Category: Women’s Issues + Awareness

We Need to Talk About Your Eyeliner

Tonya Riner

There are some look-at-me trends going on with eyeliner. Whether you’re into bold strokes or more comfortable walking on the edge of a trend, I have something for you. The new liners and the looks that are shown using them are pretty extreme, but don’t let that scare you. Here’s Read more

Tonya Riner

Tonya Riner started doing makeup as a teenager in her two-stoplight hometown in Kansas. From there, she declared herself a professional, and has spent the last twenty-five years on fashion shoots and shows, on both coasts, and in Europe. Tonya's work has been featured in Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. She was included in Allure Magazine’s Directory as one of the best makeup artists in the United States. Her long list of celebrity clientele includes Heidi Klum, Erin Wasson, Julie Anderson, Rachel Hunter, Chandra North, and Lauren Bush. Backstage, she has worked alongside Frederic Fekkai and Ted Gibson. She was a member of the beauty team for Beyonce’s Blow video. For Tonya, one of the most rewarding parts of her job is spending time, one-on-one, with models and clients. She finds that ordinary barriers fall away within minutes of the start of a makeup session, leaving space for instant intimacy and the shared pursuit of beauty. Connecting with extraordinary people from all walks of life fuels her passion for her work. As a consultant, Tonya works with creative teams to devise strategies for beauty brand product development, most recently for the company, Beauty for Real. She enjoys working with products from both the manufacturing and marketing ends. Moving forward, she would like to be instrumental in the development of the kinds of beauty products she, herself, would want to use.

White Mother of a Brown Son

Meghan Flaherty

I am the white mother of a brown son. He was born in the year of Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Freddie Gray. I am afraid for his brown skin. I can’t protect him from his brown skin. Nothing I teach him will change the color of his brown Read more

Meghan Flaherty

Meghan Flaherty is a writer living in Jersey City. She is currently working on a book about motherhood and race.

Pascale Lafay – Femme de l’art

Julie Anderson

Pascale Lafay is a woman of substance who breathes life into unspoken emotions.  Her list of accomplishments an  artist’s dream. After studying at the Beaux-Arts school in France, Pascale launched her career by creating unique furniture and jewelry for a myriad of fashion designers including Thierry Mugler and Christian Dior. Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

I Used to Think Abuse Victims Were Stupid

Sarahbeth Caplin Stoneburner

I have a small degree of sympathy for people who judge women in abusive relationships. That’s because I used to be one. I recall a Dear Abby column I read over my morning cereal about ten years ago, which I later vented to my mother about. A woman wrote to Read more

Sarahbeth Caplin Stoneburner

Sarahbeth Caplin is an author, blogger, and editor living in northern Colorado. She has a degree in English Literature from Kent State University and is working on an MA in Creative Writing at Colorado State. Her new novel, A Stunning Accusation, is published by Booktrope and is available on Amazon. She blogs at www.sbethcaplin.com and tweets @SbethCaplin.

Unwelcome Burial Benefits and Sagging Thighs

Susan P. Blevins

In the past week a couple of things have happened that have brought me face to face with my own mortality; also with the fact that turning seventy can be painful, statistically speaking. It takes a bit of getting used to emotionally also, and I experienced a slump for half Read more

Susan P. Blevins

Susan P. Blevins was born in England, and escaped at age twenty on her life quest, moving first to Italy for 26 years, and then to the USA, where she now lives. The older she gets, the more passionately involved she becomes in the world, and the more she wants to make a personal contribution. She believes that we can all make a difference, one hug, and one smile at a time.

Listening Tears

Julie Anderson

Do you hear me? He asked. Repeat what I just said. No no no you have got it wrong What the fuck is wrong with your head? This isn’t back then. I used to scream with rage and belittle you, but not anymore. I was just angry because I know Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

Lip Gloss and Roadblocks Along the Female Career Highway

Erin Righetti

When I was very little, we had a big window in the family room, and every weekday morning when my dad would go to work, I would rush to the window and stand behind the drawn curtain facing our gravel driveway. My dad would start up the car and back out Read more

Erin Righetti

Erin Righetti is a professional writer across multiple media channels. She has over 20 years experience as a freelance writer/reporter, and has been a contributor to newspapers and online magazines and blogs. Erin works as a public relations and social media strategist in Carlsbad, California.

The EQ Factor

Michele Rigby Assad

What’s it really like to walk into a room and debrief a terrorist who has agreed to work with the CIA?  Pretty intimidating. These are not small matters:  they are issues of life and death.  This is a high-stakes game of manipulation and control.  Let’s be honest about the guy Read more

Michele Rigby Assad

After obtaining a masters degree in Arab Studies at Georgetown University, Michele applied—along with hundreds of others from the university--to work for the CIA. After a long and grueling hiring process and a year of intensive training, she became an intelligence officer for the National Clandestine Service, the covert (operational) arm of the Agency. Serving for a decade as a counterterrorism officer, Michele worked in all of the awful places you hope you’ll never visit, including Iraq during the height of the war. To date, Michele has traveled to 45 countries, lived in six of those, and has a lot of crazy stories to tell about life overseas. While working for the CIA, Michele initially decried the traits that made her different from senior male officers, but later realized that these traits were what made her a great intelligence officer (empathy, intuition, strong interpersonal skills). Now she’s on a mission to show women that they have the elements to be a Femme Fatale—the incredibly intelligent and operationally astute woman that gets stuff done. After years of service to her country, Michele has left the undercover life behind and now works as an international management consultant focused on Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She has a more “normal” life now and a lot more time to do the things she loves: writing, cooking, traveling for pleasure, walking on the beach—and most of all, inspiring others!