The Girls Write Now mentee midyear event couldn’t have made me more proud to be a woman. Having all of the morning and afternoon mentees around me, discussing why we’re here and how much passion we have for writing, I realized the strength each of us possesses by just sitting there. We come to Girls Write Now to gain the confidence we need to be the writers we all aspire to become, and to embrace our talents as creative individuals.
Apart from being in a room filled with brilliant peers, Tzahalla Kessari from Project Girl fortified our confidence as women writers. Having her tell her story and share her work was truly beautiful. Tzahalla’s past in Israel silenced the room as she narrated consciously and eloquently. At one point, she said something so true and so intense that it instantly put my writing in perspective.
“It’s not yours to keep.”
It’s not yours to keep. It’s simple yet I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
Tzahalla’s poetry and personality embodied everything a woman should be proud of and shouldn’t take for granted. Project Girl, like GWN, is an advocate for young girls and allows them to blossom into something bigger than they expected. Having a group like this as part of your life offers a safe space to perform and write, but it also helps girls handle issues with identity, human rights, body image and other topics that might be difficult to deal with on one’s own.
Tzahalla and her message of Project Girl reaffirmed my passion for writing and my right to write not only as an aspiring author but as a woman with a story.