Celebrating Girl Power

I don't know about you but I am loving all of the recent girl power stories in the news lately.  Kind of  awesome that women are being celebrated.  Just watched this great documentary on PBS called Makers: Women Who Make America and felt so lucky to have grown up in the time that I did with all sorts of opportunities at my fingertips.  I forgot that there was more to PBS than Downton Abbey! And then, for a good dose of extra inspiration I watched a bunch of these video interviews on their website featuring all of these women I really admire (Martha Stewart, Diane Von Furstenberg, Katie Couric, etc.) talking about overcoming their fears of failure and succeeding in their chosen careers.

Well, I really was truly inspired!  Even though I finally feel like I am on the right path, starting over a new career I love, I still feel waves of fear and doubt every so often (let's be real - I feel those doubts all the time!).  And now I'm working on a big project that scares the wits out of me (more on that in the coming weeks!) and have all sorts of anxiety about it... So, having these super successful gals talking about the same fears in their videos makes me feel that much stronger in my decision to persevere.  I am more determined to to prove the cliche - sometimes the greatest risks bring the greatest rewards - isn't such a bad idea.

I also saw a documentary called Girl Rising last week that reiterated my gratefulness for living in a country that offers people (and girls especially) so many opportunities, no matter what class you are born into.  Seeing the girls featured in the film made my think of my own experience meeting children in the tiny village in Nepal I volunteered in last year. 

I was asked to speak to a group of women in a local chapter of an organization called NCL (National Charity League) here in LA and did so last night.  The representative from NCL that invited me thought that my story might be inspirational to some of their group's members  as a lot of them are moms that have taken time off from raising their kids and are now looking at reentering the workforce.  I have to say, I was really flattered.  And the gals that I met were pretty cool!  A couple of them asked me what I thought of the new Sheryl Sandberg book, Lean In.  Well, I haven't read it, but, in my opinion, leaning in is all well and good as long as you are leaning towards happiness and doing something you love.  If not, what's the point?  Who cares about the big title and big salary if you don't really enjoy what you are doing.

A big THANK YOU to the folks at Williams Sonoma Designer Marketplace (the folks behind West Elm and Pottery Barn) for listing ME as on of the best interior designers to follow on Pinterest.  Pretty cool, right???


Oh, and the fab art at the top of this post? Well, that's by a local artist here in LA that I love, named Kelly Reemsten .  You should definitely check out one of her shows if you can!  Really fabulous!

For those of you just tuning in and wanting to know more about me you can by going here... and you can read about the start of my journey as an interior design intern here and if you didn't already know... I created a facebook page... check it out and "like" it! and follow me on twitter and you can even follow my boards on pinterest too!

until next time...

the formerly almost 40 year old intern