Tag: empowerment

This Ain’t No Crisis

Katherine Silke

Screw midlife crisis. This isn’t a crisis. It’s the furthest thing from. It’s enlightenment. A goddamn renaissance. A beautiful soul-opening, mind-bending, heart-stopping, knee-weakening, see-it-with-eyes-wide-open awakening that has rendered me off-guard and breathless. My solar plexus is in a constant state of quiver. I cannot control a single speck of it. Read more

Katherine Silke

Katherine Silke has been a writer and stay-at-home mother since 1996, working in local journalism on a part-time and freelance basis while raising her two daughters. Prior to having her children, she taught middle-school English at an alternative school in Spring, Texas. A resident of Florida for the past 20 years, Katherine is a breast cancer survivor who collaborates with her hometown hospital in educating women on breast health and self care. She has just completed her first novel and is working on her second, in addition to dipping her toes in poetry writing.

Don’t Let Me Linger, Black

Jacqueline Cioffa

How could you forgive me if I can’t find it in my heart to forgive myself? For what, love? Oh, you know the goddamn basics, for living, breathing, existing. For letting the negative thoughts push against my brain dominating my train of thought. I get it, girlfriend. I have been Read more

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

Things to Tell My Daughter

Lidy Wilks

Be a witch. Oppose everything you see, read and hear strummed up as fact and scavenge for truth. Be a witch. Protect your mind and your body. Resist those who destroy what they fail to understand. Be a witch. Embrace your inner goddess, possess her shamelessly. Be brave and bold. Read more

Lidy Wilks

Lidy Wilks is the author of the poetry chapbook "Can You Catch My Flow?" Another chapbook and a full length poetry collection is in the works. Poetry is not the only genre she writes in, currently she writing a contemporary romance and a young adult supernatural novel. She's a member of Write by the Rails. And lives in Virginia with her husband and two children When Lidy Wilks is not writing, she refills her creative well and binges on the storytelling of anime. Books, manga and Asian dramas. And relaxes by listening to good music. Eating milk chocolate candies. And or with a glass of Cabernet or Riesling wine. You can visit her at: https://pavingmyauthorsroad.wordpress.com.

Family Fears and Invisible Illness

SA Smith

Life is hard, it’s even harder when you are diagnosed with a debilitating invisible illness. Once that diagnosis is given, it can feel like a life sentence. You start to work through a pattern of grief. At first, you are relieved to know that there’s a name for these symptoms Read more

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.

My Mothers

Icess Fernandez

Look me in the face and call me bruja. Let the label linger on your tongue before you swallow the reality, Before you digest the inherited truth. Go to the sea, my mother Y cobrale mis chingaderas. Recall baptism in clear waters, salted by Earth and divine prayers Slapped awake Read more

Icess Fernandez

Icess Fernandez Rojas is a journalist, blogger, teacher, and writer based in Houston. She earned my BA in Communications from the University of Houston and my MFA from Goddard College. She’s been published in USA Today, NBCNews.com, HuffingtonPost and the Guardian. She’s had fiction anthologized in Soul’s Road: A Fiction Collection and published in literary journals including Minerva Rising and The Fem Lit Magazine. Icess is also a VONA/Voices of Our Nation Foundation alum.

An Open Letter to the Average, Above Average and Perfectly Proportioned Humans

Jodie Beckstine Killian

Thank you for your beaming ear to ear grins and stifled laughs that greet me when you see me waddling by, making my way into the store. The fact that I can hear you making rude and insulting remarks after I have passed are tempered and eased by the memory Read more

Jodie Beckstine Killian

Jodie Beckstine Killian has always been a little different. Growing up in a small Wisconsin town she stood out from the rest as a person born with Hypochondroplasia. As a budding entertainer, this wasn’t a disability but a “super” ability that allowed her to get noticed, but not always in the way she hoped. Stares, discrimination and cruel comments are something she deals with daily and writes about often. She currently lives in Florida. (She doesn’t miss Wisconsin winters). She works in marketing, social media and is currently writing her first novel.

Use the Power of Positive Thinking to Change Your Life

Julie Anderson

Like most people, I have experienced the constant chatter ringing in my ears. The voice I heard was filled with the fear of failure. When I listened closely, I heard snippets like these: “You can’t do that, what if you fail?” “You are too old to try to do something different with your life.” 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.

F**k the Chick Flick

Amy Martin

Chick flicks get a lot of flak. And rightfully so. If you’ve ever seen a chick flick, it may be safe to say that you’ve seen them all. Hollywood is grievously predictable and formulaic with its production of films for the ladies. In this genre of pop-culture film that is Read more

Amy Martin

Amy was born on the wrong side of the Holland Tunnel, and has considered this just-missed connection to be a metaphor for her life ever since. Later, she traveled north to New England and received her degrees in Philosophy, Theatre and French. The years to follow have been spent traveling the world and working on multiple projects in Kenya, in a desperate attempt to save humanity. Amy spends most of her free time daydreaming about being French — but you can also find her in the garden, in the kitchen or on her yoga mat. Amy writes about travel, ethics, life and everything in-between.