Maybe it’s Witchcraft, maybe it’s Maybelline

 

Maybe it’s Witchcraft, maybe it’s Maybelline

Women’s Day- 9 August 2016

Wow, can you believe it? Women have totally skyrocketed since the 1930s! We've swapped aprons for briefcases, and shopping trolleys for performance cars, while jointly raising enlightened new generations, notwithstanding some of the same old struggles, and a few wrestling matches with our oppressors. Not all is lost... Women now proudly hold a whopping 8% of Fortune 500 CEO roles! Talk about shattering glass ceilings! Strap on those helmets and keep aiming high, ladies!

Despite the constant concussions we suffer from hitting our heads on the Glass Ceiling, more and more enlightened women are rising above the shards of oppression.

We know NOW that our butt’s are perfect, our smile lights up the room and we have an insanely cool mind! We are way more than enough! In fact, if we ever let our heads down, it will only be to admire our Louboutins or Jimmy Choo's!

When I do look back in the rearview mirror, it's only to see just how far I've come, hurtling through the many life challenges. Through it all, I pulled up my big girl panties (BGPs), slathered on my Vicious Red lipstick, strapped on my killer heels and strode out the front door, taking on the next challenge. 

Lucky me, it wasn’t the 1770’s, when the British Parliament banned lipstick, saying that it had the power to seduce men into marriage and classified it as witchcraft! Witchcraft?

Maybe it is witchcraft, maybe it’s Maybelline!

Don’t for a moment, imagine that the red lipstick and BGP's made it a walk in the park! There were days when the panties gave me a painful wedgie, when the red lipstick covered my teeth and I teetered and stumbled on those killer heels at the most inopportune times.

But even when I fell, I rose up. Stronger and more determined than before. That's because I’m a survivor, in control of my life with the deep conviction that there is nothing I can’t achieve.

However, I am not alone, I do not exist in a vacuum. I am who I am because of the strong women who have come before me. Women like, my mother, my grandmothers, my aunts and all those strong women who went about their seemingly mundane lives without even recognising their own strength and leadership. 

I have learnt that you can be strong and gentle, be intelligent and humble, 

be fierce and yet compassionate. 

We are emotional beings with a strong sense of empathy and care. 

Do not let the world make you hard when you’re soft, 

do not let hurt make you hate and 

do not let bitterness rob you of your sweetness 

which makes you a woman.

Don't be someone else...

Somebody famous once said, 'If you aspire to be like a man, then you lack ambition,' 

We should be aspiring to be human, to create a more compassionate and inclusive world where understanding and kindness prevail. #bekind

Have the courage to confront other women who have hurt or offended you. Be that woman who teaches and elevates other women, not one who engages in backstabbing and whispering behind backs.

You are not alone! Be the example to the girl child who needs to still come up the ranks. Be a woman she can trust.

It’s the time to celebrate our sensuality and womanity, to lead from a place of love and humanity and to be the person we want our daughters to become.

Van