Society tries to put us all into nice little boxes, but you and I both know that we’re more than what fits neatly into a box. There’s a lot more to the labels that society, our family and our friends give us, and this is the basis for the new “Use Your And” campaign from Gillette Venus. They asked me to share my story, and encourage my readers to do the same – as women, we’re not two dimensional and one thing should not define us.
So what would you tell your younger self if you had a chance to go back? Would you tell the ten, twelve or fourteen year old version of yourself to change how you did anything? For me, I wouldn’t – I think everything we’ve experienced makes up who we are in the future. I don’t live with regrets, but thing failures are learning experiences that help us avoid those mistakes or others we might make later. But what I would do is encourage my younger self to keep writing. I’ve always loved to write, and maybe it would have strengthened my path to blogging or set me on another adventure.
If someone were to ask you to describe yourself what would you say? I could easily say I’m a writer, a designer and a professor. But that’s not all there is to me. I’m an aunt, a sister, an artist, a beekeeper, a world traveler and there’s so much more. I’m passionate about giving back to the community, could bake for days, love fresh and local and love our city. When I was younger I was told I couldn’t do some things because I was a girl – simple things like using tools, building things or even do much more than grow up to be a wife or a mother. We’re all on our own paths, and while being a wife and mother is on my list of things to do – it’s not all that will define me. I take great pride in making sure that anything I’ve been told I can’t do, I prove wrong. I’m pretty and intelligent – but it doesn’t stop there. There’s a lot more to me, and to all of us.
You may only know one part of a persons life, but you can Use Your And to help encourage young girls and women to think outside of the box that society is trying to put them on. 
Want to share your UseYourAnd story? You can find more stories and a create your own word cloud app to play with and share your And. We’re more than our jobs, and more than where we are in our lives in this moment, and together we can help empower and uplift other women by sharing our Ands with each other.
Check out more information on the UseYourAnd campaign in the video below: