becoming an advocate for female empowerment through fiction
Post on 14-Apr-2017
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TRANSCRIPT
Becoming An Advocate For Female
Empowerment Through Fiction
When I first began to write my novel Before The Lights Go Out, it was for
selfish reasons. I was living paycheck to paycheck, on public assistance, and only a
high school diploma. I was in the woods and I didn't realize how deep I'd allowed
myself to deviate from the vision I had for my life. Of course, I saw my writing as
a gateway to a better life for me and my family. I wanted the fame and the instant
glorification of being respected in an industry that I admired. Honestly, I still
would like to be famous and successful. However, my selfish attitude has shifted
and become diluted. My desire to become rich is more psychological than anything
else. So, I needed to re-exam the purpose behind my gift. It wasn't until I was able
to accept my reality that I realized my gift has a higher calling than just to become
financially stable. It's one thing to exist and it's another to actually live and thrive. I
want to live and thrive, more importantly I want my work to be a representation of
who I am and the I am becoming.
After being honest with myself and researching online about how to become an
author for years and years. I realized the message and brand that I want to convey
is female empowerment. It became clearer in the way I changed from wearing
weaves and perms to rocking my natural tresses. To gravitating to women in
different industries whom were making statements about self-love, self-worth, and
redefining life on your terms. I became empowered by the words and actions of
Nina Simone, verb age of Jill Scott, and the individualism of Janelle Monae. I
began to see my writing career as an opportunity to either reconstruct the way
society views beauty and women or buy into objectification and misogynistic way
women are portrayed on TV and media. To write books about women in pursuit of
materialistic things and flawless love is not real. Women are more than just
mindless body parts. We are the creators of life and the backbones of our
communities. But, it becomes almost impossible to find positive messages of
female empowerment today. Too often we are often depicted ad vapid, hell raising,
glorified sex goddesses, or more. I often wonder what messages are we sending our
young girls. Yes, it is okay to embrace your femininity, but you don't have to
exploit your body and sacrifice your integrity to get noticed.
It is my intention and my hope to convey through my novels, short stories, and
more real women. Real women whom struggle with self-worth, self-love, and
finding their place in this world. I want to create empowering and dynamic female
characters who are not victims of their circumstances. They are victorious leaders
of their lives and communities. If nothing else when a reader reads the last page of
my novel I want them to know that there is hope, there is a light at the end of the
tunnel, and that I am a champion of women. An advocate of female empowerment
and a proponent of change. It is my hope to inspire, motivate, and change as many
lives as possible. The fight of female empowerment doesn't end with me, but with
your help we can keep it going.
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