I am successful.
I am worthy.
I respect myself.
You are just like the women quoted below. You will not bow. You will not be changed against your will. You will not be moved. Because deep down, we both know that who you are is exactly who you’re supposed to be.
I thank God I am endowed with such qualities that if I were turned out of the Realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.
—Elizabeth I, Queen of England for forty-four years, who casually steered England through one of its most peaceful and prosperous times, all while charming her people and cleverly evading claims of feminine inadequacy; she vowed to never lose her head in love after seeing and learning about the painful love life of her mother and, especially, her father
I’m so popular it’s scary sometimes. I suppose I’m just everybody’s type.
—Catherine Deneuve, an Academy Award-nominated French actress whose international career has stretched for over half a century
In spite of honest efforts to annihilate my I-ity, or merge it in what the world doubtless considers my better half, I still find myself a self-subsisting and alas! self-seeking me.
—Jane Welsh Carlyle, eighteenth-century author known for her wit and sass; she wrote her first novel (and a five-act tragedy!) while still in her teenage years
Some people say I’m attractive. I say I agree.
—Cybill Shepherd, actress and the winner of three Golden Globe awards; she began singing at the age of five and hasn’t let anyone or anything stop her since
I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.
—Emily Dickinson, voluntary recluse and writer of nearly eighteen hundred poems; though she never cared much whether they were published, her family and close friends did (to our great benefit!)
I am beautiful.
I am attractive.
I love myself.
I came out of the womb a diva. All it means is you know your worth as a woman.
—Cyndi Lauper, singer, songwriter, and actress who has won two Academy Awards and been honored with fifteen Academy Award nominations; her songwriting for Broadway’s 2013 hit musical Kinky Boots (which won a total of six Tonys) made her the first solo woman to receive the Tony Award for Best Original Score
The world is wide, and I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.
—Frances Willard, an educator and temperance activist who helped found the national Prohibition Party and served as president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union; she campaigned for women’s suffrage across the country and traveled the world fighting the international drug trade
My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.
—Harriet Ann Jacobs, who spent seven years hiding alone in a three-foot-tall nook in her grandmother’s house in order to save her children and herself from the wrongs of those who owned her; after she escaped and returned to her children, who had finally been sent north, she became a nurse and a writer, telling her moving story so that all could learn about the horrors of slavery
I will not be vanquished.
—Rose Kennedy, matriarch of a family made up partially of politicians; she was their anchor and assisted in many of their political (and personal!) victories
I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
—Mae West, actress, playwright, and burlesque performer; she was arrested for her then-scandalous Broadway show Sex, which she wrote, directed, and produced herself
I will succeed.
I believe in myself.
I achieve whatever I put my mind to.
Vinegar he poured on me all his life; I am well marinated; how can I be honey now?
—Tillie Olsen, a groundbreaking fiction author and high school dropout (later awarded nine honorary doctorates!) who often wrote about the lives of women, minorities, and the working poor; she inspired many collegiate-level Women’s Studies programs throughout the United States and beyond
Prudent people are very happy; ’tis an exceeding fine thing, that’s certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of death the humour of saying what I think.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter writer, essayist, and world-traveling poet; her face had been ravaged by smallpox as a child, so when she witnessed smallpox inoculation in Turkey, she jumped at the chance to inoculate her children against smallpox and brought the practice back to her native England
It is indeed, a trial to maintain the virtue of humility when one can’t help being right.
—Judith Martin (a.k.a. “Miss Manners”), author of Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
I just throw dignity against the wall and think only of the game.
—Suzanne Lenglen, the world’s first professional female tennis player; she popularized women’s tennis as a spectator sport
Badass to the Bone:
Suzanne was born in Paris in 1899. As a child, she was frail and suffered from many health problems, including chronic asthma. Tennis, her father decided, would build up her strength and benefit her health. She first tried her hand at the game in 1910, on the family tennis court, and her father began to train her to play competitively. Only four years later, at age fourteen, Lenglen made it to the final of the 1914 French Championships (now the French Open); she lost to reigning champion
