This week, on more than one blog, there is a firestorm of women and men reacting to Kim Hall, the blogger whose post went utterly and completely viral after she wrote: FYI (if you're a teenage girl). There was, and probably will continue to be, an amazing amount of support as well as backlash to her post. Below are two worth reading.
From Nate Pyle:
Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son
From Jen Mann:
We Can Do Better
EDITED ON 9-7-13 to include this:
From Beth Woolsey
Dear Mrs. Hall, Regarding Your “FYI (if you’re a teenage girl)”…
EDITED again ON 9-10-13 to include this:
From Kristen Howerton
On respect, responsibility, and Mrs. Hall’s open letter to teenaged girls
My thoughts on this are pretty simple. Did it spark a discussion?
THAT is the point of being brave...letting the words fall out of you because they matter to YOU. Not everyone will feel exactly the same about anything. We aren't made that way. We will always have our lone voice and hope someone gets it and agrees with our point of view. And we hope, when they don't, that things don't get vicious. What I detest the most about the internet is the ability to be mean while being anonymous. Put your name to something if you feel strongly about it. Own it.
Kim wrote from HER heart about a family routine to her original core group of readers of probably 500 people, of which probably ten, at most, comment on her blog. (In general, we all read a lot of stuff, nod our heads in agreement or disagreement and move on to the next thing...) THIS time, the topic resonated with WAY more than the ten people she usually interacts with. Now what? Now she gets to sift through thousands of comments, many of them mean spirited and many of them anonymous. Bless her heart, she moderates her comments and as a result, she reads them before allowing them on her comments. (I don't moderate - I just let you at it...)
The same thing happened to Jen - she had a post go viral overnight and boom.
I average about 262 people reading my blog a day. Some days it's more, some days it's less. I sat here on Wednesday night and tried to imagine how Kim felt when her post went viral and the only word that came to mind was overwhelmed. From my family discussions, we all felt universally bad for her sons, for they will bear the crux of this.
Here's to all the brave people out there sending their messages forth with a click of a mouse; we do it to be heard, to be part of something greater than ourselves, and to share what we feel is our own truths. Stand proudly in your truth...even when it goes viral.
From Nate Pyle:
Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son
From Jen Mann:
We Can Do Better
EDITED ON 9-7-13 to include this:
From Beth Woolsey
Dear Mrs. Hall, Regarding Your “FYI (if you’re a teenage girl)”…
EDITED again ON 9-10-13 to include this:
From Kristen Howerton
On respect, responsibility, and Mrs. Hall’s open letter to teenaged girls
My thoughts on this are pretty simple. Did it spark a discussion?
THAT is the point of being brave...letting the words fall out of you because they matter to YOU. Not everyone will feel exactly the same about anything. We aren't made that way. We will always have our lone voice and hope someone gets it and agrees with our point of view. And we hope, when they don't, that things don't get vicious. What I detest the most about the internet is the ability to be mean while being anonymous. Put your name to something if you feel strongly about it. Own it.
Kim wrote from HER heart about a family routine to her original core group of readers of probably 500 people, of which probably ten, at most, comment on her blog. (In general, we all read a lot of stuff, nod our heads in agreement or disagreement and move on to the next thing...) THIS time, the topic resonated with WAY more than the ten people she usually interacts with. Now what? Now she gets to sift through thousands of comments, many of them mean spirited and many of them anonymous. Bless her heart, she moderates her comments and as a result, she reads them before allowing them on her comments. (I don't moderate - I just let you at it...)
The same thing happened to Jen - she had a post go viral overnight and boom.
I average about 262 people reading my blog a day. Some days it's more, some days it's less. I sat here on Wednesday night and tried to imagine how Kim felt when her post went viral and the only word that came to mind was overwhelmed. From my family discussions, we all felt universally bad for her sons, for they will bear the crux of this.
Here's to all the brave people out there sending their messages forth with a click of a mouse; we do it to be heard, to be part of something greater than ourselves, and to share what we feel is our own truths. Stand proudly in your truth...even when it goes viral.
We were eating dinner last night and I said to Bella, I need a dance song, tomorrow is Friday. She immediately said, "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk. I told her I did that twice in August. Then she said, "THIS is my favorite song of the week; I already listened to it and watched the video a couple of times today." Interestingly, I've had it on my "to use" playlist for weeks. You know it, you're not too sick of it, and the video makes you smile. It helped spark this blog.
How big is *your* brave?!
How big is *your* brave?!
