[femmeInterrupted]

Women that helped me become who I am today:

My mother: for allowing me to wear formal dresses and faux fur to grade school, because I’d insist on being dressed ‘properly’, even though ‘dressing properly’ meant I looked like a fat little Portuguese drag queen. (seriously, i have pictures--it's crazy!)

My high school Theatre Arts Teacher/Mentor Leah, who taught me the inherent value of a great pair of stiletto heels, AND how to walk in them!

My grandmothers who worked hard, loved harder, and taught me all I know about loyalty and fierce love, to never accept 'acceptance' and demand instead embracing and rejoicing.

The feminist women, all of them, who walked and plowed the road before me.

All the women I have worked with, who have shared their stories, and tears, and have shown me that moments of grace are possible in the most f*cked up situations, that laughter comes just when you need it, sometimes right in the middle of a huge, snot bubbling, donkey braying sob fest, and that we are strong, resilient, magnificent creatures.