Role Models: The ripple effects of life…

Hey there GT community,
We have a brand new blog series coming up for you! Since we work with girls at the tender age of 10-12 along with their mothers, we started our “Who was your role model?” series to investigate this phenomenon of a role model…
Remember when you were 10-12 years old?! Remember how you used to dream about what you would look like or be when you grow up?
Whether or not we realize it, we are influenced by the women in our environment…
To us, a role model is someone who inspires and empowers us, lets us believe in ourselves or someone who has traits that we value. Sometimes the aspects in the person we idolize, is what we actually want to cultivate for ourselves. Role models can become such a powerful source of inspiration for us at any stage in life.
These role model superheroes or ‘sheroes’ as we like to call them, can often be disguised in very normal occupations or roles. It might be your teacher, your next door neighbor, your mom, your auntie or your big sister’s best friend…
Or maybe you simply wanted to reach beyond your immediate environment and look up to someone on tv, or a character in a book, a voice on the radio or somebody you’ve noticed on the pages of a magazine.
Think about it!…Whomever sparked that light within you back then, might have shaped the woman you have become today.
Imagine our daughters growing up in this modern society! With social media outlets at their fingertips, the worldwide web on their tablets and laptops, and all the social pressure and comparisons that come with that! Are you aware of the role models your daughter might have consciously or subconsciously chosen. Imitating the social media ‘role models’ can be inspiring and motivating, but imitating other people is not where her true power is at.
For mothers the roles have become quite different too. Often having to be the perfect wife, daughter, mother, sister and friend. The queen of the household whilst most likely also the provider of income. Pfff, It get’s to be a lot, right women?! Can we get a hell yeah.
What we observe in our workshops is that daughters actually don’t expect their mothers to be perfect. What they do admire is honesty, realness, and sharing true authentic feelings with them. That’s what makes your daughter see you as a role model. Your authenticity with yourself is what inspires her to become the best version of herself.
The ripple effect of you being truly you, has the ability to be the loudest vibration in your daughter’s life, the ability to crowd out all the negative influences she may come across in the outside world. And yes she may get hurt, and she will make mistakes. But knowing who she really is, is what will allow her to heal quick, get back up, dust herself and find the resiliency to try again.
Sharing our female role models [with all their perfect imperfections] and seeing the strength in other women, creates a sisterhood that allows young women and girls to see the beauty within themselves and others.
Every woman should be aware of the fact that she might be a role model for some girl around her. Let our authenticity be the ripple effect that is going to uplift the girls that are our future leaders.
Let being true to herself become her northern star.
With Love,
T&Z.
<Stay tuned for our GT Rolemodel series on our social media pages!>
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- featured image: artist unknown. Let us know if you know the person who created this incredible piece;)