IWD2019- 6 Kickass Female Writers
“Women and girls have always faced hurdles. But that’s never stopped us. We’ve sacrificed,
fought, campaigned, succeeded, been knocked back, and succeeded again. In a race for
justice, we’ve leapt over countless obstacles to win our rights.”
-Emma Watson
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Happy International Women’s Day to all you amazing women out there! Today may be a day for recognition but it is far from the only day where we kick ass. Reading some of the articles and posts today, it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come. I’m free to vote, wear pants, own property, pursue an education, succeed at my career, and countless other things all because of brave women before me that fought for me and you and every woman that came before us and that will come after us. In the spirit of this day, I wanted to post about some amazing kickass women authors. I learned a lot about these women today and I hope, from this post, you can too!
Here are some amazing and inspiring female writers:
1.Joanne Rowling
If you don’t know her, you’ve obviously been living under a rock. Not only is she the author of the Harry Potter series, but she’s also the first woman author to become a billionaire and also the first to lose her billionaire status because she donates so much of her earnings to charity. She came from a broken family and married too young. She ended up a single mother living in the sketchier parts of Edinburgh and battling depression. But she never gave up. She fought to live, to heal, to carry on. She poured her pain into writing. Even with rejection after rejection, she pushed to get her work noticed and recognized. Now look at her, one of the most famous authors of the 20th/21st century. She taught me to never give up and gives me faith that even when things aren’t going right there’s always a reason to keep trying.
2.Octavia E. Butler
Octavia grew up in a time where racial segregation was rampant. The daughter of a housemaid, she didn’t have much of a starting chance to be more. She was shy and dyslexic which lead her to be bullied as a child. She had no self-confidence and because of her disconnect with children her age, she spent lots of time reading and writing. She graduated high school and continued to college (during a time when that was rare for a woman). She didn’t let the obstacles of being a coloured writer stop her. She gave up job security to take on odd jobs to support her writing career. Her perseverance lead her to become one of the greatest Sci-fi writers of all time. Her ability to rise above her disability, her shyness, and discrimination not only because of her race but also her gender, is inspiring.
3.Anne Frank
Personally depicting what it was like to be a Jew in hiding in the midst of the Holocaust, Anne shed a light on the truth of what was happening to her people. Anne dreamed of becoming a journalist but, from her writing, she never seemed to truly believe she had that talent. Now there’s not a person who doesn’t know her name or her story. She continued writing regularly through her captivity all the way up until her arrest. She lived a tragically short life and in 1945 she died in a concentration camp and was buried with her sister in a mass grave. She may have never lived to see her dream of being a famous writer, but that diary she kept has become an important point of proof of a time that many deny even happened. Even though she died a long time ago, her voice is still heard today, reminding us to be better, to not forget the horrors of the past and strive for a better future.
4.Sappho
She’s been known as one of the first ever female writers. That makes her cool right off the bat for me. From ancient Greece, many of her works have been lost but one of her well-known works is “Ode to Aphrodite” is still kickin' around. Her poetry was well-known and she was seen as an esteemed scholar. A successful woman in a time where women were to be married, raise children and obey their husbands. There are legends of her love and death but because not much is known of her life nothing can be said for certain. (I honestly haven’t been able to learn very much of her if you have some fun facts please feel free to share!). Her mysterious life and lost works make her an intriguing woman but her success as a writer in such an early era makes her an icon. For being the mother of female writers, she isn’t nearly as well-known as she should be.
5.Jane Austen
One of my favourite authors. Jane Austen’s books gave me unrealistic expectations for romance. Although Jane was born into a well-respected family, her education was stilted and most of it came from reading books. She started writing at a young age to entertain her family and later she began writing as a career. She published anonymously so was not very well-known but her fame came later after her passing. Her novels are full of strong female characters that chafe at conforming to what is expected of them. Her novels may be of romance and handsome males coming to the rescue, but not one of her female characters was ever truly a damsel in distress. They know their own minds, as I’m sure Jane knew hers. If you’ve never read one of her books then now’s the time. My personal favourite is Sense and Sensibility.
6.Maya Angelou
To me, she is one of the most quotable women I’ve ever read. She was a cook, a sex worker, a dancer, a journalist, an actress, a writer, a director and a producer. She worked with Martin Luther King and Malcom X and did not shy from sharing her mind on racism and identity. A child of divorce, she was sexually abused at a young age and spent some years of her childhood mute. Because of her silence, she discovered the world of literature. She worked her way from the bottom, writing and dancing and working hard to achieve her dreams. She overcame racism, sexism, trauma and abuse to become one of the most famous writers and civil rights activists. She passed away in 2014 but her words and wisdom live on.
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“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion,
some compassion, some humour, and some style.”
–Maya Angelou