FEMININITY Inspiration Continues

If you'd still like to explore the amazing April topic, here's all you'll need to dig deep...our May kit launches in just a few hours!

Design Team Layouts



Journaling Prompts

Girlie Girl: As a child, did you love all the trappings of being a girl, or were you the more rough and tumble type? Was there pressure from family to be more or less feminine? What messages did you get as a child about femininity? If you had brothers, were you treated the same way as they were by both parents? Did your favorite toys reflect your gender, or were you more even-handed in your choices? Did your family allow you to play with toys that were ‘boy’ toys? How were you treated by boys in junior high or high school if you were a girlie girl, or not so much one? Were you more often a date or a pal?

Outside vs. Inside: Are you outwardly feminine in an obvious way? Do you see significant differences in the way women and men, or boys and girls, behave in single-gender groups vs. mixed gender groups? What do you think it means to ‘feel’ like a woman? How have male and female roles changed over the years, and has that been for the betterment of society or not, in your mind? Is there a synergy between how you feel inside and out about your own traditionally feminine vs. masculine traits?

Body Image: Throughout our lives, women are bombarded by messages about what we should look like, and the research shows that girls and young women are deeply affected by the images they see. How have these issues impacted you throughout your life? Are you happy, physically, with what you see in the mirror? Do you compare yourself to the images you see on TV, in movies, or in magazines? What different experiences do you think boys and men have about their outer physical image, and why do these differences exist?

Our Men: How have the men in your life impacted who you are today? What was your relationship with your dad, grandfather, brothers, and other men like in your youth and today, if it applies? How have those formative relationships impacted your relationship choices as an adult? Do you remember other men, like teachers, religious leaders, or coaches who had an important impact on you?

Motherhood: Are you a mother, or do you want to be? If not, why? How much do you think the act of bearing or raising a child is intimately entwined with your womanhood? What different and important roles do fathers play in the raising of children? If you are a mother, how do you balance this important choice and responsibility with other parts of your life, including your career or your marriage? If you’re a single or divorced mother, what special responsibilities do you hold, and how do you feel about them? How did your mother’s mothering style affect how you raise your children?

Aging and Beauty: In a culture obsessed with youth, how can we age gracefully? Do you believe the adage that men age better than women? Where do you think that idea came from? Do you think you’ll be more beautiful with age, or do you worry about how the world will perceive you as you get older? What is the relationship in your mind between aging and health? If you’ve been through menopause, how did it impact your perception of your femininity? If you haven’t approached that yet, does it sound scary or like freedom? What did you learn from your female elders – grandmothers, aunts, about being a woman, and aging?

Quotes

An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband. Booth Tarkington

Women share with men the need for personal success, even the taste of power, and no longer are we willing to satisfy those needs through the achievements of surrogates, whether husbands, children, or merely role models. Elizabeth Dole

So much has been said and sung of beautiful young girls, why don't somebody wake up to the beauty of old women? Harriet Beecher Stowe

You don't have to be anti-man to be pro-woman. Jane Galvin Lewis

There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men. Mohandas Gandhi

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." Clare Boothe Luce

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament. Alanis Morissette

I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. Madonna Ciccone

History is herstory too. Author Unknown

No woman is required to build the world by destroying herself. Rabbi Sofer

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women. Madeleine K. Albright

Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry. Joan Baez

Men who don't like girls with brains don't like girls. Mignon McLaughlin

Men look at themselves in mirrors. Women look for themselves. Elissa Melamed

One is not born a woman, one becomes one. Simone de Beauvoir

It's the good girls who keep the diaries; the bad girls never have the time. Tallulah Bankhead

To get to a woman's heart, a man must first use his own. Mike Dobbertin

Women speak two languages - one of which is verbal. William Shakespeare

How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being. Oscar Wilde

Woman was taken out of man; not out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled underfoot; but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.

The woman who appeals to a man's vanity may stimulate him, the woman who appeals to his heart may attract him, but it is the woman who appeals to his imagination who gets him. Helen Rowland

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. Anais Nin

I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull. Oprah Winfrey

The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back. Dale Carnegie

Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away. Barbara De Angelis

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Maya Angelou

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous. Coco Chanel

A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

When a woman tells the truth, she is creating the possibility for more truth around her. Adrienne Rich

Had I been a man, I might have explored the Poles or climbed Mount Everest, but as it was, my spirit found outlet in the air. Amy Johnson

Well behaved women rarely make history. Laura Thatcher Ulrich

The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that ... women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves. Louise Otto

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency. Margaret Fuller

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a door mat or a prostitute. Rebecca West

Women belong in the house... and the Senate. Author Unknown

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. Faith Whittlesey

A woman should soften but not weaken a man. Sigmund Freud

Women are in league with each other, a secret conspiracy of hearts and pheromones. Camille Paglia

A woman wears her tears like jewelry. Author Unknown

I've reached the age where competence is a turn-on. Billy Joel

I would rather trust a woman's instinct than a man's reason. Stanley Baldwin

It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it. Claudette Colbert

Being a lady is an attitude. Chuck Woolery

I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Women are always beautiful. Ville Valo

Curve: The loveliest distance between two points. Mae West

A man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears. Woodrow Wyatt

Woman is a miracle of divine contradictions. Jules Michelet

A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. Nancy Reagan

If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. Abigail Adams

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read. Alice Walker

Women do not have to sacrifice personhood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to expand women's opportunities, not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found in new pursuits can also be found in mothering. Elaine Heffner

I love people. I love my family, my children . . . but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up. Pearl S. Buck

Big girls need big diamonds. Elizabeth Taylor

What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice, and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of.

A girl is Innocence playing in the mud, Beauty standing on its head, and Motherhood dragging a doll by the foot. Allan Beck

Stock Photos