{The 19th Amendment....}

On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting American women the vote.
"May we never forget the plight," reminds Maria Popova of 'Brain Pickings'....who also shared these anti-suffragette postcards from the early 20th century (yikes!) ...which she calls "a brief pictorial history of socially sanctioned sexism."

And may we never forget the courage of so many women.... Thank you!   

{Life Is Love....}

"Life is love. All else is imagined confusion."

-Byron Katie

{Love comes more naturally...}

Thank you, President Obama, for reminding us!

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

-Nelson Mandela

(On August 12, 2017, after the racists events in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Obama tweeted this quote; it became the "most liked" in Twitter history.)

{Hey, Girls.....}

"Let's Make AMERICA Smart Again." 

-Neil DeGrasse Tyson

{First Girl President!}

I was visiting family in Alabama last November; I arrived a few days before the election (I had voted early in North Carolina) and my four great-nieces were so excited about the first woman president! Just turned 18, Ella was thrilled to be voting for the first time—and what a landmark time to vote. Six-year-old Ina showed me all the things she had written in her school notebook like: "Hillary! Our First Girl President!" drawn inside a big, pink pendant! 

When we all awoke that Wednesday morning to the heartbreaking news, I told Ina that Hillary didn't win, so "YOU may be the first girl president!"

I thought of that today when I read in Vogue, "In the Aftermath of Hillary Clinton's Loss, More Women Want to Run For Office Than Ever Before"—so maybe little Ina will not be first, but the 3rd or 4th woman president! (She won't mind!)

Senator Kamala Harris of California 

{If only our eyes....}

If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies how very different out ideals of beauty would be.

-Unknown

{A Revolution in Tenderness}

My article about a princess and a pope, "A Revolution in Tenderness," published on Huffington Post. 
(Everyone needs to 'try a little more tenderness'....) Enjoy! 



[The article is an excerpt from my book-in-progress, tentatively titled, From Princess to Goddess & the Rebirth of Love.]

{Be Kind}

Amen.

{Born A Crime}

A remarkable story of childhood....and the courageous mother who braved his path! Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.

{Girls & Sex & Peggy Orenstein}

When writing about the "princess myth" in my books and articles, I have often quoted the wonderful Peggy Orenstein who has been chronicling the lives of girls for over 25 years. I first discovered her insightful work in her 2011 book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter. 

Peggy's latest book, Girls & Sex, "looks at how pop culture and pornography affect the sexual expectations that girls put on themselves and that boys project on them." Read her interview with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air"...where Peggy shares when her "daughter was heading toward adolescence, it put her in a bit of a panic because she'd heard so much about how girls were treated in the so called hook-up culture."  

Peggy's work, and these illuminating interviews on NPR, are not just for parents, but for all of us who have received "mixed messages" about self-esteem and appearance, sex and pleasure....