The Spoonie Mummy

Today, March 8th 2018 is International Women’s Day.  It commemorates the movement for women’s rights and in honour of the day I thought I would share 15 women who inspire me with you all.  I hope you all enjoy having a read and let me know which lovely ladies inspire you in the comments below!

Apologies that this went out without any text – it had not saved correctly and as I haven’t been at my computer this morning I hadn’t realised!

Reese Witherspoon

Reese has been one of my favourite actresses ever since she starred as Elle in Legally Blonde.  She comes across as a lovely person who would be a great friend and I really enjoy all her work.  She is talented, beautiful and a fantastic Mum.

Katie Piper

This lovely lady is just amazing.  Since the horrifying attack in which an ex partner arranged to have acid thrown at her she has gone from strength to strength.  She has courageously showed off her scars and still fights an ongoing battle with her health due to her injuries.  She is a fab, working mum and I really am inspired by her strength.

Giovanna Fletcher

I follow Giovanna over on YouTube and Instagram and she is great at showing every side of her crazy life (frazzled Instagram stories at midnight when she has just deleted a ton of work that she hadn’t saved for instance).  She is a working mum to two lovely boys and has a third child on the way.  She is also a fantastic author.  I have not long read ‘Something Kind Of Wonderful’ (check out my review here) and I have also been recommended two other books of hers from friends.  She is also an ambassador for CoppaFeel – so if you are reading this and haven’t in a while, get checking out your breasts!

Ellen

Ellen for President!  This lady is just beautiful, inside and out.  I watch her show as often as I can and she is so generous, funny, comforting and genuine.  Plus she is the voice of Dory – just keep swimmin’!

JK Rowling

As a single parent struggling, this lady wrote one of the most magical book series, ever!  Yes I said it, ever.  You know how much I love to read, but the Harry Potter series just has to be in everyone’s top ten.  She created a world and characters that many of us have grown up with, and are now introducing our children too.  Her writing is fantastic and she absolutely deserves all the plaudits she received.

Constance Hall

I came across this amazing queen on Facebook and haven’t stopped following her since.  She just speaks so much truth, is direct and to the point and is absolutely, amazingly supportive to others.  She coined the phrase ‘queen’ for all the women she talks about, talks to and inspires.  She is hilarious, honest and real.  Definitely someone to check out if you haven’t already.

Michelle Obama

One of the most successful first ladies ever I think.  Michelle Obama is running campaigns helping young girls across the world get into education and more.  She was also a great sport doing the Carpool Karaoke with James Corden, showing off some real personality and the Instagram snaps between her and Barack can be soppy but there is definitely #relationshipgoals right there!

Malala

Malala is the young girl shot in the head by the Taliban.  Maybe one of their worst mistakes was not killing her.  She has gone on to tirelessly campaign for girls to be educated and has made one heck of a noise across the world, winning a Nobel prize for it.  For such a young girl, and having gone through such a traumatic injury, she is definitely amazing.

Millicent Fawcett

Millicent was a woman’s’ right’s campaigner.  Rather than a suffragette, she was a suffragist.  These ladies were just as loud and important during the fight to vote, but rather than strapping themselves to railings, they were writing letters, talking to people and doing it a little more peacefully.  I think we needed both types of women to win the right to vote, but I can see myself more as a suffragist, rather than a suffragette which is why this lady inspires me.

Boudicca

I have not long learnt a lot about this lady.  Ste is extremely into Roman history and reads an awful lot.  I read about Boudicca and what the Romans did to her and was horrified.  To try and cut a long story short – when her husband died, she expected to take over their land and people and would continue to pay ‘rent’ to the Romans.  However, the Romans were not happy with this and wanted complete control.  They took this by raping Boudicca and her daughters (in front of their mother).  She mounted an army, crusaded through the British Isles killing many Romans and destroying their settlements.  Unfortunately she was killed in the Battle Of Watling Street but not before putting a large dent in their army to avenge what they did to her daughters, their people and the land.

Pink

This lady is stunning, has an amazing voice and is encouraging of all people.  The speech she made at the MTV awards, to the public and addressed to her daughter, was epic and rather than write any more about her I thought I would just put that here to show the great woman and advocate that she is.

“I know I don’t have a lot of time, but if I may tell you a quick story. Recently, I was driving my daughter to school and she said to me, out of the blue, ‘Mama?’ I said, ‘Yes, baby?’ She said, ‘I’m the ugliest girl I know.’ And I said, ‘Huh?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, I look like a boy with long hair.’ And my brain went to, ‘Oh my god, you’re six. Why? Where is this coming from? Who said this? Can I kick a 6-year-old’s ass, like what?’

But I didn’t say anything. Instead I went home and I made a Powerpoint presentation for her. And in that presentation were androgynous rockstars and artists that live their truth, are probably made fun of every day of their life, and carry on, wave their flag and inspire the rest of us. And these are artists like Michael Jackson and David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and Annie Lennox and Prince and Janis Joplin and George Michael, Elton John, so many artists — her eyes glazed over. But then I said, ‘You know, I really want to know why you feel this way about yourself.’ And she said, ‘Well I look like a boy,’ and I said, ‘Well what do you think I look like?’ And she said, ‘Well you’re beautiful.’ And I was like, ‘Well, thanks. But when people make fun of me, that’s what they use. They say I look like a boy or I’m too masculine or I have too many opinions, my body is too strong.’

And I said to her, ‘Do you see me growing my hair?’ She said, ‘No, mama.’ I said, ‘Do you see me changing my body?’ ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me changing the way I present myself to the world?’ ‘No, mama.’ ‘Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world?’ ‘Yes, Mama.’ ‘OK! So, baby girl. We don’t change. We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. And we help other people to change so they can see more kinds of beauty.’

And to all the artists here, I’m so inspired by all of you. Thank you for being your true selves and for lighting the way for us. I’m so inspired by you guys. There’s so much rad shit happening in music. And keep doing it. Keep shining for the rest of us to see.

And you, my darling girl, are beautiful, and I love you. Thank you, MTV. This is a really special night. Thank you, Ellen. I couldn’t love you more. Thank you guys. Goodnight.” Pink, 2017

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman in Britain to practice medicine.  She was so determined to become a doctor, she learnt French and travelled to Paris to get her qualifications, after being excluded from classes in Britain.  She founded the New Hospital For Women, which was entirely staffed by women.  She paved the way for rules to change, making it possible for women to study medicine in this country.  I can only imagine not being given the option of seeing a lady doctor for certain things, so we owe this lady a lot for her dogged persistence.

Lauren Henderson

Lauren is one of my favourite people on the planet and I am lucky enough to call her a friend.  Not only does she battle with IBD, a stoma, a full time job as a teacher and being wife and mummy, she runs an incredible charity, Purple Wings.  Lauren was one of the first people I told when the doctors told me they thought I would need an ostomy.  She offered me support like no one else could, visited me and through her charity I gained my Purple Wings and a Time For Me grant.  You can visit the Purple Wings website here – they are also on the look out for fundraisers and sponsors and I couldn’t recommend them highly enough for ostomates who got their stoma through IBD, or those facing ostomy surgery for support.

xameliax

This is quite a recent ‘find’ for me.  Amelia is a vlogger and I wanted to mention her in this list as I not only love her weekly vlogs, but the honesty with which she discusses her mental health problems is so refreshing and much needed so people understand how people ‘live’ with these conditions.  Check out her channel here to see what I mean!

Lady Gaga

This lady always seemed a little ‘odd’ to me if I am honest.  I appreciated the fact that she was happy enough in her own skin to wear what the hell she wanted, but the meat outfit and the egg thing…hmm!  My opinion was completely changed by the documentary she made for Netflix though.  I saw a sensitive, compassionate, beautiful soul.  It chronicled the time leading up to her doing the Superbowl performance and you could see her health declining in front of your eyes.  She was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia but this was unknown to her at this point, I think she blames it on a car accident that she had had years ago, and her obviously hectic schedule.  When she is sat having her aching joints massaged by her assistant and comments to the camera, how do ordinary people get through their days with this pain and no help like I have, I thought she came across as really humble.