This really resonated and inspired me to write about my own career experiences in my 20s. I had a real Devil Wears Prada gig in my first ever job. Maybe something for an upcoming post! Really excited about that anthology!
Oh how I do hope we can educate and prepare our children, so they can be spared and prepared from our own experiences. Thank you for hosting this positive Daisy Chain! Your evening with Yoko Ono sounded magical ✨
So painful and beautiful Claire, thank you for sharing. I have worked with women all of my career and it has been mixed…a million layers of mixed! I absolutely resonate with all of the contradictory comments and ways that we are expected to exist. Perhaps a way to confuse and dilute us. I have also often had comments about being too optimistic and people thinking I am being sarcastic when I am being genuine! Thank you for showing us that of course there is another way, a return to our ingrained need to gather and lift each other up xx
Oh Claire, there’s so much vulnerability in this. Thank you for your bravery in sharing 💛 I’m seeing a pattern in the IWD posts of women unpacking and unlearning the competitive, tear-each-other-down cattiness that’s been expected of us for so long. I think it takes real strength and bravery to acknowledge that there can be another way - and a lot of acknowledging and working through how many of these behaviors stem from internalized misogyny and fear. We have to do the work to relearn how to love ourselves, and through that, I think we learn how to love other women.
I just so wish that we had the ability to advocate for ourselves when we were those young professionals, Claire. It's such a hard thing, because perhaps we can only ever learn by experience and hope that the way we show up aware of the damaging impact hierarchy had in our journey means we won't re-enact that for the next generation. Thanks for your honesty, and I am so grateful to you and our sisters-in-arms for setting up, promoting and supporting this project.
Oh my gosh I felt so many of those conflicting words in my whole being. Is it any wonder it takes so much for us as women to truly know our voice and who we are… with so many mixed messages? I loved reading what you would have said to your younger self given the chance… I often think about this… wouldn’t it be nice to just know back then that it’s ok to be ourselves and that people will love us for it… but alas I think the journey (for me anyway) has had to be to slowly unlearn it all and in doing that it’s brought me home. That even with Yoko sounds magical. I’m so grateful we got to do this together… we are rewriting the way of the world one word at a time. Xxx
I had to come back to this a few times because you gave me so much to think about - resistance, choosing to be kind, breaking cycles - not just familial but between women.
And those voices OMG! I was shuddering while imagining writing my own version of the voices I heard.
I adore this - I’ve started this little project as something of a rebuttal to the last few months of career pushbacks and rejections. Those voices feel so real and so close but here I am stepping in a different direction, embracing my enthusiasm, showing it off even, and doing a small thing that I’ve always wanted to do. On IWD it feels great to be able to read words like yours, feel recognised, and know that change is coming. That perhaps these small steps will all come together for something more positive too.
Omg those are the voices I too have had surrounding my life! I resonate with all that you have said here. Thank you for sharing ❤️
I was the loud happy optimist that was constantly “shushed”. A cup overflowing kind of person who slowly learned to put a cork on my joy. I’m still learning how to release that cork again.
Thank goodness for creativity and honest articles like this.
Big hello and HAPPY WOMENS DAY from my studio in Australia 🇦🇺👩🏼🎨👩🏼🎨
Oh yes to all of this!! And I love what you would say to your 20 year old self, I remember getting told by my female boss could I just be more like xxx colleague, I was never just right, I never fit into the corporate box and I didn’t understand why until I left, and to be honest it was more the women that made me feel like that.
Thankfully we’ve found our place haven’t we, and now get to work with the kind of people we love and supportive women in the Substack community, it’s such a brighter place ❤️
Weirdly I’ve written about rejection today too, but a different kind, I’m so enjoying reading everyone’s writing today, so thank you and the others for setting this share up 🙂❤️
Thank you for sharing this, Claire. ❤️ You're modeling such caring and generosity in this Substack space for all of us, and that's the type of space you deserved back then. Cheering you on in all the creative goodness I know the future has in store for you!
It is so frustrating and unfortunate when women treat other women, or anyone, in this way. As you said Claire it takes years to unravel that thread of conditioning when it doesn’t have to be that way.
May we move forward with kindness and empathy. May we realize that each person who does well shows us what is possible.
This really resonated and inspired me to write about my own career experiences in my 20s. I had a real Devil Wears Prada gig in my first ever job. Maybe something for an upcoming post! Really excited about that anthology!
Oh how I do hope we can educate and prepare our children, so they can be spared and prepared from our own experiences. Thank you for hosting this positive Daisy Chain! Your evening with Yoko Ono sounded magical ✨
So painful and beautiful Claire, thank you for sharing. I have worked with women all of my career and it has been mixed…a million layers of mixed! I absolutely resonate with all of the contradictory comments and ways that we are expected to exist. Perhaps a way to confuse and dilute us. I have also often had comments about being too optimistic and people thinking I am being sarcastic when I am being genuine! Thank you for showing us that of course there is another way, a return to our ingrained need to gather and lift each other up xx
Oh Claire, there’s so much vulnerability in this. Thank you for your bravery in sharing 💛 I’m seeing a pattern in the IWD posts of women unpacking and unlearning the competitive, tear-each-other-down cattiness that’s been expected of us for so long. I think it takes real strength and bravery to acknowledge that there can be another way - and a lot of acknowledging and working through how many of these behaviors stem from internalized misogyny and fear. We have to do the work to relearn how to love ourselves, and through that, I think we learn how to love other women.
I just so wish that we had the ability to advocate for ourselves when we were those young professionals, Claire. It's such a hard thing, because perhaps we can only ever learn by experience and hope that the way we show up aware of the damaging impact hierarchy had in our journey means we won't re-enact that for the next generation. Thanks for your honesty, and I am so grateful to you and our sisters-in-arms for setting up, promoting and supporting this project.
Oh my gosh I felt so many of those conflicting words in my whole being. Is it any wonder it takes so much for us as women to truly know our voice and who we are… with so many mixed messages? I loved reading what you would have said to your younger self given the chance… I often think about this… wouldn’t it be nice to just know back then that it’s ok to be ourselves and that people will love us for it… but alas I think the journey (for me anyway) has had to be to slowly unlearn it all and in doing that it’s brought me home. That even with Yoko sounds magical. I’m so grateful we got to do this together… we are rewriting the way of the world one word at a time. Xxx
Brilliant piece and sounds like a brilliant anthology
I had to come back to this a few times because you gave me so much to think about - resistance, choosing to be kind, breaking cycles - not just familial but between women.
And those voices OMG! I was shuddering while imagining writing my own version of the voices I heard.
So many potent women’s circle topics right here!
Loved it!
I adore this - I’ve started this little project as something of a rebuttal to the last few months of career pushbacks and rejections. Those voices feel so real and so close but here I am stepping in a different direction, embracing my enthusiasm, showing it off even, and doing a small thing that I’ve always wanted to do. On IWD it feels great to be able to read words like yours, feel recognised, and know that change is coming. That perhaps these small steps will all come together for something more positive too.
Omg those are the voices I too have had surrounding my life! I resonate with all that you have said here. Thank you for sharing ❤️
I was the loud happy optimist that was constantly “shushed”. A cup overflowing kind of person who slowly learned to put a cork on my joy. I’m still learning how to release that cork again.
Thank goodness for creativity and honest articles like this.
Big hello and HAPPY WOMENS DAY from my studio in Australia 🇦🇺👩🏼🎨👩🏼🎨
Oh yes to all of this!! And I love what you would say to your 20 year old self, I remember getting told by my female boss could I just be more like xxx colleague, I was never just right, I never fit into the corporate box and I didn’t understand why until I left, and to be honest it was more the women that made me feel like that.
Thankfully we’ve found our place haven’t we, and now get to work with the kind of people we love and supportive women in the Substack community, it’s such a brighter place ❤️
Weirdly I’ve written about rejection today too, but a different kind, I’m so enjoying reading everyone’s writing today, so thank you and the others for setting this share up 🙂❤️
Thank you for sharing this, Claire. ❤️ You're modeling such caring and generosity in this Substack space for all of us, and that's the type of space you deserved back then. Cheering you on in all the creative goodness I know the future has in store for you!
...a very dear and honest writer...
It is so frustrating and unfortunate when women treat other women, or anyone, in this way. As you said Claire it takes years to unravel that thread of conditioning when it doesn’t have to be that way.
May we move forward with kindness and empathy. May we realize that each person who does well shows us what is possible.
A great essay, thank you!
Love the emotions and the beautiful words here Claire 💚
Love this & you x