There's a reason women are often uncomfortable with power: because it has been used against us. But power doesn't have to be coercive; it can be generative. This month we'll learn to assess power dynamics, shift them, and use new power tools to grow life-giving forms of power so we can use it to change our lives and our culture.

Beauty standards in Western culture aren't about aesthetics; they're about power. They're designed to keep certain bodies valued while marginalizing others based on race, ability, age, and size. They also represent the socially acceptable, indirect path to power for women. Ouch. This month you'll get inspiration, tools + strategies for building power DIRECTLY, on your own terms, by liberating yourself (and your social media feed!) from oppressive norms and your own internalized biases. (It's not a coincidence, for example, that once I stopped dieting and put that energy and focus into my work, my career took off.) This is about creativity, strategy and liberation. We're going to navigate bodies + beauty, powerfully, as culture makers. Because you're a subject, not an object.

Nearly every woman I've ever worked with thinks they have a visibility problem. What a strange coincidence. So it's not you, individually. What's actually going on is that we are collectively discriminated against and punished for taking up space and asserting boundaries and we know it. This is not to say, "Welp, let's avoid visibility." Instead, this month's culture making reframe grounds us in how important it is for you to surround yourself with people who will reinforce you, encourage you, lift you, and protect you, so that you get more and more practiced and fortified at expressing yourself -- at home, at work, on social media, and in our wider culture. That's what we're immersing ourselves in this month: reframing visibility, reinforcing each other, and practicing using our voices. Because EVERYTHING changes when women tell the truth about their lives.

Managing your energy rather than time; knowing your own energy sources and drains; and protecting your energy for the things that matter to you changes everything. As with time, we can protect our energy; unlike time, we can grow our energy. Also: rest and leisure are political. Your rest creates space for the rest of us to breathe, too.