Category: DTBF Blog

Greetings! It’s been a while. How is everyone? Are you daring to be fabulous? I hope so.

I wanted to let you know that the Dare to be Fabulous website is back to featuring full stories again! You can resume reading these wonderful stories online and posting your comments there. Check out the Stories page to peruse through all the story excerpts, or to select from a drop down list of titles.

DTBF story contributors range from famous women like Gloria Steinem all the way to one who remains Alcoholic Anonymous. Some of the other well-known contributors are Doris “Granny D” Haddock, Renel Brooks-Moon, Wendy Tokuda, Terri Lyne Carrington, Julia “Butterfly” Hill, Jill Robinson, Pema Chödrön, and more.

The Dare to be Fabulous book* has been pending, but with family emergencies, a fully engrossing startup business, and other life-related circumstances diverting my attention and focus and time, I have been remiss in making this book happen within the hoped-for timeline. I feel strongly that these wonderful stories need to be back in the light, where they can inspire, uplift, and entertain. I will also introduce newly featured stories in upcoming posts.

Whether you’re on public transport, in a waiting room or in line, taking a break between tasks, or simply wanting a dose of empowerment and connection, Dare to be Fabulous brings you those wonderful stories of daring, joy, and empowerment.

New DTBF story submissions are welcomed! Check out the submission guidelines for more information.

DTBF!

Johanna

* The book may be pending, but I want to express my deep appreciation for two fabulous women who have helped me with manuscript suggestions and feedback during the past year: Ellen Fagan and Donna Henderson-King. Thank you!

Have you read Caroline Paul’s DTBF story, “Where there’s Smoke, there’s Fire”? In this story, Paul shares what it was like to be one of the first female firefighters in the San Francisco Fire Department. (She was the 15th woman in a department of 1,500 men.) Her story is an excerpt from her New York Times best-selling book Gutsy Girls. The book is written for pre-teen readers, but her message resounds for men and women of all ages.

Caroline has also given a TED Talk titled, “To raise brave girls, encourage adventure.”  To which we reply, YES! (Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!)

Here is the video of her TED Talk:

As many of you know, in addition to being the editor of Dare to be Fabulous, I am also the editor of my mother’s newly published memoir, Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother by Lillian McCloy. My mother wrote the manuscript over 20 years ago. She is now 91-years-old, proving that it’s never too late to become a published author or to see your dreams come true! The book is available from Amazon, as well as book stores and ebook retailers.

This Saturday, January 21, from 2:00 – 3:00pm, there will be a book event and reading for Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant in Alameda, CA. The event will be hosted by Ben Hess of the podcast Story Geometry. My mother Lillian will be in attendance and I will read from the book, along with my sister Kristin, who is an acclaimed novelist. Books Inc Alameda will have the book available for purchase at the event.

If you’d like to attend this event, please link to the event page for more information and to RSVP Click “REGISTER” and submit your # of attendees. The organizer will need RSVPs to estimate attendance.

DTBF!

Johanna

Dare to be Fabulous has posted a new featured story for your reading enjoyment! This one comes from Ali Rushfield, who shares her personal experience of working in the writers’ rooms of several top-rated TV comedy series.  An excerpt:

Have you ever sat with eight to ten of the funniest people you’ve ever met, said something you thought was one of the most hilarious things your brain has ever managed to conjure up, and suddenly felt invisible?

Before I link to her story, I shall indulge in a little personal background. I met Ali Rushfield when she was around five years old and I was 12. Our families were neighbors in Tokyo for a couple of years and our mothers became fast friends. Even at such a young age, my family considered Ali to be a sharp, sarcastic and hilarious person.

Ali, me, her father Len and her brother Richard , in our Tokyo neighborhood

Fast forward to 2016, when Ali found out about my mother’s newly published memoir, read it, and immediately contacted me, sharing her amusement at being referenced as our neighbor’s “small child” in one of my mother’s stories. I was not surprised to find out that Ali is a TV comedy writer, and a great one at that. She’s been a writer on two TV series created by Judd Apatow, and other notable shows, but I’ll defer to her DTBF story for more about that.

Ali, all grown up

Daring to be Fabulous can happen in all kinds of environments and circumstances. No one is immune to the experience of feeling uncertain, or insecure, or sincerely humbled. Success, and that includes personal triumphs as well as professional ones, includes a lot of facing up to one’s own fears and an awful lot of daring. Ali’s story is no exception.

Read A COMEDY WRITER’S STORY by Ali Rushfield

DTBF!

Johanna

Miho Aida is an environmental educator and filmmaker and the force behind a media project titled “If She Can Do It, You Can Too: Empowering Women through Outdoor Role Models.”  On the website, she writes, “Being a woman of color in the outdoor industry makes me stand out; everyone notices my presence immediately. At the same time, I often feel invisible. . . ”  Miho wants all girls to have environmental and outdoor role models who look and sound like they do.

Miho is also the producer and director of a documentary film titled The Sacred Place Where Life Begins: Gwich’in Women Speak. In our newly featured DTBF story, Miho tells us about the film and going on a summer film tour, riding her bicycle to every venue.

Watch the trailer for her documentary film:

DTBF!

Johanna

P.S. A special shout-out to Ellen Fagan for her insight and feedback during the editing of this story. Thank you El. You’re the best.

Last weekend, the Japanese Fisheries Agency officially notified the International Whaling Commission that its whaling fleet plans to return to the waters of Antarctica to hunt 333 Antarctic minke whales over the next four months.  This despite the fact that on March 31 2014, the International Court of Justice declared Japan’s whaling program to be illegal, and ordered that it immediately cease.

Much of the difficult and dangerous task of battling such illegal activity has been helmed by Sea Shepherd, an anti-poaching organization that has been shepherding international waters for years. Its activities have also been highlighted in Animal Planet’s Emmy-nominated reality program, Whale Wars.

“The pristine waters of the Southern Ocean are once again under threat from poachers,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen, CEO of Sea Shepherd Global. “We would like to remind the Japanese government that the whales of the Southern Ocean are protected by international law, by Australian law and by Sea Shepherd. As such, any violation of the sanctity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary or the Australian Whale Sanctuary will be regarded as a criminal act.”

This news prompts us to highlight a related DTBF story, “Love Made Visible: My Adventurous Year” by Jo-Anne McArthur. McArthur is an international photojournalist and animal rights activist and this story is about one year in her life when, amongst other things, she volunteered as a staff photographer aboard a Sea Shepherd vessel called the Bob Barker, witnessing and photographing direct encounters with Japanese whaling ships that were poaching illegally in international waters.

Life won’t always be this idyllic aboard our boat, which the crew affectionately refers to as “The Bob.” We will have intensely dangerous confrontations with our rivals, the Japanese whaling fleet. Our boat is one of three on this 2009-2010 Antarctic Mission to stop the poaching of up to 935 Minke whales, which are hunted by the fleet and sold for meat in Japan.

Her DTBF story was first featured in 2010. Read “Love Made Visible: My Adventurous Year” by Jo-Anne McArthur

Dare to be Fabulous will be featuring more new stories in the coming months. Consider sharing a DTBF story of your own! Submissions are open and stories are also welcomed in audio or video formats. Please check the submission guidelines for more information.

You’re on a successful career path. You’re making good money. You’re respected. You’re being sought to fill positions with more power and higher income. And yet, you’re not happy. You’re not fulfilled. And you find yourself aching for the dream you’ve had since you were a child. Do you do something about it?

Melissa Haynes was in that very situation when she dared to take action, defying conventional expectations. Her DTBF story begins this way:

Dreamers spend their lives asleep. The early bird gets the worm. Keep your head down and work hard. Your job is your worth. If you don’t have a good job, you don’t have anything. Money makes the world go round. You are your bank balance. Your title defines you. No one will like you if you aren’t successful in business. Things matter. Appearance is everything. Grow up. Get real.

Melissa got real by being true to herself and doing what she’d dreamed of doing since kindergarten: going to Africa and helping the animals.

Have you ever lifted elephant dung? It’s as heavy as a bowling ball. Mucking out ellie stalls took hours of backbreaking, stinky work. But you know what? It was great. I loved every grueling second of it.

Read her DTBF story: “A Life-long Dream Realized: Volunteering with the Big Five in Africa.”

Haynes also wrote a book about her experience in Africa. It has the provocative title, Learning to Play with a Lion’s Testicles. Look who noticed:

Here’s to fulfilling your dreams. To heeding a personal call to make a difference. To facing your fears. And to creating a new path all your own. Hey, you never know just what might happen!

Imagine if your friend, colleague or neighbor of almost 20 years suddenly and publicly revealed that she had paranoid schizophrenia. Our new story comes from Rebecca Chamaa, who candidly shares her experience of secretly living with this mental disease and her decision to finally reveal it to friends and family.

Before my husband and I went public with the secret we had kept for over 17 years, we had many discussions about how people might react and how we’d respond. We had some near sleepless nights. We were very anxious because we felt our whole world was about to change.

Read the full story here: “Revealing my secret: I have paranoid schizophrenia” by Rebecca Chamaa.

Often, when you dare to share your own personal story, you not only empower yourself, you also empower others. Rebecca has not only divulged her secret of having paranoid schizophrenia, she now has her own blog about living with the disease and has even written a book.

Maybe my honesty will make it easier for the next person to share. Hopefully, I can and will be a voice that helps pave a new path for those who want to live out in the open.

Empower yourself. Empower others. We are always open to new story submissions. Consider sharing a DTBF story of your own! Check the story submission guidelines for more information.