About |
Welcome to the first step on your journey of sharing your inspirational Smart Girl Story.
First, let’s address the question many possible storytellers ask us. I’m not smart.
Yes, you are.
We live in a world of lessons, mistakes, tripups, experiences, and unfortunate twists of fate. From each of these, we learn, and that’s what makes us smarter.
For those who have been on a self-defined journey towards success, we know you learned from the mistakes and trip-ups. Those are smart girls – without a doubt.
For those born into a situation they never expected themselves to be in, who are survivors, who are conquering injuries, health challenges, and accidents that came upon them out of nowhere, we know you learned from your journey. You are a smart girl – without a doubt.
As a dad, my responsibility is to help my daughter realize that all girls are smart girls and that being smart means learning in ways that aren’t so atypical and don’t always come from a traditional textbook or a school classroom. Unfortunately and fortunately, the world is a classroom, and sometimes, the lessons it doles out aren’t easy.
But, with each lesson comes smarts. And with each lesson comes a story.
Second, no one cares about my story.
We do. You do. And beyond that, it’s unknown.
Here’s the interesting part of telling a story: storytelling isn’t always about conveying information; sometimes, it’s about releasing something eating away at you. It’s about removing something toxic from your system. When you write that story, you say, “Get out of my mind!” That’s cathartic af.
I’m raising Hannah to live a life where a problem written is half solved. Think about that. All of this noise, controversy, shame, disgust, anger, and sadness in your system is a story yearning to come out. Grab your keyboard and write.
The minute those words appear before you, things seem less noisy; they are now defined and in front of you. And they are history. Your story just became your CV. Have a friend ever asked you if something difficult happened to you? Yup – and you can point to that story you just wrote and say, there, that’s what happened to me and how I’m here today…wait for it….to share the story.
Everyone has a story. Not every story will be read or heard, but you should share it. Because somewhere out there, a smart girl on her journey wants to take a second and read yours. You may never meet them, but if they read your story, they will meet you.
Third, I don’t know what to write about.
That’s okay. You have something to write about; you don’t know how to articulate it. It will come to you. And when it does, we are ready for it, Smart Girl.
Our mission at SGS is to provide a safe space for Smart Girls worldwide to share their stories. Everyone has a story, and we are ready for yours.