FOR WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Girl Crushes, Vision Boards and Virtual Mentors

 

Today is the last day of Women’s History Month. What a glorious idea to spend a whole month celebrating feminism, female empowerment and girl crushes.

I think it’s no coincidence that “Wonder Woman,” directed by a woman, made over $1 billion at the box office worldwide, cementing its place in history as one of the top-selling superhero movies of all time because I feel like women are really coming into their own.

Already, it’s been an incredible year of celebrating African American women in front of and behind the camera, especially with the release of “Black Panther,” empowering actresses Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and of course, Angela Bassett (a girl crush) to portray such strong, powerful Black women on the big screen. (And their natural hairstyles were giving me so much life!)

For the past two months – i.e. Black History Month and Women’s History Month — I’ve been offering commentary about the accomplishments of African Americans and women on several radio shows where I serve as an entertainment correspondent.

Still, all year long, I’ve been bursting with joy on the inside because I’ve had these random, yet special moments with some of the very women who I’ve admired from afar. Some may call these chance meetings a coincidence, but I don’t. I like to think of them as breadcrumbs that God is leaving behind to let me know my life is moving in the right direction. Almost, like he’s giving me clues to the next chapter of my story. This is how I “listen to my life,” if you know what I mean.

In the book, “The Hollywood Commandments: the Spiritual Guide to Secular Success,” New York Times bestselling author DeVon Franklin offers life lessons and advice for success by combining “spiritual teachings with secular strategies.” In one of the chapters, he talks about having “virtual mentors” – that is, leaders in your field who you know, but may not know you — who can serve as mentors by studying their career path, projects, social media posts, interviews, etc. (Don’t be a stalker, though.)

This is great advice because it helps you think about your career in a different way, setting new goals and aspirations to make your dreams come true. It’s like living vicariously through someone else until your dream pops off, and then hopefully, you become a virtual mentor to someone else.

I have a list of virtual mentors. One of them is my former colleague Ava DuVernay, who I know from working in PR together. As the publicist of record for the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF), I supported her early movies, “I Will Follow” and “Middle of Nowhere,” and promoted her projects within my professional circles. And look at her now! She went from being an entertainment publicist to making history as the first Black woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe as director of “Selma;” she’s the first African American woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of more than $100 million with “A Wrinkle in Time,” AND she’ll be the first African American woman to direct a superhero film, “New Gods” from DC Comics.  (She’s the second woman to helm a superhero film, behind Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman.”)

I’m excited about the doors she’s opening for other women, too. Along with Oprah Winfrey, she’s the executive producer of OWN’s “Queen Sugar,” and for all three seasons, she’s hired only female directors like Julie Dash (“Daughters of the Dust”), Tanya Hamilton (“Night Catches Us”), Victoria Mahoney (“Yelling to the Sky”) and actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield (“A Low Down Dirty Shame,” “Eureka” and “Pastor Brown”).

“If Game of Thrones can have three seasons of all male directors, why can’t we have three seasons of all women directors?” 🤷🏾‍♀️ https://t.co/e2xTDy8fXw

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) March 21, 2018

As for others on my list, to be honest with you, if I think about the person hard enough or read about them long enough, somehow, they will manifest themselves in my life. Sort of like a vision board. Lately, it seems like I’ve been on a roll, crossing paths with inspirational women who are making history and making their marks in the world. Case in point – Lena Waithe (award-winning writer of Netflix’s “Master of None” and writer/executive producer of Showtime’s “The Chi”), Dee Rees (writer/director of “Mudbound”) and Misha Green (co-creator and executive producer of WGN America’s “Underground”).

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, I bumped into Waithe and Congresswomen Maxine Waters (D-CA) (another virtual mentor), as I was heading to the NAACP Image Awards afterparty. Waithe made history as the first African American woman to win an Emmy for writing on Netflix’s comedy series, “Master of None.” Plus, she’s the creator and executive producer of the new series, “The Chi” on Showtime. Currently, Waithe graces the cover of Vanity Fair magazine as the first, queer Black woman to do so. That’s another historic milestone worth noting.

While on assignment, handling the Uptown Magazine pre-Oscar gala, I was excited to be on the red carpet with Oscar-nominated writer Rees, who made history as the first African American woman to be nominated for co-writing an adapted screenplay for “Mudbound.” She is simply, marvelous. And during the afterparty, I had the pleasure of chatting with Green, trying to pick her brain about her critically-acclaimed slave drama, “Underground.” Two seasons aired on WGN America before it was cancelled. Although Green didn’t give me any clues about how the storyline of “Underground” might have panned out beyond season two, she did chop it up with me and offer me some encouragement from one writer to another. I appreciated that with the hopefulness of one day being a part of this very small sorority of Black female writers in Hollywood.

Last year, during Black History Month, after many years of reading about her, I FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY met tv, film and music producer Suzanne dePasse, who began her career with Motown. She’s the other Black woman to be nominated for an Academy Award® for writing – that is, a co-writer for the original screenplay of “Lady Sings the Blues,” starring Diana Ross. So please, let me reiterate this: only two Black women have been nominated for Oscars in writing categories, and I’ve met both of them in a year. A coincidence? No, a breadcrumb.

By the way, I chanced upon the legendary singer Diana Ross (a very special girl crush) at a restaurant on my birthday, many years ago, and nearly lost my m-i-n-d!  And meeting Dr. Maya Angelou (a very special virtual mentor) very early in my career rendered me speechless.  But, as usual, I digress …

I’m elated to find myself in a room with all these amazing, award-winning female writers, producers and directors. In celebrating these creative women, I feel like these virtual mentors get me one step closer to realizing my own dreams. They give me permission to think big, dream bigger. They are blazing a trail for me, and everyone else behind me. And I know that everything happens in divine order.

So, let this be an example to you. Girl crushes. Vision boards. Virtual mentors. I don’t have a vision board, yet, but people swear by them. But, I do encourage you to make a list of virtual mentors, and see how the universe will manifest their presence in your life. And as for girl crushes, it’s just a fun infatuation.

Although we’re at the end of Women’s History Month, let’s keep celebrating the accomplishments of our sistahs! We have to uplift and empower other women to nurture and grow our own desires.

Just in case you’re wondering …  another virtual mentor of mine who I haven’t met yet is writer/actress Robin Thede. She is the host of BET’s “The Rundown With Robin Thede” (part girl crush, part virtual mentor). I want to do body rolls with her! lol