I was fortunate to attend the Glamour Magazine Women of the Year Event last night marking 20 years of the celebration of inspiring women. I always leave the event wanting to do more with my life, wanting to help more, do better in the world. Hearing from dynamic women from Hollywood legends to political leaders to athletes is more than enough to get you off the couch after work and say “what more can I do today?” Wow! If we all asked ourselves that everyday how much more productive would we all be.
Anyway, enough of the Tony Robbins talk, last night’s event featured Hollywood stars including Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Hillary Swank; Music icons Fergie, Cher and Janet Jackson; TV big-wigs Oprah and Diane Sawyer; sports stars Lindsey Vonn, Mia Hamm and Lisa Leslie; fashion designer Donatella Versace; world leaders Her Majesty Queen Rania, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Dalia Grybaukaite of Lithuania, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor of Croatia, Prime Minister Iveta Radicova of Slovakia, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, activist Constance McMillen, and those that just don’t give up on their cause no matter how trying the circumstance Katie Spotz and Dr. Hawa Abdi and her Daughters of Somalia.
Through tears Fergie said “I am Woman Hear me Roar” and recognized her inner circle of women that have helped and supported her through the years while Cher humbly remarked that she only makes loads of money making people laugh (in reference to the 20 Glamour Young Women of the year recognized including Erika Alden Debenedictis who at the age of only 18 has already won Intel’s Science Talent Search with her spacecraft-navigation system she designed).
The women gave advice: “never take No! as an answer;” “Don’t ever tuck your hair behind your ear – it never looks good” and “nothing is impossible, even holding this award in one hand!” The overall message of the evening is that women can do it all: have a successful career, have a family, stand up for her rights, and help others.
I know this first hand from my personal mentor, my mother, who truly taught me by example that women can do it all! My mother, who you all know as Lydia Sarfati, raised two women while running her own business. People always ask other women how do they maintain a work-life balance? The women last night showed that it is indeed possible to run the world and their home! It just takes a little planning!
To win the official gift bag of last night’s Glamour Magazine Women of the Year Award please post your comments (In this post, below) on who your “Woman of the Year” is and why! The most inspiring story will win this exclusive bag!!
This is a great post. Thank you!
My mom has always been an inperation. At my age she had 4 children and with streanth and and courage she moved herself and her children away from an abusive huband and provided her family opprtunitues that she did not have growning up !
Hands down my Woman of the Year, No, of the Century, is my mother, Nancy. Her strength and courage is beyond measure. My mother has always been one to care for her family first. She would cart me, and my brother around to all of our sports, music and dance activities every week and she never missed an event.
She also took care of her parents. My grandmother was in the hospital off and on for most of my mothers’ life and my mother would go to see her every single day. (She lost both of her parents within 3 months of each other, her mother in June and her father in September of the same year.)
She also helped my brother thru some very tough times. He has 5 kids and the 2 youngest almost started calling her “Mom” instead of “Grandma.”
Twenty years ago, she even helped me start my spa business. She’s continued to give me advice and support ever since.
Then, in February of 2005, just 9 months after my father died from complications after colon surgery, my mother complained that she didn’t feel like herself. After she went to see her doctor and had tons of horrible tests, she was told that there was a possibility she had cancer. They ended up needing to do 2 separate brain biopsies and, believe me, her recovery from both of these was excruciating.
She finally got the diagnosis of CNS (Central Nervous System) Lymphoma, which is extremely rare. It took nearly 3 months of testing to get the diagnosis, which is significant because with CNS if you don’t get treatment right away, you only have 3 months to live. Immediately, my mother started chemotherapy treatments. She was hospitalized for 4 days during each treatment for 2 straight years. But she’s not completely out of the woods. The chance of CNS recurring is nearly 50%. As prevention, my mother will continue having her full chemotherapy treatments once every 3 months for the rest of her life, which hopefully will be a very long life.
My “Woman of the Year” would be my sister, Amy. We had a really rough childhood growing up, and though she has had her slips and mishaps along the way, my sister has become an amazing woman.
Both of our parents were drug addicts, and my mother was also an alcoholic. My sister had an especially rough time because she initially started her adult life on the same path as my mother. When she was 16 she became a mother and left high school. She endured an abusive relationship and left, intact and stronger.
Though she started out lost and alone, Amy is now an amazing mother, with the funniest and wittiest kids. She completed high school, and now has her own business and has started taking college courses.
So, though she has never been perfect, she has always been strong and determined. I am very proud of the person she has become.
Heather Lewis’ nomination has won our Woman of the Year blog contest. We were so inspired by her story of her sister’s strength in overcoming hardships and in becoming a wonderful mother and owning her own business – proving that women can truly do it all! Kudos! We wish you continued success both personally and professionally!!
Thank you all for submitting your stories and sharing them with us!!
My “Woman of the Year” would be my Aunt Anne. Last week was a tough week for our family. Two near death’s and one funeral. At one point when my Aunt and I were having a quiet moment together, she said, “You will find as you get older, you are a whole lot tougher than you ever thought you were. Things happen and you have to be.” She summed up my thoughts about my own courage. I will never forget our moment when she shared her wisdom. Our family has endured quite a bit of tragedy through the years. She is indeed tougher than I thought.
I would like to nominate my mom for woman of the year! I think she deserves it so much! She was a single mom and provided for both me and my sister, was able to put us through college and really made us both extremely strong women. I don’t know who I would be without her!!!!
I think any woman who has started her own business is amazing. Especially during the 70’s. They would have had to have the support of their husband and family at a time when woman were still excepted to stay at home. That was a ground breaking emdeavor and to continue on an keep the business going 30 years or more is fantastic. Those women allowed us to follow in their steps and dream big.
My woman of the year is my mom! She works a full time job and takes care of my disabled father, but still finds time to volenteer at a battered woman’s shelter and keep her home beautiful and smelling like fresh baked cookies. Plus she does it all with a smile and cheery attitude!
Great post! I think that Fergie deserved to win Woman of the Year. She is so amazing and has done so much for won=men all over the3 world and is a true inspiration to women.