Kelsye, Kelsye, Kelsye…

Tags

Hedgebrook, social media, women, writing

When I grow up, I want to be like Kelsye.

If you have read the tagline of this blog, you may have been wondering who Kelsye is and why I needed to out-Klout her…

Kelsye is the new Marketing/Communications goddess at Hedgebrook. She is the most famous person I know on Twitter and have actually met.

Luddite that I was, I had not yet heard about Klout. As soon as tech-savvy-super-famous-Kelsye told me about it, I knew the gauntlet had been thrown down.

“A really good way to improve your score is to maintain a blog,” she said, not suspecting my ulterior motives.

Done and done.  Starting and maintaining this blog have been important and rewarding to me.  Cathartic even.  As we go through the strategic planning process at Hedgebrook, there is much discussion about how we are committed to giving women equal voice and empowering them to take their space in the world to tell their stories.

Kelsye is an inspiration.  Being in proximity to her and her unrelenting passion for writing and writers on a daily basis makes me sit down when I get home at night and compose new blog posts.

Really, she does amazing things.  She is off to save spider monkeys as I’m typing this.  Check her out on Twitter: @Kelsye

Or peruse her kick-ass project, Writer.ly : a “Marketplace of independent publishing services.” Click here!

Even though Klout has recently changed their algorithm and I no longer lord over Kelsye, I heartily enjoyed the brief span of weeks while I reigned supreme.

Amy Wheeler is Awesome!

Tags

Hedgebrook, Whidbey, women, writing

I love Amy Wheeler.  She is the coolest thing since sliced bread, the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees and the list goes on and on and on.

She is truly one of my favorite people.  There are people who come into our lives whose mere presence makes us aspire to be our best selves.  She is courageous, hilarious, intelligent and fiercely articulate.

An award-winning playwright and Hedgebrook’s Executive Director, she is a woman of many talents.  I saw her as I was getting ready to board the Sounder train this morning.  It was like a celebrity sighting, the night before Christmas and a sugar rush, all at the same time.

Earlier this week, Amy posted the following as her Facebook status:

“Here’s a thought about gun control: make it legal for only women to own guns.  All of the mass shootings in this country since the 60’s have been by male gunmen. When, actually, women are more likely to need to carry a firearm for protection, and statistically, less likely to use it to harm another being.”

It stirred something within my core.  I reposted it to my Facebook account this morning, and as of the publication of this blog post, there are 10 “likes” and 38 comments and counting.

Before writing this post, I was searching the internet for inspirational quotations, images and websites from which to cull social media fodder.  And then it hit me.  I had been around an actual, real-life inspirational person all day.  This is what it’s like to work for Hedgebrook, every day.  It’s a lesson in persistance, joy, and finding and amplifying your voice, as well as the voices of other women.

We’re lucky Amy’s at the helm of our ship.