When I think of the type of women characters in television, books, and movies whom I wanted to emulate as a child, they were never anyone along the lines of Cinderella or one of the myriad princesses you read or watch cartoons about who find their fictitious “Prince Charming.” I never cared for the women from fairy tales which, when originally written, did not have the cutesy, happy endings to which Disney assigned them. I never saw myself in that way. I wanted to be Wonder Woman or one of Charlie’s Angels. As I child I was the proud owner of the Charlie’s Angels action figures, complete with the Angels’ van. I would stick them in that van with the psychedelic stickers plastered on it and have them drive off to kick some ass. This usually involved them running over or smashing into one of the baby dolls that my mother used to buy for me and, for the life of her, couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t play house with; I preferred to destroy them instead. Growing up I never celebrated Halloween so the closest thing I had to a Wonder Woman costume was the pair of Underoos I was allowed to wear. I so wished I had the bullet proof bracelets and tiara to match!

So as you can see, I never was a girly-girl. I also had a very independent nature that I most definitely did not inherit from the women in my family. This made things tough for me throughout my life as I come from an extremely conservative family who were very well-known and looked up to in our church community. It wasn’t until years later, and many mistakes later, that I learned I had to live my life for myself. Not only should I not worry about what others think but, at the end of the day, it wasn’t any of my business what anyone else thought. Maybe my family and their “friends” were content living that way, but I wasn’t.