheduled for death b/c she is shy! Julianne also works to change local legislation to require spaying and neutering.
Julianne is also a human rights activist who works to educate people about the harmfulness of beauty ideals and the disgusting existence of sizeism in all its guises. She is an officer of her local NAAFA chapter and an enthusiastic fighter for the rights of fat women and men everywhere.
I don't know where she gets the energy to do all she does, but I do know she makes the world a better place every single day. :)
Oh and btw, no need to vote for her, since she is a 5x and the prize for this contest is a shirt that only goes up to 2x. I hope the winner is under a size 22!
I nominate my daughter. She is so brave with the way that she is free with her emotions. She loves freely and feels others emotions. If her friends are sad, she is too. At 4 1/2 she is amazing and I hope she never loses this gift. She also has helped me open up my own emotional side.
My friend Keturah is a very brave gal. Her life is a testament to boldness: she was born in Montana and moved to California for education with some very interesting living conditions. After living and working, she upended everything and moved to Buffalo, working as a contractor (a male dominated, difficult job). I met her as she worked for Planned Parenthood, and advocating for reproductive rights. She's now applying to graduate school. Her life is a testament to trusting herself, advocating for what she believes in, and not being afraid of an adventure. I admire her a great deal.
Though all my female friends and family are very brave. I especially think about my friend Kim right now who I met in social work school.
She and her husband have recently taken off to South Africa with the PeaceCorps to do HIV/AIDS prevention work there.
She is brave to do this for so many reasons. I know she will change lives!
I am writing to tell you that my 11 year old daughter, Abby truly is my HERO! She has always been a very positive, caring, giving, and inspiring little girl. At school she is always the first one to welcome a new student and to make friends with kids with special needs, kids that the others either ignore or are not very nice to, and she is everybody's friend.
However in the last year my daughter has been very ill. Last April('08) she was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, which is an inflamatory bowel disease. She had to be on high doses of steroids for months in hopes it would put the disease into remision,unfortunately she did not respond to the steroid therapy, she then had to endure months of daily enemas, in hopes that would work. When that failed to be effective she went through four infusions of chemotherapy, again it failed to be effective for her. During all of this she became very bloated from the high doses of steroids and she was almost unrecognizable. Teachers and friends who have known her for years did not even recognize her when she started school last fall. Kids that she had been friends with for years, now shunned her, called her names, snickered about her behind her back but loud enough for her to know they were talking about her. So not only did she have to deal with this overwhelming and life changing disease, she now had to deal with being ridiculed, by kids she thought were her friends. She also had to stop playing soccer which she loves with a passion. That was heartbreaking for her but rather than being upset about it she asked her coaches if she could still come to practice and games when she could to help cheer on her teammates. The coaches have been so impressed with her strength and her positive attitude that they made her the team captain, let her help coach when her health allowed her to be at practice. Despite all the adversity she was having to face at such a young age, during her many hospital stays, she always made friends with other patients and did what ever she could to be a source of support to them. In November ('08) she had to have surgery to remove her entire colon, leaving her with a colostomy. This enabled her to go off all of the heavy duty drugs that just weren't working for her. During that hospital stay she met two other girls in the hospital that had almost the same set of circumstances. Abby befriended them and traded emails and did all she could to encourage them and help them through their healing journey. Through all of this adversity, Abby has remained positive, caring, giving, and inspiring. She goes to a support group and the other kids there look up to her I believe because of her strength and her unwavering compassion that she has for others. She was recognized by the hospital and the Kids Wish Network as "Hero Of The Month"for retaining a good attitude and being a model patient, caring for others as well as herself. At her party that was given in her honor by the hospital and the Kids Wish Network she used it as an opportunity to a chance to give to to other patients. The hospital has, Andrea's closet. The closet is filled with new toys, games, activities. The closet provides a toy to a child to help brighten their day or encourage them in their progress. When a child has to go through a painful proceedure or anything unpleasant or if they are just feeling scared they get to go to the closet and pick out any thing they want. I know during Abby's hospital stays, she was able to go to the closet several times to pick out something to cheer her up. So for her party she asked all the guests to please bring in new unwrapped toys to donate to Andrea's Closet, because she recognized that the closet helped to empower and encourage her to keep moving forward in her healing process.
She has been back at school now for a few weeks, after missing several months and rather than be resentful to the kids for how mean they had been to her she was able to realize that life is just to short to hold grudges.
She amazes me everyday with her strength and compassion. Her moto is "Pain is temporary, Victory is forever, Bring It On!" She will always be my HERO!
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