Waking Up Full of Awesome

by Michelle Fairchild

Me and my awesome sister Wendy Epps

It all began when my sister Wendy forwarded me an email with the title  “Be Awesome.”  I so loved the message and photo that I did something I had not done for quite some time, I forwarded it to a long list of women friends.  I also posted the message and photo to my Facebook page.  Hours later I would discover that my in-box had been inundated with friends responses to that email.  I received many heartfelt messages that all shared the same type of message  “I really needed to hear this today.” A few people wrote to me thinking the story and photo had originated with my sister.  I wrote back to several people sharing, that while my sister was not the author, she was indeed awesome.

I found myself pondering how some creations go on to have a life of their own, beyond the person who created it.  I have heard stories about writers who have realized that while they may have been the one who breathed life into a story or poem that the piece went on to have a rather interesting life of its own.  This seemed to be one of those situations.

However I still wanted to know about the soulful and inspirational person who shared this wisdom from their heart.  I also like to give credit where credit is due to authors and artists.  Again the miracles of technology allowed me to locate the person who originally posted the inspirational piece.   I sent her an email message to introduce myself, share some thoughts about how her piece resonated with me and ask for permission to reprint it here in the Cosmic Cowgirls Magazine.  Within only a few hours I  heard back from the very awesome Melissa Wardy, who deserves full credit for the photo of her daughter Amelia and her incredible reminder to us all about being awesome.  She very graciously gave her permission and blessing for this reprint of Waking Up Full of Awesome.  This post originally appeared in her blog called Pigtail Pals on August 3, 2011.

Amelia's Awesome!

Waking Up Full of Awesome
by Melissa Wardy

There was a time when you were five years old, and you woke up full of awesome.

You knew you were awesome.

You loved yourself.

You thought you were beautiful,

even with missing teeth and messy hair and mismatched socks inside your grubby sneakers.

You loved your body, and the things it could do.

You thought you were strong.

You knew you were smart.

Do you still have it?

The awesome.

Did someone take it from you?

Did you let them?

Did you hand it over, because someone told you weren’t beautiful enough, thin enough, smart enough, good enough?

Why the hell would you listen to them?

Did you consider they might be full of shit?

Wouldn’t that be nuts, to tell my little girl below that in another five or ten years she might hate herself because she doesn’t look like a starving and Photoshopped fashion model?

Or even more bizarre, that she should be sexy over smart, beautiful over bold?

Are you freaking kidding me?

Look at her. She is full of awesome.

You were, once. Maybe you still are. Maybe you are in the process of getting it back.

All I know is that if you aren’t waking up feeling like this about yourself, you are really missing out.

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Melissa Wardy and the Original Pigtail Pal Amelia

About Melissa Wardy

She is a former tree climbing – soccer playing – digging in the mud kind of gal. She was raised in a sports loving family with two younger brothers and two parents whose mantra was “Go outside and play.” Her memories of childhood are filled with adventure, fort building, caterpillar hunting, flashlight tag, and slip-and-slides. She played with My Little Ponies, but they usually had been taken as POW by the GI Joe guys.

After graduating the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities with a degree in Criminology, she moved to Southern California where she had the sublime experience of investigating crime while living in a place where body worship was a hobby. She had also traveled to Europe, Africa, Mexico, and Hawaii. All of those experiences led her to start thinking about this: The focus our culture puts on body perfection and sex appeal, coupled with the desensitization of sexual intimacy and the ambient nature of pornography, is a vehicle for marketers to saturate the marketplace with products that blur the line of taboo and affect our collective social consciousness. 

Now as the mother of two tots, she does not accept the messages and toys the general media is trying to sell to her family. Apparently her daughter is supposed to be a fashion and appearance-obsessed, boy crazy preschooler. Who turns into a thong-wearing, Britney Spears singing, mid-driff baring grade schooler.

Melissa Wardy

What Melissa created to counter such a culture is an apparel company call Pigtail Pals.   She launched the business in May 2009 with her goal to empower girls to change the way the world thinks about them.  “We need to ‘Redefine Girly’ and show the world just how smart, brave, and adventurous our daughters can be. These are the things I want for my own young daughter, and the ideals by which my husband and I raise her.  As a mother, I want both of my children, boy and girl, to grow in a healthy childhood free of gender stereotypes and sexualized messages. Pigtail Pals was created to provide parents with images and messages they would be proud to raise their girls with.”  She now also has a line of tees for little boys called Curious Crickets.

In 2010 Melissa began the Redefine Girly blog to educate parents on issues of gender stereotypes and sexualization that our children face. The blog and parent community quickly became known as the go-to place for parents to discuss these issues. In 2011 Melissa started presenting Media Literacy workshops for parents and educators helping them to understand how girlhood was changing, and in 2012 you’ll be able to read her book that brings everything full circle.

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Michelle Fairchild is married to a middle school science teacher and is also mommy to identical twin daughters, who are very active 5-year-olds that keep her dancing.  She is a writer and artist who has a business called Red Boa Productions.  She also works for a non-profit foster-adoption agency in Northern California.  At Heart she is a soulful and sensitive intuitive, a courageous creator, a resilient visionary, a self-esteem fluffer, a marvelous music mixer and one who offers up bridges of connections to her fellow travelers. She believes that We Are All Meant to Shine! You can learn more about Michelle’s vision and read more of her writing on her blog The Red Boa.

Tags: articles for women and girls, awesome, creativity, features, inspiration, joy, self love, women’s member tribe, women’s online university