Sarah Jakes Roberts

And so I didn't know that writing could be a gift.

Right.

But I realized that being able to put into words what other people are feeling is a gift.

And so I thought, OK, so this is a blog and people are in search of words and meaning that felt nice, but also scary.

I'm naturally introverted.

And so this idea of like, wait a minute, guys, this is my diary.

And now you guys are all watching.

I think I felt like a sense of responsibility and a sense of maybe urgency to get to a place of healing and not just unpacking and unloading without leading people somewhere.

Sometimes I hear echoes of the same thing.

I feel like the universal thread between all of those different types of women is that some of us in some way are trying to figure out what happened to us and how it's showing up in our present.

And that's for the woman in the boardroom and that's for the little girl in a detention center.

what happened to me and how is it showing up in the choices that I make now?

And so I still see that thread in many of the things that I do.

But what I feel exists now that didn't exist when I first started is that I do believe that women feel more empowered to lay hold of possibilities that perhaps didn't exist a few years ago.

I think with the rise of social media and technology,

that possibilities are more at our fingertips than before.

And I believe that seeing other women because of social media who maybe have similar backgrounds and backdrops have given people who are in limiting circumstances or who are wondering what their pathways can look like, it's given them hope and possibility that there's a path for girls like me and women like me

to have children and have the business or to go from a place of being in incarceration to starting a business.

Like I feel like the possibilities are more exposed and I believe that that's given women a lot of hope.

Yes, girl.