Feminine Unity's Featured Guest, Jeff Zaslow
A shining example of Feminine Unity!
When I read an excerpt from Jeff Zaslow’s book The Girls From Ames, I thought about how much this story depicts Feminine Unity. Eleven young girls united in feminine spirit, which sustained into adulthood. Jeff has written the story with enough appeal that made me want to have been there and been a part of this clique. I am the same age as many of the girls, so we were probably dealing with similar issues such as school, puberty, and boyfriends during the same time periods. The difference is that I was growing up in the Motor City, which was a far cry from Iowa.
The book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for approximately 26 weeks and has been exposed to an abundance of media coverage. Many articles have been written in response to the book and about female friendships. Years ago Jeff wrote an article about female friendships and received a multitude of letters, one of which was from one of the girls from Ames. Christopher Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), wrote an interesting article about his thoughts on the book and female friendships. He spoke of a student who was moving far away from friends and he thought he should have given her the advice of inviting friends to visit. My daughter did better than that when she moved out-of-state for graduate school. She took one of her best friends -- me -- with her. It baffles people, but we have the dual relationship of mother/daughter and best friends.
It is truly remarkable that these women established lasting friendships that weathered the storms from all that life demanded for over four decades. This is why I am happy to say that The Girls From Ames is an inspiration for Feminine Unity. What a joy it must be for each of them to have united in feminine spirit to share their story of how much Feminine Unity means to them. These ladies have unwittingly taken the Feminine Unity Pledge. "I [your name here], vow to Respect, Love, Support, Trust, and Embrace myself and all feminine spirits I am interrelated with in Feminine Unity."
Please visit www.girlsfromames.com to learn more about the Sheila Walsh Scholarship, which was set up in honor of one of the 11 girls whose life ended much too soon. Get updates on what the other ten ladies are doing, click on the link to see their YouTube video, and learn about Lifetime Television's work to adapt the book into a movie. Below is a photo of Jeff with the ten ladies from Ames.
Jeff Zaslow is a columnist with The Wall Street Journal and you can learn more about him and his other best-selling books at www.jeffzaslow.com.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Your information will not be shared with anyone. If you want your thoughts posted anonymously, please say so. Peacefully yours, Tonja
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