Sarah Jakes Roberts

And what was a conversation between me and maybe the highest version of myself became this conversation that I started having with thousands and then millions of women who were in similar situations.

That's a great question.

I think so.

I think I get angry now at systems of oppression.

I get angry at- And that fuels you.

It does.

It makes me want to dismantle them.

But at the time, I couldn't channel it that way.

But I think also just women in general are not allowed to be angry.

And because we were not allowed to be angry, I thought I had to suppress it, suppress it, suppress it.

And so there would be these moments of explosion that seemed like it was just about that one thing in front of me, but it wasn't.

It was about all of the other things that I had to stuff down.

People talk about being people pleasers all the time.

And I'm thinking, are we people pleasers or are we manipulating people into believing that it's easy to love us and that we won't cause any issues and we're just...

so easy to get along with when in reality there are things that offend us, there are things that upset us.

But because I feel like I'm not allowed to tell you because I want to be nice and I want to be sweet, I often end up building relationships that don't have the roots to really withstand what it means to be in relationship with my authenticity.

It was crazy, especially like my father has a famous last name, but I wasn't writing under my maiden name.

I was still married at the time.

And so I think it really spoke to the fact that I was telling this story that other women could resonate with.

And as much as it was a sign to me that I had something, because listen, I grew up in church where like, if you can't sing, you can't dance, you can't pray, then like you don't have any talents.