I Am Independent

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“If you always do what interests you, then at least one person
is pleased.”
—Katharine Hepburn, film, television, and stage
actress, a legendary leading lady in the Golden Age of
Hollywood Cinema

“We must keep both our femininity and our strength.”
—Rukmini Devi Arundale, dancer and choreographer of the
Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made
up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does
away with fear.”
—Rosa Parks, activist in the civil rights movement famous for
her boycott on the Montgomery bus and known as “the first
lady of civil rights”

“Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better
than attention.”
—Pink, singer and songwriter who has sold forty million
records and won three Grammys

Affirmation Station

I am independent.
I will always take care of myself.
I will not say yes until I want to.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

Lee Tai-young: First Female Lawyer in Korea

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Foffcolour.org%2F2020%2F03%2F05%2Fphenomenal-woman-lee-tai-young%2F&psig=AOvVaw3xmSsDT8ZJMNHgcUa1h6I8&ust=1685554377054000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCMiX-cDJnf8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ

Lee Tai-young was the first Korean woman ever to become a lawyer and a judge as well as the founder of the first Korean legal aid center. She was born in what is now North Korea in 1914, the daughter of a gold miner. She received a degree in home economics from Ewha Womans University, a Methodist college, and married a Methodist minister in 1936. Tai-young had dreams of becoming a lawyer when she came to Seoul to study at Ewha, but when her husband fell under suspicion of being a spy for the US and was jailed for sedition by the Japanese colonial government in the early 1940s, she had to go to work to maintain her family. She took jobs as a schoolteacher and a radio singer, as well as taking in sewing and washing.

After the war, Tai-young continued her studies with the support of her husband. In 1946, she became the first woman to attend Seoul National University and went on to earn her law degree in 1949. She was the first woman ever to pass the National Judicial
Examination in 1952. Five years later, she founded the Women’s Legal Counseling Center, a law practice that provided services to poor women. She and her husband were participants in the 1976 Myeongdong Declaration, which called for the return of civil liberties to Korean citizens. Because of her political views, she was arrested as an enemy of President Park Chung-hee, and in 1977, she received a three-year suspended sentence along with a loss of civil liberties, including being automatically disbarred for ten years.

Her law practice evolved into the Korea Legal Aid Center for Family Relations, a substantial office serving more than 10,000 clients per year. She authored fifteen books on women’s issues, beginning with a 1957 guide to Korea’s divorce system. In 1972, she published Commonsense in Law for Women; other notable titles include Born A Woman and The Woman of North Korea. She also translated Eleanor Roosevelt’s book On My Own into Korean. In 1975, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation chose her as the recipient of their Community Leadership Award; she was given an award by the International Legal Aid Association in 1978. She received international recognition
from many quarters, including an honorary law doctorate from Drew University in Madison, NJ in 1981. In 1984, she published a memoir, Dipping the Han River Out with a Gourd, four years before she passed away at the ripe old age of eighty-four.

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her
shackles are very different from my own.”
—Audre Lorde, writer, feminist, librarian, and civil rights
activist who confronted issues of sexism, homophobia, and
racism through her writing

Affirmation Station
I am strong.
I am fearless.
No one can come between me and the power at my center.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

I Am Powerful

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“This life is mine alone. So I have stopped asking people for
directions to places they’ve never been.”
—Glennon Doyle, author and activist known for her novels
that shook up the internet

“Being authentic and honest with everyone is the best way to
figure out who you are.”
—Demi Lovato, singer, songwriter, and actor who has been
open about their recovery from addiction and self-harm

“Yes, the more successful you are—or the stronger, the more
opinionated—the less you will be generally liked. All of a
sudden people will think you’re too ‘braggy,’ too loud, too
something. But the tradeoff is undoubtedly worth it. Power
and authenticity are worth it.”
—Jessica Valenti, feminist writer who has authored multiple
books and is the cofounder of the blog Feministing

“Celebrate who you are. Say, ‘This is my kingdom.’ ”
—Salma Hayek, actress who portrayed Frida Kahlo
in the biographical film Frida, earning an Academy
Award nomination

Affirmation Station

I know myself better than anyone.
I will refuse to do something if I choose.
I am powerful and I can be unmoving.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

I Do Not Owe Anyone My Time

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“I never had confidence—never. The hardest thing to know is
your own worth, and it took me years and years to find out
what mine is.”
—Peggy Lipton, actress, model, and singer famous for her role
as Julie Barnes in The Mod Squad series

“Becoming acquainted with yourself is a price well worth
paying for the love that will really address your needs.”
—Daphne Rose Kingma, therapist, relationship expert, and
author of a dozen books about love, relationships, and living
through crisis

“Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the
more I exercise it, the more natural it becomes to not let my
fears run me.”
—Arianna Huffington, author, columnist, and businesswoman
who is the cofounder of The Huffington Post

Affirmation Station

I will set my own boundaries.
I will say no when I choose to.
I do not owe anyone my time.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

Katherine Johnson: Pioneer for Women in Science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Johnson

Katherine Johnson was an African American woman who made mathematical and research contributions to the early development of US space flight despite racial and gender discrimination.

Born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, she developed a curiosity for numbers and proved to have a brilliant mind at a young age; she skipped several grades. She enrolled in West Virginia State College at eighteen, going on to graduate with the highest honors in 1937 and take a teaching position at a local public school.

After getting married and attending a graduate math program, Johnson began working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley laboratory in Hampton, Virginia,
in 1953. Soon after, she was assigned to the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division.

In 1957, when the Soviets launched Sputnik, it changed the course of history and Johnson’s life as well. She would go on to provide the math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology, a series of lectures given by engineers in the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. Engineers from these groups formed the Space Task Group, the NACA’s first foray into space travel.

Johnson would go on to do analysis for the first human spaceflight and coauthor a report on methods for laying out equations describing an orbital spaceflight (equations by which the landing position was specified), making her the first woman in the division to receive credit on a research report.

In 1962, as NASA prepared for John Glenn’s mission, Johnson was called upon to run the necessary numbers for the equations by hand on her desktop mechanical calculating machine.
Although these had been programmed into the computer, Glenn said to “get the girl” to check them. “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go,” he said. His flight was a success, marking a turning point for the US in space.

By her retirement, she had worked on the space shuttle and authored or coauthored twenty-six research reports. At the age of ninety-seven, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She lived to be 101, passing away peacefully on February 24, 2020. Katherine Johnson will always be remembered as a trailblazer and pioneer for women in science.

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.
Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re
never weakness.”
—Brené Brown, professor, lecturer, author, and podcast
host known in particular for her research on leadership,
vulnerability, and courage

“There’s something special about a woman who dominates in
a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence,
fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”
—Rihanna, singer, actress, and fashion designer who has sold
over 250 million records

Affirmation Station

I am leading my own life.
I can turn down an invitation.
I do not owe anyone anything.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg: A Voice for Us All

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg

Born in 1933 as Ruth Joan Bader, she grew up in a Jewish family in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother supported the family by working in a garment factory and actively encouraged her to pursue her education. (Sadly, her mother died the day before Ruth’s high school graduation.) She graduated first in her class from Cornell University in 1954, then married fellow law student Martin Ginsberg after graduating; they had their first child in 1955.

She went on to continue her law education at Harvard University, where she was one of five female students in a class of 500. She pushed past these barriers and became a member of the Harvard Law Review. She transferred to Columbia Law School in New York City, where she graduated yet again first in her class in 1959. Despite her academic achievements, she was passed over for several law positions due to her gender. She worked as a clerk before she began teaching law at both Rutgers University and Columbia University, becoming the latter institution’s first female professor. She served as the director of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, on whose behalf she argued several gender discrimination cases before the US Supreme Court, one of which actually involved the rights of men (as she believed everyone was entitled to equal rights) in the case of Social Security Act provisions that granted benefits to widows but not widowers.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsberg to the US Court of Appeals, where she served until she was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1998 by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate in a 96-3 vote. She became the second female justice as well as the first Jewish female justice to serve on the court. She was the author of the decision behind United States v. Virginia, which stated that the Virginia Military Institute could not refuse to admit women. She was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award in 1999 for her contributions to civil rights and gender equality.

After serving as a Supreme Court justice for twenty-seven years, she passed away in 2020 due to metastatic pancreatic cancer at the age of eighty-seven. Ruth Bader Ginsberg will always be remembered as someone who did not hesitate to fight back when she saw any group being discriminated against. Her dedication to the rights of women and workers proves that she truly was a voice for us all.

“I always wanted to be a femme fatale. Even when I was a
young girl, I never really wanted to be a girl. I wanted to
be a woman.”

—Diane Von Furstenberg, fashion designer who started a
clothing line now available in over seventy counties

Affirmation Station

I am not afraid.
I am brave.
I will not let anyone take that from me.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

I Am in Charge

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“I think that a big part of being a feminist is to make sure that
young women know that they have rights and that they have
bodily autonomy; that they can say no.”
—Sophia Pierre-Antoine, feminist who has worked for the past
few years on women and girls’ rights

“No is a complete sentence.”
—Anne Lamott, novelist and political activist known for
covering controversial topics such as religion, mental health,
and substance abuse

Affirmation Station

I am in charge.
I decide what I do.
I am the driver of my own life.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

My Goals Are My Own

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“My goal now is to remember every place that I’ve been, only
do the things I love, and not say yes when I don’t mean it.”
—Sandra Bullock, actress, producer, and recipient of multiple
awards who was the highest-paid actress in 2010 and 2014

“There are reasons to set boundaries for yourself, but there
are also reasons to keep doors open.”
—Ashley Graham, television presenter and supermodel who
is an advocate for the body positivity movement

“I swear to God, the second I learned how to say ‘no,’ I felt that
was the best anti-aging I could do for myself.”
—Gabrielle Union, actress who has appeared on
television and film, famous for her roles in Bring It On and
Being Mary Jane

Affirmation Station

I am the keeper of my own journey.
I decide when I want to pursue something.
My goals are my own.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

Pat Yourself on the Back

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As children in our society, we’re taught to give most of our attention to things about ourselves that are in need of correction rather than what’s great about us; this is emphasized doubly in the socialization of girls and women. We are conditioned to criticize ourselves. But what we’re doing right is at least as important as our flaws and imperfections.

Take note of your own “superpowers,” and make it a goal to take notice of when you accomplish something and acknowledge yourself for having done it.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.

Communication Is Key

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When it comes to relationships, boundaries have many layers. These boundaries can be physical as well as emotional. Friendships can test boundaries just as easily as romantic entanglements can. Friends can step over the line and hurt us in a number of ways. It is important that we are clear in our communication when someone oversteps. While this is not always easy, we should not let a close friend or family member create chaos within our lives. Holding such boundaries can be an incredibly difficult thing to do that is much easier said than done, but it is often necessary to embrace that discomfort in order to take a stand.

Maintaining boundaries and saying no in general is very easy for some (I salute you!). If that is the case for you and if you see a fellow badass woman struggling with this, support them. Let them know your magical secrets of setting those important boundaries and standing your ground. There is strength in numbers.

This post is an excerpt from Positively Badass by Becca Anderson, which can be found at Amazon and Mango Media.