SHIRLEY TEMPLE: FROM CHILD ACTRESS TO GlOBAL AMBASSADOR

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple

Shirley Temple, most easily recognized for her golden corkscrew curls, began working as a child actress since she was three years old. Born in California in 1928, she was discovered by a film corporation while at her dance school. Educational Films Corporation contracted her to perform in all-kid comedy films that parodied adult roles and recent events. She rose to fame after her appearance in Bright Eyes, and from there she continued to star in hit films that made her the number one box office draw in all of Hollywood. Her wholesome image brought a dose of happiness to Americans during the Great Depression. Following her highly successful career as a child actress, she became a diplomat and ambassador for the United States.

“Be brave and clear. Follow your heart and don’t be overly influenced by outside factors. Be true to yourself.”

—Shirley Temple

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Badass Women Who Followed Their Bliss All the Way

Of Cockpits, Cocks and Bulls, and Other “La- dylike” Pursuits

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Adalynn (Jonnie) Jonckowski: This card-carrying member of the cowgirl hall of fame has an unusual idea of a good time—hopping on the back of an angry bull and hanging on as long as possible. Called the “Belle of Billings” (Montana), she has repeatedly proved to be the world’s best bull rider. Adalynn’s winning attitude is evidenced here, “Any time you have the freedom to do what you want to do and exercise that freedom, you’re a champ.”

While Jonnie Jonckowski clings to the backs of angry Brahma bulls, Julie Krone has her own wild rides. Petite and determined, Julie Krone was the first female jockey to win the Triple Crown, a race at the Belmont Stakes. She has shown that women can ride the winning race and has $54 million worth of purses to show for it. (Jockeys keep 10 percent of the take, quite a motivator!)

Even though Julie says that “times have changed” for women, she will still occasionally be heckled with yells of “Go home, have babies, and do the dishes,” when she loses. The wealthy winner’s final comment: “In a lot of people’s minds, a girl jockey is cute and delicate. With me, what you get is reckless and aggressive.”

Shirley Muldowney, born Belgium Roque, took on one of the last bastions of machodom—drag racing—and came up a winner. She fell in love with cars at the age of fourteen in Schenectady, New York, racing illegally “when the police weren’t looking.” At fifteen, she married mechanic Jack Muldowney, and they became a hot-rodding couple. Shirley put up with enormous hostility from race fans and outright hatred from fellow drivers. In 1965, she became the first woman to operate a top-gas dragster and went on to win seventeen National Hot Rod Association titles, second only to Don Garliz. Queen of the cockpit, Shirley Muldowney became an internationally famous superstar with a critically acclaimed film about her life and achievements, Heart Like a Wheel.

Hockey is certainly no sport for lightweights. For many, taking shots from a bunch of big men with sticks might seem like a risky business, but to French Canadian Manon Rhéaume, it was the sport she loved. She was a goalie for the Atlanta Knights and, as such, is the first woman to have played professional hockey in the men’s leagues. At five feet six and 135 pounds, Manon was slight compared to many of her team members and opponents, but she proved her ability to stop a puck. The world is finally taking note of women’s ability to play this sport overall; in the year 1998, women’s ice hockey became a full medal sport at the Winter Olympics, no small thanks to Manon and others like her.

Then there’s Angela Hernandez, who is surely to be admired for fighting for her right to bullfight in the birthplace of machismo—Spain! In the polyester-laden year 1973, she demanded to be allowed to compete in the male-only zone of the bullring. This caused quite a commotion; how dare she question the 1908 law forbidding women to participate in the sport of horseback bullfighting. Twenty-year-old Angela took her case all the way to the courts, where the Madrid labor court ruled in her favor, allowing her to fight, but only on foot. But threatened males found another way to thwart her—the Ministry of the Interior wouldn’t issue her a license. Would-be torero Angela refused to go quietly into the Seville sunset, loudly contesting her plight, “These damned men. What do they think they are doing? Women fly planes, fight wars, and go on safaris; what’s so different about fighting bulls?”

This excerpt is from Badass Women Give the Best Advice by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Have an Attitude of Gratitude

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1. Be grateful and recognize the things others have done to help you.
   
2. When you say “Thank you” to someone, it signals what you appreciate and why you appreciate it.
   
3. Post a “Thank you to all” on your Facebook page or your blog, or send individual emails to friends, family, and colleagues.
   
4. Send a handwritten thank-you note. These are noteworthy because so few of us take time to write and mail them in our modern age.
   
5. Think thoughts of gratitude—two or three good things that happened today—and notice how calm settles through your head, at least for a moment. It activates a part of the brain that floods the body with endorphins, or feel-good hormones.
   
6. Remember the ways your life has been made easier or better because of others’ efforts. Be aware of and acknowledge the good things, large and small, going on around you.
   
7. Keep a gratitude journal, or set aside time each day or evening to list the people or things you’re grateful for today. The list may start out short, but it will grow as you notice more of the good things around you.
   
8. Being grateful shakes you out of self-absorption and helps you recognize those who’ve done wonderful things for you. Expressing that gratitude continues to draw those people into your sphere.
   
9. Remember this thought from Maya Angelou: “When you learn, teach; when you get, give.”
   
10. Join forces to do good. If you have survived illness or loss, you may want to reach out to others to help as a way of showing gratitude for those who reached out to you.

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Get Up a Half Hour Earlier Each Day

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This simple suggestion from Peter Shankman at a publishing conference ended up being a life-changing piece of advice. He said when he tried this, it transformed his life, and it is as simple as this: get up a half hour earlier, and use that time to reach out to people. He said it can be as easy as wishing a happy birthday to your Facebook contacts, one meaningful phone call first thing in the morning, or writing a personal note to someone you have longed to be in contact with. I remember listening to him and thinking that I really didn’t want to get up any earlier, that my days were long enough, and that it did not sound that appealing. But his sincerity and enthusiasm somehow broke through my “baditude,” and I pondered the idea as I walked back to my car and drove across the Bay Bridge back to my office. I decided to try it, and I can tell you, he is right.

That extra half hour every morning has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made, so much so that I added an hour. It completely changed my life for the better. Try it!

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Take Little Steps, Make Huge Strides

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“Success is not a doorway, it’s a staircase.”

DOTTIE WALTERS

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

HELEN KELLER

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make, which over time add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

“Don’t wait for your ship to come in and feel angry and cheated when it doesn’t. Get going with something small.”

IRENE KASSORLA

“How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

ANNE FRANK

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”

MOTHER TERESA

“I’m always moving forward.” DEBBIE ALLEN

“I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.”

OPRAH WINFREY

“Strive for excellence, each and every day.” MARION CONDIT

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Sweet Successes

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“Fearless women go to the top.” BEYONCÉ KNOWLES-CARTER

“For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.”

ELIZABETH BLACKWELL

“Not only have women been successful in entering fields in which men are supposed to have a more natural aptitude, but they have created entirely new businesses.”

LUCRETIA P. HUNTER

“Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.”

SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN

“The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you.”

BETTE MIDLER

“The women of today are the thoughts of their mothers and grandmothers, embodied and made alive. They are active, capable, determined, and bound to win…millions of women dead and gone are speaking through us today.”

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE

“Security is not the meaning of my life. Great opportunities are worth the risk.”

SHIRLEY HUFSTEDLER

“I don’t think any change in the world has been more significant than the change in the status of women…. A woman’s world was her home, her family, and perhaps a little community service. Today, a woman’s world is as broad as the universe.”

BELLE S. SPAFFORD

“If I had learned to type, I never would have made brigadier general.”

ELIZABETH P. HOISINGTOM

“Don’t confuse “things” with success—you are neither better nor worse for where you live, what you drive, or the size of your bank account. Remember what really matters in your life—and it is not “stuff.””

MARY JANE RYAN

“Getting to the top isn’t bad, and it’s probably best done as an afterthought.”

ANNE WILSON SCHAEF

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Daring Greatly: Making Sure Your Creativity and Ideas Count

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This is your life, only you can truly control your choices, and choosing to dare is the best way to achieve being good to yourself as well as to the world. Here are some suggestions for how you can ensure simple daring in your life:

• Be the best you can be by your own standards
• Surround yourself with people who inspire you and make you feel good
• Focus on what you have, not what you lack
• Remember that optimism trumps pessimism every time!
• Smile often and genuinely
• Be honest, both to yourself and to others
• Help others
• Embrace your past, live in the present, and look forward to what is yet to come
• Make radical self-belief your motto. BELIEVE!

Think about what makes life worth living—risk, daring, courage, and growth.

Some people seem to have a knack for it. We say they march to their own drum; we’re wowed by their resilience in the face of criticism and adversity. If you are one of those people, it’s time to share your secrets with the rest of us and be a cheerleader for the timid among us. And if you’re not one of those people yet, remember that we can all choose to put ourselves on the line as we go after our dreams, and we can always try to use our mistakes as lessons on the road to success. Decide that what you want is more important than your fear of getting it, and there is no stopping you. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Life’s an adventure, so venture forth and reach for your dreams!

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Grow to Learn, Learn to Grow

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“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”

DIANE ACKERMAN

“A really strong woman accepts the war she went through and is ennobled by her scars.”

CARLY SIMON

“Fortunately, psychoanalysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself remains a very effective therapist.”

KAREN HORNEY

“You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.”

ETHEL BARRYMORE

“People don’t live nowadays; they get about ten percent out of life.”

ISADORA DUNCAN

“Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.”

ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS

“One is not born a woman, one becomes one.” SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all that you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality.”

FLORIDA SCOTT MAXWELL

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.”

GAIL SHEEHY

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” AMELIA EARHART

“At the moment you are most in awe of all there is about life that you don’t understand, you are closer to understanding it all than at any other time.”

JANE WAGNER

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.”

ELIZABETH KÜBLER-ROSS

“Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” SOPHIA LOREN

“Random acts of kindness—simple acts of generosity—are not only nice for other people, but they actually are healthy for you physically as well as spiritually. They reduce levels of stress hormones. So go ahead and make yourself and others happy today!”

MARY RUSKIN

“Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.”

SARAH BERNHARDT

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

The Ingredients of a Wonderful Life

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“The kind of beauty I want most is the hard- to-get kind that comes from within: strength, courage, dignity.”

RUBY DEE

“Life is a mystery as deep as ever death can be.” MARY MAPES DODGE

“Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to good will and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”

ELSA SCHIAPARELLI

“Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”

ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH

“The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.”

JULIA ALVAREZ

“The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.”

JOSEPHINE BAKER

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.”

URSULA K. LE GUIN

“I’m not happy, I’m cheerful. There’s a difference. A happy woman has no cares at all. a cheerful woman has cares but has learned how to deal with them.”

BEVERLY SILLS

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” MURIEL RUKEYSER

“No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.”

HELEN KELLER

“Desire, ask, believe, receive.” STELLA TERRILL MANN

“Live as if you like yourself, and it may happen.” MARGE PIERCY

“Choice is all we have. Choice is all we need.” KAREN CASEY

“Learn to trust your own judgment, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort good from bad—including your own bad.”

DORIS LESSING

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

ELLEN PARR

“Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success.”

MARTHA STEWART

“Grace, growth, and gratitude: these are my highest aspirations.”

GLORIA ARLISS

“Yes” is contagious on a subliminal level. It affects everything you do.”

SARK

“Happily, love is a pleasant emotion and thrives as well in stables as in palaces.”

DIANE ACKERMAN

“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.”

ALICE WALKER

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Uncover Your Soul’s Purpose

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“When we are on track, living close to the things we deem important—the things we value—we feel happier. This isn’t flash happiness, it isn’t the kind that lasts for a few minutes when we get a new toy or enjoy a concert. This is the kind that lingers in the background of our lives, the kind that, even in moments of sadness or frustration, never completely disappears, because if we are living a values-based life, we are also living with meaning and purpose.”

POLLY CAMPBELL

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

MAYA ANGELOU

“The most important thing you will ever do is become who you were meant to be. Blossom into yourself.”

LISA HAMMOND

“Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.”

MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE

“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”

GRANDMA MOSES

“Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.”

GRACE HANSEN

“You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die, or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live now.”

JOAN BAEZ

“I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life.”

MARGARET II, QUEEN OF DENMARK

“In great moments, life seems neither right nor wrong, but something greater; it seems inevitable.”

MARGARET SHERWOOD

“You are all you will ever have for certain.” JUNE HAVOC

“Finding your passion is about connecting the dots between your head and your heart.”

MARIA MARSALA

“People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.”

ELIZABETH KÜBLER-ROSS

“I have learned not to worry about love, but to honor its coming with all my heart.”

ALICE WALKER

“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our lives are made. Destiny is made known silently.”

AGNES DE MILLE

“Some women go through life turning on lamps in the evening. Others are themselves a light.”

HELEN PERKES

This excerpt is from You Are an Awesome Woman by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.