International Women's Day

This a slightly different post to normal, but today is International Women's day! International Women's day shouldn't need to be a thing, and it doesn't mean that we shouldn't care about men, quite the opposite, but it's great to have a day to bring everything home and keep gender equality on the radar. I think it can be quite easy for some people to get complacent, especially if they're happy with their own situation, so reminders are always good. 

 One of my friends came up with a really cool fundraising ideas to celebrate the day and I just wanted to share it with you all as its been bringing lots of joy to my facebook timeline. The idea is to nominate your women of the year, write a little explanation, attach a photo and big up the girl power. It's been so lovely to see everyone's nominations, ranging from family members, friends, or famous inspirations, facebook has gone all warm and fuzzy. 

The idea has also promoted donating £2 to charity in their name, obviously this is entirely optional, but it's been really effective and over £400 has been raised in a few days, which is amazing! Everything is going towards Room to Read's girl's education program which is a great charity that aims to empower girls all over the world through education. As someone who's been lucky enough to have been able to take school as a given, I can't even begin to imagine how different my life would be without it. 

If you want to donate you can text INWD99 £2 to 70070 (UK) or online here, but really don't feel like you need to. The main thing that I'm trying to get across is to spend a moment thinking about the great women in your life. It's been really good to see so much positivity in the last few days. Obviously there are still some really serious issues that need to be tackled, but it has been amazing to try and do something about them in a positive way.

My women of year has got to be Mum. She's done so much for me and gives me so much support. She's also an all round great person and a best friend. I'd include a nice soppy photo, but I don't think she'd be too keen to see her face on the internet, so you'll have to make do with the blurry back photo at the top. It's a sketchy film photo, but we can all just pretend that that was a 'cool hipster effect' that I was going for ;)

Feel free to comment with your women of the year, or if not just have a think about it, it's a nice happy thing to give a go :)