#GirlsRunTheWorld

"I am realizing that in this day in age, BEING a millionaire means helping a million people."

- Angelia Trinidad, Founder, CEO & Designer of Passion Planner

As I listened to Angelia speak about how she started Passion Planner this past Saturday, I couldn't help but think of my own passions and dreams in life. Here I was sitting in a gym filled with a diverse group of young women each with their own unique story. I watched the girls in the room start to scribble down their road maps of their passions and goals for the days to come. It was hard not to be inspired by their visions for their futures. It really made me think if being a millionaire truly meant impacting, inspiring and motivating millions of people, then right then and there was the perfect time to start.

This past Saturday, I volunteered at The Live Well Project. A one day event in San Diego that empowers young women to believe in themselves, feel beautiful, build confidence and ultimately know their self-worth. Their mission literally grabbed out an reached deep into my soul.

"To inspire girls to dream big, take action, and invest in themselves by practicing community, wellness, and self-love."

In a chaotic world, I find it increasingly important to empower our girls and young women. So when I was at my local Copley-Price Family YMCA and heard about the day... I signed up right then and there while I was on the treadmill (us women are great at multi-tasking ;-)... can I get an amen?!). Also, with a theme like #GirlsRunTheWorld how could I not be enticed?

I couldn't believe the massive amounts of puzzle pieces that came together to create this picture perfect day. From the food & product donations to Bellus Academy and San Diego City College Cosmetology school, that came out to make each one of those girls feel beautiful inside and out. I am still in awe of the amount of dedication and work that Meeshie and Michelle (co-founders of The Live Well Project) and their volunteers put in to make this event successful each year.

Now I am biased but I think I had the best group of girls, each unique in their own special way. Most of the leaders had 6 girls but somehow I ended up with 5 very special ones. For the first time in my life, I actually felt like Amy Poehler from Mean Girls... the "Cool Mom". I found myself using the "cool" lingo like it's lit, on fleek, get it girl, and other phrases that frankly I won't mention because I am already embarrassed for myself. Maybe I was trying too hard to fit in! However, I like to think they enjoyed it because their smiles and laughter were priceless. We all know those embarrassing adults that we can't help but just to laugh at. In this case, they were laughing with me (right, girls?!).

Three of my five girls were incredibly shy. As I watched them shake their hips in Zumba and try new Yoga moves that they never thought they could do, I couldn't help to smile and think of the power of being surrounded by women. Every smile I flashed over to them, high-five and "get it, girl" I said to these three they instantly became increasingly comfortable and confident. The power of words and body language were key to make these young girls feel strong.

Speaker Angela Chee was spot on as she talked about how we communicate to other women not only with our words but our body language. Even for me it was a good reminder of how we can be so quick to judge and how painful that can be for the other person. Self-awareness plays a key part in breaking this vicious cycle that us women find ourselves in. As we practiced positive attitudes and openness of our body language, I could see it helped these girls relax and come out of their shell. Truly a beautiful moment.

My other two girls were natural Beyonces. They had no problem shaking it, adding their own moves to the Zumba choreography and pushing through every downward dog with a snarky remark. In fact, these two girls reminded me a lot of myself. The outgoing loud one with self-deprecating humor. It was a sobering moment when I heard them make jokes about themselves in such a negative manner.

At times I feel in our society if a woman is confident, she is perceived as full of herself. So what do we do? Use self-deprecating humor to bring ourselves down and make light of a situation. Why do we feel the need to do this? As I listened to Novalena Betancourt talk about The Total Female Package, I actually started to feel okay about my insecurities. She asked the crowd to identify the favorite thing about themselves and to embrace it. My girls' responses were from their freckles to their laugh, to their personality and their smiles. I took it a step further and asked why it was their favorite part. I couldn't believe how similar their responses were. It made them unique and made up who they were. It was one thing that made them feel confident.

Novalena finished up her portion of the day and ended with Colbie Caillat's music video, "Try". If you have not seen this music video, well prepare for water works. As tears rolled down my face, my girls came around to embrace me and yet again, I felt the power of women uplifting one another. These girls were so caring and loving towards someone they just met. What an amazing feeling.

I will most likely never see these five girls again and who knows if they will remember me when they are my age. But I think about Maya Angelou's quote...

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel."

So if they don't remember me or my excellent wisdom and advice ;-) My hope is that they remember the feelings of being strong, beautiful and confident for that day. Because all said and done, they did this for me and it is a feeling that I will never forget.

Photos provided by The Live Well Project and Copley-Price Family YMCA.

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