#GirlLove blog challenge

I have been tagged by Sana–author of My Journey with Hijab, A Day Dreamer’s Diary–to participate in the #Girllove challenge, launched by Lilly Singh, a.k.a. Superwoman, on her  YouTube Channel. Lilly Singh is a Canadian vlogger, actress, comedian, and rapper, age 27. She is tired of ‘girl-on-girl hate’ in schools, workplaces, and social media, so she decided to reverse trends by promoting #GirlLove.  In her empowering video  young women speak out  about their respect and gratitude for other women in their lives. Proceeds from video views will go to the Malala Fund to help educate girls around the world. The goal of the fund is to “enable girls to complete 12 years of safe, quality education so that they can achieve their potential and be positive change-makers in their families and communities”.

Lilly’s challenge was to compliment other women in social media using the hashtag #GirlLove.  In the blogging world the challenge has become more detailed.

Here’s what you do for the #GirlLove Challenge:

1. Tell your followers who inspires you, a famous woman who may be dealing with negativity on a daily basis. 
2. Tell your followers who inspires you in real life, a woman you always interact with.
3. Tag five women bloggers who you love. Compliment them and tell them why you love them, and comment under their latest post with the link to your #GirlLove post!

If you get tagged, do the post on your own blog. If you want to do it anyway, do it anyway! Add the tag ‘Girl Love’ to your post, so we can see them all! Let’s start 2016 with LOVE for each other!

♦

Before I start expressing admiration for other women, I would like to step back a bit.  What is ‘girl-on-girl-hate’ anyway?  For starters, I am not a ‘girl’ anymore, but I was one decades ago, and of course, I  belong to the same gender ‘club’.  And as much as I would like to hope that over the decades feminism has made inroads–and it has–there is still much misogyny in our society. Deep-seated attitudes don’t disappear overnight, or even over decades–they often fade and resurface in new ways.  Nowadays we are  recognizing rape culture at universities and internalized misogyny surfacing as girl-on-girl competition, bullying, and social media putdowns.  How much girl-against-girl stuff is fabricated by the entertainment industry and how much exists in real life, is not clear, but media and reality feed on each other.  It doesn’t hurt to empower girls and women with reminders that we don’t have to be that way. Clearly we want friendships, sisterhood, and empowerment.

The most significant person in my life is a woman.  Two significant qualities that I admire about her are:  her determination to contribute to society, despite significant health obstacles; and her love of animals–her willingness to drop everything to rescue or protect an animal, whether it is a groundhog, turtle, puppy, or ladybug.  My mother is no longer in this life, but I feel her with me in many ways;  I feel an enormous gratitude for her consistent caring of me and my brother and sisters–her daily sacrifice of time and attention; and her lifetime dedication to good nutrition and natural health.  I also admire her service to the community into her eighties until illness overcame her.

The first woman I thought of when I read  the famous person part of the challenge was Malala Yousafzai .  She and her father  promoted secondary education for girls when clearly to do so was dangerous. I find her ongoing activism inspiring. Her story is recorded on her website. Next, I thought of the many young women dedicating themselves to environmental causes–writing articles, speaking at public events, attending demonstrations, and more.  Specifically, I thought of Naomi Klein,  Canadian author, journalist, and activist who has written several well-known commentaries on our world, including This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate.  I was also pleased to read that in interviews with the press she speaks positively of other women ‘in the front lines of fighting climate change’.

And now, as the final step of this challenge, I list five women bloggers who inspire me.  This list is by no means exhaustive.

Vashti of The Writer Next Door, who is generous with her comments and encouragement. Her creativity abounds–I see it in her haiku and her Writer’s Quote Wednesday posts. She has published a  suspense/thriller novel for pre-teens and, if you read her side columm summary, you’ll see that she writes and lives with passion.

Jane of Jane DoughertyWrites, who posts amazing poems and short fiction on her blog. She hosts a Poetry Challenge that is open to poets and learners, such as myself, with skill, care, attention, kindness, and humour.  And, she is a prolific author, having published many books, featured on her home page.

Jenn of The SecretKeeper, a creative poet, storyteller, philosopher, artist and more. I know her from what she posts and her thought provoking, engaging comments.  She has also become a muse with her  (5) Word Weekly Writing Prompt, that invites all forms of poetry and short fiction–it’s on my ‘when I have time I would like to’ list.

Colleen of SilverThreading–reading her About page is inspiring in itself, but my entry into her friendly blogging world was through her Writer’s Quote Wednesday event which attracts inspiring quotes about writing and life–and creative presentations of quotes in images–a whole new world for me, that links my interest in reading with writing, in a fun way. Her blog is a magical place of humour, beauty, useful information, stories, poetry, and more.  She has also written a novel–soon to be published.

Marje of Kyrosmagica, I know of Marje through Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge and Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday (it’s a small world). I thoroughly enjoy her absolutely generous quote posts, including her own quotable phrases, photography, and more. I also have enjoyed her haiku including, but not limited to, her own particular flair for humour and fantasy. To read about her, her novels, and to find an extensive quote collection, please follow her link.

If you feel inspired by the #GirlLove challenge, follow the video link above to get the full ‘flavour’ and perhaps take part.  Guidelines for a blog response are above.  An alternative to a blog response would be  a social media posting complimenting or thanking another woman using the tag #GirlLove.