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Advice for Women on Empowering Themselves, Friends & Family
Annette Rodriguez talks about empowering women and what we need to do to support each other.
Throughout history, we’ve seen women march to the beat of their own drum and defy expectations. They’re looked at with fascination, fear, and often ridicule. Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, the suffragettes, and Rosa Parks, were all trailblazers, especially when women have long been expected to remain at home and silently conform.
It wasn’t until education started to become more accessible for women that things changed. They still haven’t changed enough, but they’ve gotten better. Every day there are more expectations, and society is still getting used to the idea that women can accomplish the same, if not more, than men.
Expectations are too high
While society is changing, we still have a long way to go. As women, we need to be there for each other as these changes take place. We often feel that we can’t give 100% of a role. We can’t be the perfect worker AND the
Homemaker
Wife
Mother
Daughter
Caregiver
The list goes on
Those are society’s expectations of us, though. We feel guilty when we can’t be 100% in these roles for everyone who needs us.
It’s a struggle, but we need to let those expectations go.
Yes, we all want to do the absolute best we can, but life goes so fast that we’ll never catch up as much as we want if we focus on trying to be everything for everybody.
How do we support other women?
We need to first accept ourselves as vulnerable, imperfect, and the work in progress we all are.
We need to be there for each other. We each learn from an early age many of the expectations:
Be soft-spoken
Be well-behaved
Be lady-like
Settle down
Leave the “hard work” to the men
If we want something better for our own futures, and the next generation’s, we should lead the change. That starts with being there for each other and asking ourselves, how can we help? The world has enough rivalry and women’s progress has been a long and hard time coming. We can do anything, but we should all appreciate that support and teamwork makes most things easier. It’s the way to really be triumphant.
We are women, with goals that dictate progress, happiness, change, and future accomplishments. We cannot be a jack of all trades, time will not allow it; but, we can do it all through teamwork. That means not seeing our female colleagues as competitors but as friends and assets. We should embrace our differences and disagreements - that type of effective communication is the sign of a great workplace.
Just as our ancestors worked hard so we could have a better life, we call it to our descendants to do the same. If we do not stand up for ourselves, we are only going to help slow down the changes we all want to see coming. The only way to propel ourselves forward is through acceptance, advocacy, networking, and teamwork.
Annette “Annie” Rodriguez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and started to write consistently when she was in tenth grade. As her writing and creative imagination progressed, Annie became confident enough to share her work and create her own characters. The first draft of Lifeforce was born.
Lifeforce was picked up for publication by Green Writers Press and her first novel was published in February 2019. Lifeforce’s sequel, Immortality’s Peril, is in progress.
Annie’s writing is accompanied by her impressive background as a practicing attorney, holding two Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees. Lifeforce was published during her first year of law school. A minority woman who has worked with students, Annie’s passion for writing keeps her sane in the sometimes harsh reality of training to practice law.
Call for Resources
Have a resource about writing, confidence, mental health, or learning? Need a resource about those topics? This page is for you.
I love a good list. In fact, if you could see my office, you’d find about 20 colored Post-It notes with different lists. Some are reminders and some are to-do lists. Some are notes from calls I didn’t know were going to happen and had to write something down before I forgot.
But my favorite lists are resources. Helpful websites, books, videos, etc. that you can learn from. It could be because learning is one of my strengths and that I enjoy it. There’s something comforting about having a list of places to go when you have a question or need help, though. There’s something satisfying in knowing that you’re not the only person who thinks about things in categories and wonders if other people might find them helpful.
This is why the Resources page on my new website is so meaningful to me.
It started with the resources from writing my book, Storytelling for Everyday People. But many things I know come from experience - they’re not listable, tangible articles you can read or a video you can watch. I can’t list teaching experience as a resource because you can’t really access my brain like it’s Google, right?
From the outset, that’s been a question on my mind: how can I make this page the most useful list possible? How do I get more resources without seeming disingenuous or like I’m going on the internet to find random sources to beef up a web page? Because one thing is for sure: NOTHING on the website is random. Every step and design choice - even colors and images - are intentional.
That’s how I landed on submissions. Who best to share resources than experts using and creating them?
What’s on the Resources Page
When you land on the Resources page, you’ll notice 3 main sections after the welcome message. The current categories are Websites & Articles, Books, and Talks. I landed on these sections because they tend to cover a pretty wide selection of information you can read and watch. In the future, I could see this being extended to podcasts and interviews as well, but for now, you’ll find most videos under Talks.
The Websites & Articles section is the most defined with 6 sections:
Mental health
Therapy
Learning & Confidence
Writing
Writing & Book Coaching
Blogging
The books and talks are listed as a group. As people submit more resources, you’ll start seeing more sections in those areas as well. It’s a living list, so my goal is for it to continue growing and become a go-to place for those looking for resources about writing, confidence, mental health, and eventually addiction recovery.
Where & How to Submit + Standards
If you or your business have a resource that could be helpful for those in the mental health and addiction recovery communities, feel free to submit it! All you have to do is go to the Resources page, scroll down to the bottom, and click the button that says “Submit Resource(s).”
When you submit, it sends me an email so I can see and review the resources.
Once I get the notification, I’ll go read or watch/listen to the piece. If it’s a website, I check the organization and domain authority to make sure the source is legitimate. If I can’t find a website that clearly explains who the organization is or what it does, the resource doesn’t make the cut. I need to know the information is reliable so I’m not sharing incorrect information or propaganda. No spam here!
I also don’t accept sales pages or pitches for products and services. Same with polarizing or unrelated opinions. None of those are really resources, so they don’t belong on a page that’s free and meant to provide help.
After the source is vetted, I’ll put it up on the website where it can start helping more people.
Within the first couple of weeks of the new submission system, I’ve already gotten a couple of submissions. Very exciting! I can’t wait to see all of the helpful resources out there in the world that I don’t know about yet.
In the meantime, I’ll keep making my fun colored lists on Post-Its and sticking them everywhere. It makes my office more home-y, and to be honest, I can’t imagine working in a space that didn’t have notes everywhere. It just feels like a learner’s place to be.
If you have a resource or know about a business or organization that would be a good fit, feel free to share the website and resources page! The more the merrier. Let’s work together to make the world a more informed and helpful place.
Welcome Holly, New Contributor!
Capturing Your Confidence is growing! I’m very excited to welcome a new contributor to the team. Over the past year and a half (if you can believe it’s already been that long), I’ve loved writing new content for you each week. I still do! Adding Holly to the team will allow us to work on putting up more than one piece of content per week and keep up with the increasing interest in book reviews & interviews with authors!
Capturing Your Confidence is growing!
I’m very excited to welcome a new contributor to the team.
Over the past year and a half (if you can believe it’s already been that long), I’ve loved writing new content for you each week. I still do!
Adding Holly to the team will allow us to work on putting up more than one piece of content per week and keep up with the increasing interest in book reviews & interviews with authors!
Holly is a published author and blogger in the writing world. Reading and writing are her favorite things to do! She graduated from the University of New England majoring in English and minoring in Sociology, Psychology, and Women and Gender Studies.
Since then, she has been a substitute teacher, retail associate, office manager, and greenhouse associate, all while continuing to pursue her dream to be a full time writer.
Since the pandemic began, she determined it was time to dedicate herself to blog and writing full time! It has been a bit of a rollercoaster, but she has never felt more fulfilled. She’s very excited to begin a new adventure collaborating with Capturing Your Confidence!
We chatted with Holly to get to know her a little better.
Tell us a little about your writing.
I have been writing since I was in high school. I started out with realistic teen fiction, but have since discovered my love for writing fantasy!
More recently I have begun blogging. I like to write about writing and reading! Writing tips, author interviews, book reviews and more can be found on my blog, livingthroughwriting.com.
If readers are interested in reading more about you and your writing, where can they find you?
If readers want to learn more about me, they can check me out on Instagram: @livingthroughwriting or my website livingthroughwriting.com. Those are the best places to learn more about me.
I am also on Twitter and Facebook - @holly5993 on Twitter and Living Through Writing on Facebook.
What do you like to read?
I am a big fantasy fan, but sometimes a good old fashioned young adult romance novel is fun, too. Honestly I am easy to please as a reader, so almost any genre could intrigue me.
One of my must haves when I’m reading, though, is a romance story to follow, even if it’s not the main focus of the book.
One of my must haves when I’m reading, though, is a romance story to follow, even if it’s not the main focus of the book. Of course, even though I say it’s a must have, I’ve enjoyed books that don’t have a romance story in the past, but the story has to be really good for that to happen.
What’s one tip you would offer to new writers?
I would say keep pushing onward. Sometimes life drags you down, or maybe other people, but you can’t let them take you away from what you love. If writing is what you want to do, do it!
Sometimes life drags you down, or maybe other people, but you can’t let them take you away from what you love. If writing is what you want to do, do it!
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t, or shouldn’t, and don’t let yourself say those things either! I have had plenty of instances where I have doubted my capabilities as a writer, and though I’m not completely over those insecurities, I am much better for pushing onward and listening to praise rather than my own doubts.
Why are you excited to join the Capturing Your Confidence team?
I am so excited to join the Capturing Your Confidence team because I love everything that you stand for! Confidence is key when it comes to writing, and life. Once you find your confidence, you can do anything you set your mind to!
I am also excited to be working with new, fun people! Writing can be a lonely task at times, so it is always nice when you get to work with others on projects you love!