#GirlsRock: An interview with author, freelance writer, and editor Crystal Schwanke 🍳

It’s iconic.

Do you know what it means to be a writer?

I’ve known kindergarteners who make a claim on it and grown people who are reluctant to articulate it. They both do the work. But what it boils down to is how you feel when you’re doing the actual writing.

Meet Crystal Schwanke — editor, freelancer, and writer.

Crystal and I struck up a conversation on LinkedIn a good while back and stuck with it for this interview. It’s aged well! Please give her a warm JAD welcome. You’ll enjoy learning about her journey as much as I have.

#AtoZChallenge: M is for MBA: A #GirlsRock interview with RN, BSN, MBA Lauren Boldizar

Photo by Liam Tucker on Unsplash

When I first met Lauren Boldizar, she was a writer.

But she evolved. She was also a runner (still is) and adds aspects to her life the way I add toppings to my tacos — with careful consideration, yet unyielding enthusiasm. One day, after she checked in to say happy birthday on LinkedIn, I asked what she’d been up to.

Oh, just went back to school for my MBA, she said, as nonchalant as I would announced I’d gone back to the taco buffet while you blinked. She’s today’s interview for #GirlsRock, and I think you’ll like her. She tells her story much better than I do, so check it out. Give her a warm JAD welcome.

#AtoZChallenge: K is for Katherine Ward, copywriter and grief and loss blogger — a #GirlsRock interview 💔

Just reflecting over here …

I love a story in which our hero not only navigates adversity but also discovers ways to make the world better.

Katherine Ward is such a hero. This talented blogger and copywriter’s life changed when her father died in 2017. Losing a parent, I contend, is one of the most permanent events in a person’s life, having lost my father in 2000.

Katherine turned her own grief into a forum to help others who’d suffered losses, too.

I’m proud to introduce Katherine Ward to you today in #GirlsRock. Please give her a warm JAD welcome! She’s an inspiration of strength and kindness.

#AtoZChallenge: E is for Energy, Facets of: An interview with crystal healer and healing jewelry maker Amanda Fitzsimmons, for #GirlsRock 💎

It all started with a book for Amanda Fitzsimmons.

That book led her to her first crystal. Let’s pause here. How many of us have hit an intersection in life at which we know we’re not in the right spot but we’re open to avenues to get there?

That’s where Amanda found herself, and the book, and the crystal.

That turned into more books, more crystals, and a realization of her healing power. Today’s #GirlsRock interview is of a different sort. She went from rock-star dreams as a little one to rocks that hold power.

#GirlsRock: An Interview with Healthy Eating Specialist Shannon Bourret

photo credit: Grapeball via photopin (license)

Shannon had me laying on a basketball court, coloring veggies.

That’s not easy to do. If you know anything about me, it’s much easier to believe I’d lay on a basketball court, coloring dinosaurs. Or football helmets. Or pictures of pizza. The veggies? That’s the surprising part.

Shannon Bourret is Healthy Eating Specialist at Whole Foods Market. I met her during her visit to Red Ventures during the Bounce out the Stigma basketball camp. She asked the kids to draw what appeared on their dinner plates the night before.

She encouraged them to use all the colors they could. She also invited them to color in items they could add to balance out their meals healthily.

#GirlsRock: An Interview With Author Rosie Molinary

photo credit: Settling the Mac vs PC debate… via photopin (license)

Some girls rock at one thing – and other rocks at lots of them.

Rosie Molinary rocks at many. Where do I start? She’s an author and speaker, but she’s also a teacher. Always a teacher. She teaches at my alma mater, UNC Charlotte, and also taught at my old high school, Garinger. She advocates for one of the groups closest to my heart:

Girls and women. (#GirlsRock)

She’ll tell you way more about her work and her visions in her words than I can tell you in mine. She’s also a voice in the Latin American community and speaks on intentional living, among other things.

Guest Post: Elise, My Kid, on Life as a Girl Athlete

photo credit: Sandtrooper via photopin (license)

Racecar driver Michael Andretti says he remembers the day he passes his famous father, Mario, on the racetrack for the first time.

“Adios, dada,” he said.

Today, Elise says “adios, dada,” too.

Elise, the girl you might have read about here and here and most definitely here, has written a guest post for today. I asked her a while ago to write about life as a girl athlete – and she delivered, in a big way.

#GirlsRock: An Interview with Cakery Owner Aryn Keogh

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I’ve always told Marie I had a feeling she’d own a business someday.

I’m not sure what kind of business. She smiles when I say it. She’ll bring it up, out of the blue. Whether she does or not, I’ll be proud of her. I just hope she hooks her dad up with discounts.

Today’s guest built her own business.

Meet Aryn Keogh, owner of Delish Cakery in Charlotte. We met in a Walmart parking lot. She was loading her cupcake painted car with cookie containers. Automobiles with food depicted in their paint jobs tend to draw my attention.

#GirlsRock: An Interview with Comedienne Erica Rhodes

photo credit: #13/366 Placing the head. via photopin (license)

Someone cool now and then follows me on Twitter.

By cool I mean someone cool I didn’t already know. I’m not talking about that dude who promises 5,000 Twitter followers for $50. No, I mean a singer or an athlete or an actress or a comedienne. That would be Erica Rhodes.

I took one look at the one-liners, the inward-facing zings and self-deprecation and knew I’d connected with someone cut from the same downtrodden cloth.

When she was little – like, Grace’s age – Erica appeared on the NPR show “A Prairie Home Companion,” with the legendary Garrison Keillor. Holy hell, the girl has her own Imdb page!

#GirlsRock: An Interview with Author Jennie Davenport

Girls rock.

You didn’t hear it here first, but you’ve heard it here. As an occasional series, I’d like to spotlight some women who blaze trails for girls like my daughters. It’s a beautiful age we live in. A girl can do anything she sets her mind to.

Meet author Jennie Davenport. Yes, she’s a Denver Broncos fan, but that’s just a bonus. Jennie writes a compelling blend of romance, paranormal and retelling of fairy tales. Jennie’s introspection and ability to find light in darkness, and find it within herself.

She’s funny, sensitive, introverted and charming all at once. Please give Jennie a warm CD welcome, and check out her page, at Romanticizing Reality.