Entries from March 2010 ↓

I just spent the weekend at Northern Colorado Writers Conference. I pitched The Girl Revolution book to an agent, Rachelle Garnder, a lovely woman with two daughters, at lunch. She invited me to send it in.

I pitched to another editor, a genuinely nice man, Ben Barnhard from during the Pitch Sessionand I totally CRUSHED IT! It was so fun and exciting! He thinks it’s a great book, the timing is right, I’ve done all the legwork of building a Tribe and Author Platform (that’s YOU!), but not right for his publishing company. He did, however, give me some names of publishers he thinks will be interested.

I had so much fun talking to people about The Girl Revolution.

Share, share, share and invite, invite, invite people to The Girl Revolutin Blog and The Girl Revolution Fan Page on Facebook. The more people I have on this website and on my Facebook Fan Page, the faster I can bring the amazing and unique book I’ve written to market.

Girls deserve it and Mothers deserve it!!!

I felt your energy and enthusiasm for the act of mothering and the desire to raise powerful and authentic daughters during the entire conference. Pushing me to reach. Pushing me  to strive.

I heart you people! You are the best Tribe a girl could ask for!!!

I talk a lot about emotional osmosis, the idea that feelings are passed down from parent to child, which is how we inherit negative body image, abusive cycles in relationships and similar addictions to our family members. The only cure, of course, is to deal with your internal emotional crap and project positive body image, healthy relationships to people and substances.

I got this in my Daily Quote from Abraham-Hicks Publications and I thought, see I’m not the only one who knows this!

The child is thinking, and receiving vibrational thought from you on the day that he enters your environment. That is the reason that beliefs are transmitted so easily from parent to child, from parent to child, from parent to child. The child is vibrationally receiving your fears, your beliefs, even without your spoken word… If you want to do that which is of greatest value for your child, give thought only to that which you want, and your child will receive only those wanted thoughts.

~ Excerpted from “The Law of Attraction, The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham”

In parenting . . .

It doesn’t matter what you say about your body. It matters only what you feel about your body.

It doesn’t matter what you say you believe about food. It matters how you feel about food (or drugs or sex or alcohol or cigarettes).

It doesn’t matter what you say you believe about men. It matters how you feel about men.

It doesn’t matter what you say you feel about how you are. It matters how you feel about who you are.

Power and freedom is knowing you can control the way you feel.

How you feel always, every time, translates into what you do.

The Health Care Reform Bill passed the United States Senate yesterday.

This is a great day for girls and all other Americans. They will never lose their insurance. They can’t lose it if they “get” a pre-existing condition. They can’t lose it if their parents get laid off, if they marry the guy who gets laid off, they can’t lose it if they get divorced, they can’t lose it if they, themselves, get laid off.

And neither can we.

To Republicans who were against this bill: I’m sorry you feel that way. Fear seems to be the source of the angst about health care reform. To which I’ll quote the Motto of America: In God We Trust. Then I’ll quote the Bible and say, “Perfect love casts out fear.” I’ll further advise a shift in perspective to one of lack and limited resources to the reality that we’re still the richest nation on the Planet Earth and we live in a Universe of Abundance. We CAN afford it. It’s more efficient. Try to see it. It feels better.

I’ve noticed this about Republicans I know personally: though they say they are against social welfare programs, they seem to be pretty happy about cashing unemployment checks, having their babies on federal and state health care programs if they’re pregnant without insurance (many times on purpose), using public funds for family planning, feeding their kids on WIC and food stamps, filing for social security and medicare and medicaid when they need it. It’s a paradox I have not been able to puzzle out through the entire health care debate. I have no doubt they’ll all find the most beneficial way to use this health care bill too.

As they should.

I have equal faith that insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and health care providers will find a way to capitalize on this bill as well. It’s who they are and what they do. They’re freaking geniuses at it.

As they should.

Health care should focus on wellness and healing the sick.

I feel confident this Bill makes the best attempt possible  — in our complicated system of checks and balances and “great compromises” – to put the focus back on health, wellness and healing.

Now, if the American Citizens can get their own personal focus on compassion we’ll really be doing well. Perhaps that’s too much to ask of a Bill or a for-profit health care industry. Compassion can only happen in the hearts of Americans. I have faith we can pull that off too. It’s who we are. It’s what we do. We’re freaking geniuses at it.

Teen girls aren’t as stupid as I thought. I know, this is a totally pro-girl website. That doesn’t meant I think girls are always the smartest. Sometimes — especially when boys and men are involved — girls can be quite stupid. Myself included. Hell, historically, myself mostly.

I’ve been subbing at the high school and junior high this year. It’s pretty fun. I adore teenagers. I’m a freak like that. I’ll take a classroom of teens over a gaggle of snotty toddlers that want to cuddle with me any day.

Their regular teacher warned me that this class was really, really bad and that they couldn’t be trusted not to talk if I even let them whisper and she wanted names of anyone who uttered so much as a whisper and she would dully punish them.

Uh ok.

The whole not talking thing struck me as stupid when I was in junior high. It still does.

I went back to reading the 3rd book in the Twilight Series, Eclipse. What I won’t do for The Girl Revolution, caught off guard with nothing to read, with access to a junior high library.

If you’ve been here before you know that I hate the Twilight Series because I think Bella is the stupidest girl character on the Planet Earth. But, whatever, at least girls are reading. Who cares if they’re reading training material for being a battered girlfriend?

That teacher was so right. As soon as the girls saw what I was reading they started talking about Twilight. This is, after all, THE girl-culture phenomenon of their time. They couldn’t escape it if they wanted to.  Everyone’s talking about it, everyone has seen the movies, read the books, bought the branded accessories and school supplies.

Bella is so stupid! one girl said.

Really? How so? I said, totally shocked.

She wants to die. Don’t you think that’s stupid? they said.

Yeah, I think it’s stupid, but I thought girls thought it was romantic, I said.

No, she’s totally stupid. She goes for Edward and he’s totally ugly! they said.

In the book he’s not ugly, he’s the most beautiful man in entire history of mankind, well vampirekind! I argued.

In the movie he’s ugly and pasty. Jacob is sooo hot! they declared.

One girl pulled out a photo of Jacob. He’s hot.

So, you don’t think it’s romantic to give up everything and die for a boy? I asked.

No way! I don’t want to die! Why would you want to die? Would you want to die with an ugly man? they asked.

I hate to break it to you, but most of you will probably die with ugly men. Look around ladies, this is as good as boys get, eventually they are old and bald and pot-bellied, I said. I’m sorry I can’t help myself. The truth pops out of my mouth before I can stop it sometimes.

They looked around shocked and laughed.

One of the boys said something like, Twilight is so stupid.

To which I responded, Smart boys will read it so they know what girls want. Otherwise they’ll constantly be wondering how come they disappoint their girlfriends.

Seriously, you don’t want to give up your whole life, your whole family, your ability to have children, college, careers and all that for a boy? I asked them. I thought perhaps I might cry with relief.

No way! Besides, she should have gone with Jacob, he’s way hotter, they said.

That settles it. There is hope for the future of girls in spite of trashy-romance-novels-turned-propaganda-for-eternal-marriage.

In fact, now that I think about it, it makes those girls smarter than lots of women I know. At least for now, while it remains hypothetical.

Remember Kevin? He was our teenage friend who wanted to know why women didn’t like being called curvy. I suggested, in a nutshell, that maybe the girl wanted her self to be acknowledged before Kevin got all into her curvy bod. Click HERE if you don’t remember.

Kevin took my advice and it worked out for him. He and the girl have been on a couple of dates. With their permission, here’s how the juicy goodness of respectful dating went down:

Dear E,

Kevin