There they sat. Over 10 girls in dresses and skirts sitting
on couches and chairs as I walked into the living room of the President’s house
at Emporia State University. There were only a couple faces that were familiar
to me, and the rest I was taking in for the very first time.
A second in and I was already a tad overwhelmed.
I was handed a pink binder with gold accents and decoration.
It was the 2015 BUILD Beauty Confidence Book. Just at first glance, I thought
about the one I made a few years ago and how this one kicked that one’s ass.
This one was so much cooler.
And that is the point of being a leader. You want them to be better and do better than what you were and what you did before you left.
After desert, we came back in the living room and I sat in a
chair across from them and it wasn’t long before I started facilitating
discussion. I learned about the things BUILD Beauty had done the past year,
which included an inner beauty pageant, two guy panels, and baking food for the
community. They shared plans for their future that included getting even more
involved with the community and possibly doing something with the Girl Scouts.
We talked about women’s issues and what they felt about
them.
It was a good open discussion that led to one girl sharing
with us that as a young mom she deals with the stereotype that she won’t go
anywhere in life or won’t be as successful. She takes her 2-year-old daughter
with her to BUILD Beauty meetings. The night at the President’s house was one
of the first nights she got out alone and she was proud.
I was swimming in emotions.
…
Growing up, I never sought out to be a role model for women,
the word feminism wasn’t in my vocabulary just yet, and women empowerment was
not a topic in my brain even through high school.
So lately, I've been searching for what it was exactly that ignited inside
me which led me to where I am today. If I had to pinpoint a place, it would be
spring break of my freshman year of college when I was reading a SEVENTEEN
magazine article about Beauty Peace Day that inspired me to create an
organization for women on the Emporia State University campus.
After that, it’s events and experiences that I think have
helped shape that fire. This doesn’t feel like something I chose to do or something I aspired to be when I was younger, but
rather something that was laid upon me. I went from a girl that never spoke in
dance class to a girl that spoke to dancers at the same studio I attended.
…
Surreal. That’s what I keep thinking and saying when I
describe the night at the President’s house for the 4th
BUILD Beauty birthday party. She turned 4 years old. I had feared that once I
left that it wouldn’t exist anymore. That the mission and passion and interest
would go away. But I walked into a room full of girls that I hadn’t even met that
were continuing a vision and evolving it in their own ways.
I kept thinking, these
girls are being impacted by an idea I had one night in my bedroom. Girls I
don’t even know. BUILD Beauty has sustained and is still going. I didn’t
really know what it would look like years down the road when it first began,
but it is an amazing thing to see it 4 years later and I can’t wait to see what
it turns into in years to come.
Thank you to everyone that has kept it going and believes in
the mission. You are beautiful. Please continue to BUILD.
Sparkle&Shine.
Rachel
@theglitterylife
facebook.com/glitterandthegirlygirl
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