Woman to Woman

“When women support each other, incredible things happen…”

This post comes from our blog intern, Emily.

Something really amazing is shifting in our world. Are you noticing? Now, more than ever, woman are running sh*t. Women are questioning social norms, and really, changing the world. This year, the most educated group in America are African American women. How amazing is that? Women are doing some of the most inspiring things I know (men are cool too, of course, and I think there’s a lot we can learn from them) but I couldn’t be more proud to be a woman.

In some shape or form, we are born to compete. Endless messages are thrown at us telling us we need to be taller, skinnier, prettier, or smarter. Many of us are taught to come from a place of lack; you’ll never be good enough. But what good has ever come out of judgement, jealousy, and petty competition? It’s draining, demeaning, and gets us nowhere. When we try to unconditionally love the people around us, so much good comes from it! Teamwork, inspiration, and love are just a few things we end up with.  The strongest women are those that build up the women around them, instead of tearing them down. Support, encourage, celebrate, and love the women in your life because we are capable of so much and our fullest potential can only be realized when we feel safe and supported by those we surround ourselves with. Surround yourself with a group of women that challenge you and inspire you! I think a big part of this woman-driven revolution (perhaps?) of changing stigmas, thoughts, and perceptions has been largely achieved by women supporting other women.

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Empowerment. Empower the women in your life. Your co-workers, your sisters, your mother, your friends, your acquaintances, your enemies, and strangers. Empower others and you’ll feel empowered. Collaborate. Share your ideas with other women. Don’t keep everything to yourself. Lift others as you climb your own ladder and start collaborating more than competing. Mentor and help the women around you. If you know something, it’s probably of value to many other women. Have courageous, meaningful conversations. Be honest, and let people know how you feel. Your emotions, thoughts, and opinions matter.

Support the women around you. We’re all in this together and remember, it’s not all about you <3

EmpoweringWomen_Graphic2

Images by Emily and Alistair

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Sabs
7 years ago

Free People, part of helping women grow is to promote healthy and diverse female images. You seem to value skinny blondes and relentlessly promote low cut tops and short shorts. I’m really sick of you guys not practicing what you preach.

7 years ago

Sabs, I think the same. Maybe these women have great stories but free people show only skinny hippie girls.

Em
7 years ago

I third that comment, Sabs & WildCity. Don’t get me wrong- I LOVE this blog and the messages it shares, especially lately. All the mind-body wellness promotion is really nice to see on here. Unfortunately, that’s where it ends. I worked for this company for a long time and the store culture is so vastly different from the blog. The company culture is shallow, the women are petty and catty, and there is no diversity whatsoever. I really hope they will come around to aligning their brand more authentically with everything this blog preaches.

7 years ago

Totally agree with you ladies here! Absolutely loving what’s being preached, but it can’t just end here. This blog is incredibly welcoming with warm loving arms, but walk into any of the retail stores and it’s a whole different vibe. I mainly shop the website now because of this reason. From the hiring to the modeling much change is needed. I was hired as an associate a few years back but declined after the mass amount of egotistical questions during the interview. Treat the business like this blog and everything would be killer FP!

Much Love.
http://SimpleBoho.wordpress.com

Sabs
7 years ago

Thanks for the support, guys. And Yesssss I too am extremely disheartened by the chasm between FP philosophy and the superficial, catty attitude of store employees. FP, You have an opportunity to reach people through the power of beauty and make women feel great about themselves…so do it.

7 years ago

Hey ladies in the comments @sabs, @wildcity @Em and @AmandaMachell,
I’m so sad to hear that your experiences have been negative in stores! I have visited every store in Florida (7 right now), 2 in Georgia, 1 in nyc and 2 in Toronto and have had vastly different experiences! Every store certainly had its own vibe, but as a girl with Kardashian kinda curves who is definitely not a size 0, i have felt welcomed in each of the stores. I know my local store has frequent shoppers who include plus size, pregnant girls, trans girls and mature ladies (age 50+) and we all feel comfortable speaking with the stylists and managers. I definitely think of the free people girls as the nice girls, as opposed to the too cool for school girls… I hope it gets better for you In the future (or lets shop together In the Florida stores)!

My styling and life adventures are on http://www.seaandink.com

Estef
7 years ago

Wow! I loved this post so much! So inspiring! It’s my life philosophy!!! :) Congrats and greetings from Spain!!

7 years ago

I absolutely love this…recently wrote a blog post about celebrating friend’s, unique gifts, and success. This isn’t meant to ‘promote’ my blog, but it’s so very relevant on this topic.
http://hellowhitney.com/mission-friends/

Anonymous
7 years ago

All I can say is WHERE IS THE DIVERSITY of women with different backgrounds, skin tones and other aspects that make them beautiful! I’m following you guys on instagram just so one day i can see you guys post one photo of a girl that isn’t white and blonde! So far I am not a fan of your brand!

Maria
7 years ago

All I can say is WHERE IS THE DIVERSITY of women with different backgrounds, skin tones and other aspects that make them beautiful! I’m following you guys on instagram just so one day i can see you guys post one photo of a girl that isn’t white and blonde! So far I am not a fan of your brand!