On 14 January 2016 Like a Girl anthology was launched.
Why Like a Girl?
Did you know Beatrix Potter, the famed author and illustrator of the much loved Peter Rabbit books, was also a ground-breaking scientist? It’s true (see here). In the past, women’s achievements were often not seen as significant or worthy of attention. Sadder still, even today girls and woman are less likely than boys to be encouraged to learn or to explore the talents and abilities they have been given.
Unicef states:
‘Despite progress in recent years, girls continue to suffer severe disadvantage and exclusion in education systems throughout their lives. An estimated 31 million girls of primary school age and 32 million girls of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2013.’
They go on to say:
‘Providing girls with an education helps break the cycle of poverty: educated women are less likely to marry early and against their will; less likely to die in childbirth; more likely to have healthy babies; and are more likely to send their children to school.’
UNICEF ‘Girl’s Education and Gender Equality, 23 July 2015
In Like a Girl, fourteen authors from around the world have contributed their stories to raise money for PLAN Australia’s support of girl’s education. Like a Girl is a celebration of the strength and resilience of women, told in a variety of genres and voices, the proceeds of which will help empower girls and women across the globe. It turns the derogatory term ‘like a girl’ on its head, celebrating the contribution girls and women can and have made.
Like a Girl features stories and poems by Jeanette O’Hagan, Avril Sabine, V. Hartman Di Santo, Kathryn Hogan, Mary Grace, Coralyn Swift, Christina Aitken, Mark Taylor, D.L Richardson, Mimi Emmanuel, Erin Yoshikawa, Druscilla Morgan, Michelle John and Mirren Hogan.
They use intelligence, humour, adventure, imagination and deep emotion to explore themes of resilience, determination against odds, empowerment, significant relationships and women’s achievements.
Why Girl’s Education is important to me.
My poem ‘A Long Time Ago’ in the Like a Girl anthology, is drawn from my own school day experiences. I’m glad that, I not only had to the opportunity to finish school and go on to university, but that both my parents encouraged me to learn and to pursue my dreams.
Over the years, I’ve practiced medicine, taught theology, and am currently raising a family and pursuing my love of writing fantasy, poems, social commentary and blogging about life and writing. The story I wrote for LAG, ‘Lakwi’s Lament’, is situated in the narrative world of the Akrad’s Legacy series (the first book due to be published in 2016). It explores the tension between a girl’s desire to learn and what her family and community expects of her.
Availability
Like a Girl is available from Amazon and other outlets.
Check it out on GoodReads.
Blog Tour
This post is the first step in the Like a Girl Plan anthology blogtour which will include reviews, reflections on the importance of education or women, prizes and giveaways. (See below). Profits from this engaging anthology go to Plan Australia’s efforts to support and improve girls education.
Blog tour stops include:
Stop 1 24 Jan – Jeanette O’Hagan http://jeanetteohagan.com
Stop 2 25 Jan – Paula Vince http://vincereview.blogspot.com.au/
Stop 3 27 Jan – Mimi Emmanuel https://liveforeverhowto.wordpress.com/
Stop 4 29 Jan – Lynn Fowler http://christianbookreviews.lynnbfowler.com
Stop 5 1 Feb – Maree Long
Giveaways
Today, I’m giving away a copy of Like a Girl to the person (not involved in anthology) who leaves best comment on the positive impact of girl’s education either personally or in the life of someone connected to them. This competition is open until 1 February, 2016. Winner to be announced on this blog.
I will also be giving away a copy of Another Time Another Place to the first person to sign up to my email Newsletter (see in side bar.)
Three other copies of Like a Girl are on offer through Like a Girl Rafflecopter.
Next Exciting Stop
The next step on the Blog Tour is with multi-published, award-winning author of intriguing and thought provoking New Adult inspirational fiction, Paula Vince. I love Paula’s stories and am looking forward to her post on Monday 25 January 2016. You will be able find it here.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to participate in prizes and giveaways, but more importantly, to be entertained and moved while supporting a worthy cause.
Jeanette
Available on Amazon
I’ve got my copy on my bedside table…..:)
Have fun reading it 🙂
So grateful for my University education- it has taken me places I would never have achieved without it.
So true Ronelle. Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for participating in the giveaways Ronelle. For being the first to sign up to my email list, you win a copy of Another Time Another Place. Congratulations – I’ll be in touch with you soon.
Jeanette, it’s so much fun to be part of a blog tour. Thank you for being the first stop so I know what to do. Love the Anthology, thrilled to be part of it.
Thanks Mimi – yes it is fun & it is a engaging anthology for a great cause. Thanks for your blogstop 🙂
(I hope I’m putting this comment in the right place! It’s a comment about the positive impact of a girl’s education.)
My mother, now aged 97, was a university student and became a teacher, studying at a time when few women attended university. She also had to board away from her remote farming area from the age of twelve so she could have a high school education.
Education changed her life, for the better. She highly values education and has had a long life of impact on others, not only through her teaching, but through being a speaker, Christian camp study leader, involved in Red Cross, KYB and many other things.
Hi Ellen
Yes, it’s the right place 🙂 What an inspiring person your grandmother is. I love stories like that. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Jeanette. But she’s my mother, not my grandmother. I’m older than you think! I meant to add that the ‘Like a Girl’ anthology sounds great and its stories would have to be inspiring. For a good cause too. Good to see a few names I recognise in the line-up. I hope to get a copy one way or another!
Hi Ellen – whoops, sorry about that. Actually, my father-in-law is 95 and my dad is 87 – so no excuses for mixing that up.
It is a great anthology and I hope you do get a copy to enjoy too.
Thanks for participating Ellen – I loved your story and am happy to announce that you are the winner of a copy of Like a Girl anthology. Congratulations. I’ll be in touch with you soon about sending it to you.
Thanks, Jenny. How exciting! I only got back to look here today (6th) but thanks to your other message I had found out. I’m certainly looking forward to reading it when it comes. I told my mother that she helped me win a book, through the telling of a bit of her life story and I’ll take the book to show her on my next visit.
*waves to Jenny* I don’t think this qualifies as positive impact yet, but there is a young eleven-year-old girl at church. She needs a lot of encouragement. Lives in filth, father mildly learning disables/on drugs, and she feels like she has no place in the world. Well, Robyn to the rescue. *wink* I am letting her critique my middle-grade manuscript. I hope it helps to show her what she can do in life. Her name is Abby. I have a middle-grade novel I started about her. I will change the name, and she won’t see that manuscript, but I so think this child is in danger of thinking she will never amount to anything. And I didn’t enter the giveaway because of the miles between us and I think it’s over). I just wanted to share. I can’t wait to buy the book. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on your poem.
Hi Robyn Yes, the competition had closed but thanks for sharing your story. It would wonderful if Abby could see her potential.