by Sheri West, Founder & Chief LiveGirl
Given my background in leadership development, including a long corporate career and role as Chief LiveGirl working with thousands of teen girls, I am often asked about the roadmap to building confidence. For every one of us, it’s a different journey, but along the way I have found three key steps that everyone can take to become a more confident leader.
By Stephanie Guza, LiveGirl High School Fellow
Realizing that I, a teenager, can be a role model for someone else who isn’t related to me is empowering. Seeing the girls at each event come together and express themselves in discussions impresses me every time because they are carrying out LiveGirl’s mission.
By Amanda de Lauzon, Digital Media Intern
Our clothes show who we are to the world. We can show our wild side, our girly side and even our edgy side. We can show our personality through our clothes, we can feel confident and we can feel beautiful. So why do fashion brands not show diversity and inclusivity?
By Sheri West, Founder & Chief LiveGirl
Whether we’re talking about the fear of failure or anything else holding you back, confidence is the key to unleashing your power. Welcome to “Confident” with me, Sheri West, and my fearless daughter, Olivia. Join our conversations with fierce female leaders and explore how YOU can become more confident.
By Amanda de Lauzon, DIGITAL MEDIA INTERN
I have been seeing so much about climate change in the news recently and I feel like I personally have learned a lot from it. As a college student I see a lot of my classmates making an effort to prevent climate change in their everyday lives and I’m inspired to do the same.
It seems like yesterday we came here aiming to foster the flames of curiosity that claimed our brains – ready to learn, to grow, to play the game. We became new people in this short time frame; identified passions with which to define our names; sought to remain our true selves, but never leave the world around us the same.
Some of the most frustrating moments in my life have been around situations where teachers have discredited me- my intelligence, my potential, my morals, my needs, my circumstances. A teacher should be someone whose mission every day when he or she goes into work each morning is to elevate. Elevate students to reach further, challenge themselves, and most importantly believe in their capability. I have had teachers who have exemplified this, and they have left a mark on my life that I will forever be grateful for. However, I have also had many unfortunate experiences of teachers who, consciously or not, have demeaned me. Instances such as teachers rolling their eyes at my opinions, opinions that they’ve asked for, sighing in response to a question, teachers who have grazed over my raised hand and called on solely my male peers.
I belong to LiveGirl.
I am eighteen years old- a young, Malaysian woman with immigrant parents. My idea of community before joining such an empowering, inclusive, female community was only between my mother and father. Growing up in The United States, I longed for that sense of belonging, that feeling of being fully accepted for who I am- as a person, not by my skin tone or the facade that existed when I feel like I needed to conceal my identity for the idea of being “American.”
I used to do ballet. I stuck my gangly legs into pink ballet tights for way longer than when it was cool, which ended around first grade. I was bad at ballet. Not quite bad enough to realize I was bad, but enough to be in the back of every performance. I loved it. I really did, all of the leaping (which is the one thing I was good at) and spinning (even though one time I smacked my instructor straight across the face while doing a pirouette circle by accident). But the one thing that I didn't like was how skinny everyone was.
Saturday, June 1st. The start of June, the welcoming of Summer, and the second day of Governors’ Ball Music Festival at Randall's Island in Manhattan. For months, the festival season was the only thing the student body talked about- it was our high school tradition. But, the thought of attending never crossed my mind. I preferred to stay in the comfort of my own home and scroll through my Instagram feed, mindlessly staring at all of the photos of my friends dancing to unreal music sets.
