The personal is political. – Carol Hanisch
By writing and blogging, we take our personal stories and make them public, showing the world that our stories our important and worth sharing. By doing this we create a dialogue about our needs, wants, desires and in that dialogue we are creating a movement to have those needs, wants and desires met. As minorities, our voices are often, both intentionally and unintentionally, quaffed, our opinions overlooked, our needs denied. By telling our stories we are saying we are worth listening to, we are here and we aren’t going to be silenced.
Often times, however, our voices feel lost in the overwhelming roar of modern life, media and politics. Often times we lose track of how important our voices are. We compare ourselves to louder, more politically powerful voices, and feel small and insignificant.
For that reason, we here at QueerieBradshaw.com are starting a campaign – to be rolled out at BlogHer 12 where we will be attending and Lauren will be speaking – called “I’m a Big Deal,” in which we encourage bloggers and writers to not compare themselves to sites with more traffic and writers with larger audiences, but instead to see themselves as influential and important in their own way.
From Lauren: The goal is to keep bloggers and writers from feeling alone and insignificant like I often do when I compare myself to others. The idea is that the personal is political and everyone, especially minorities, should feel empowered to tell, and keep telling, their stories. At BlogHer my assistant editor Jessenia and I will pass out stickers to bloggers we meet that say “I’m a Big Deal” and then post links to bloggers we meet on our site and use our online voice and presence to help amplify others’ voices.
So if you’re a blogger or a writer or someone who tells their story in any way, we think you’re a Big Deal. No matter the size of your readership or the amount you write, we think it’s awesome you share your story.
If you’re at BlogHer 12, come find us and we’ll give you a sticker. Couldn’t make it to BlogHer? Email us at info@queeriebradshaw.com and we’ll mail you one. Either way, leave a comment here with a link to your blog so we can read your story!
