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Submit ReviewEpisode 4 of "We're Here Alone Together" (W.H.A.T.) features Ashley Girres, an author and Mom very well known on Twitter as @aFierceMind. Just pause right now and get onto Twitter and go follow her. I'll wait for you to take care of that.
Good... you're back. Thanks for doing that. Actually: you're welcome for that. You'll thank me. Ashley has been making me LOL for quite some time now with her incredibly witty tweets. Not just that, but she is also immensely bold, honest, and real.
I started telling people over a decade ago that "I feel like I have lived many lives already" (in my lifetime... not a reference to reincarnation). I recently read one of Ashley's tweets with that same sentiment and it was just another way I felt connected to her. When I listened to a recent podcast that had Ashley on as a guest, I was taken aback by how much I felt right in line with her in so many different ways.
Ashley's Dad passed away when she was just 7 years old. She tells a little bit about that in our conversation because that led to her decision to write letters to her daughter when she was born a little over 7 years ago. Her drive to write couldn't be more exact with the reasons that Daddy Unscripted even exists. I almost felt dizzy when I heard all of this.
Is it just me, or is it incredibly cool that I started writing a book 11 years ago for my daughter called "Dear Delilah" and Ashley has a book out titled "Dear Siena: Letters To Every Daughter"? I know that writing a book for your daughter may lead to the title being "Dear _____" whatever your daughter's name may be. But, come on. That is pretty remarkable!
I enlightened Ashley on what the Disney movie Onward! is about and even as I was giving the tiniest synopsis, it struck me how deeply emotional that movie can be for adults like ourselves. Trust me. I watched it with my kids and we were ALL crying.
Ashley's graphic design job has allowed her to work from home since just before her daughter was born. So, as she put it, she has been training for the whole "shelter in place" life for over 7 years now; "however, I have never trained with... we've got the 3 months thing down, but you may want to check in with me at the 4 months mark..." she said, jokingly.
I spent a good amount of time working with Ashley to get her husband's social media accounts rolling. He teaches P.E. to 4th - 6th graders and I immediately worked on launching his ability to work that into also helping conquer Dad Bods around the world. We joked a lot about how great the @aFierceBody account would do, especially as Ashley directed her followers to that account. I will say, I did actually follow through with my work to her and you'll see there is actually a Twitter account with that name now.
Ashley talked about how the school system in Oregon works, and how it breaks up the grades into different schools in a way I'm not used to here in So Cal. She talked about how it actually brought some peace-of-mind to her as her daughter grows up, knowing what Ashley experienced in her youth and what she remembers about how "boys can be". Ashley has three older brothers, so she had the benefit of some protectors in her life as a young girl.
This all serves as a solid reminder to those of us raising boys: we do really need to put a lot of extra work and focus on raising young men that respect and treat young women properly. Read that sentence again, parents. And that does have a responsibility for us parents of girls, as well. Young women should have realistic, high expectations. I won't go too far down that road... but, this is just another big responsibility for parents that will help make the world a better place.
Ashley started up on social media just two years ago. It's really cool how she has grown over 65,000 followers on Twitter in that short amount of time, organically. Did I already tell any of you on Twitter to...
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