Q&A: International Women's Day

Happy International Women's day to all the brave women out there 💪

"'The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights,' says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem. Thus International Women's Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action - whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women's Day has been occurring for well over a century - and continue's to grow from strength to strength." 

I'm not a feminist but I stand behind many of the feminism movement's goals. I'm sure that the world can be a more inclusive place for everyone if we all collaborate, but it seems that a lot of people are too comfortable where they are right now. So it's up to us, women, to make the change. 

For International Women's Day 2017, we're asking you to #BeBoldForChange.
Call on the masses or call on yourself to help forge a better working world - a more gender inclusive world.
Submit your #BeBoldForChange action via the IWD website.

In honor of IWD, I decided to do a *Q&A on a related subject.

1º What's a female author you admire?

I admire any author who dares to share the truth with the world. Those who give a voice to the minorities, represent them, and let them know that they're as important as anyone else. It's ironic that there are too many inspiring authors to list, yet not enough.

2º What's an underrated female author that, according to you, is going to take over the world?

Well, she's not really underrated anymore, but I think everyone should know about her: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I also think Zadie Smith is an incredibly smart woman, but her books are not for everyone. 

“It's a funny thing about the modern world. You hear girls in the toilets of clubs saying, "Yeah, he fucked off and left me. He didn't love me. He just couldn't deal with love. He was too fucked up to know how to love me." Now, how did that happen? What was it about this unlovable century that convinced us we were, despite everything, eminently lovable as a people, as a species? What made us think that anyone who fails to love us is damaged, lacking, malfunctioning in some way? And particularly if they replace us with a god, or a weeping madonna, or the face of Christ in a ciabatta roll---then we call them crazy. Deluded. Regressive. We are so convinced of the goodness of ourselves, and the goodness of our love, we cannot bear to believe that there might be something more worthy of love than us, more worthy of worship. Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.” 

― Zadie Smith, White Teeth

3º A book written by a female author that you loved or struck you in some way.

That book is The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas. It's the only book that I've read twice in my life. The reason this book stuck to me so much is that at the time of reading it, I was going through a tough time and I felt truly close to the main character, Rose. If you don't like books that could potentially make you cry, then this is not for you. But for all of you who want to read a compellingly well-written story... you won't regret it.

4º Female characters that you admire.

Well, I'm going to agree with the girls who created this Q&A on this one. Although she's not a character, I think a very inspiring person was Anne Frank. I can only begin to imagine the strength and guts she must've had to endure her situation at such a young age. Admiration is too small of a word for her.

Here come the more lighthearted questions...

5º Favorite female booktuber.

I tend to watch confident booktubers who won't sugarcoat a review to try and please publishers. Here are a few: 

• Lala from BooksandLala (I always look forward to her thoughts on books. You should check her Judge a Book by it's Cover Challenge)
• Hannah Tay (Love her sense of humor and wide taste in books)
• Naya from NayaReadsandSmiles (She has never ending energy!)
• Regan from PeruseProject (I love how straightforward she is, plus we have the same taste in books)
• Piera Forde (She's probably my fave booktuber. Love her creativity)
• Zoe from readbyzoe (She brings amazing arguments to her reviews)

6º Female antagonist you fear the most.

Uhm, I'm not going to try to be creative here: Dolores Umbridge. She's a pretty nasty and scary tiny little woman.

Not only her fetiche for cats and obsession with pink are creepy, but she also has that borderline-psychopath face.

*shivers*

7º Female character you wish was your friend.

Definitely Lysandra from the Throne of Glass series. She's not only strong and smart but she's also a fantastic friend. I would love to have her by my side. 

8º Female character you consider to be the smartest.

For this one I'm going with Portia from The Merchant of Venice (no need to name the author, right?). For a woman to be this relevant in a plot was unspeakable at the time. So I have to thank Shakespeare for bringing to life such a strong, independent and smart character. You'll have to read it to see what I mean.

So there you have it. I Hope you enjoyed it!

*This Q&A was originally created by the girls at Leyendo 

Fusas.

Do you agree with my picks? Go ahead and tell me your thoughts in the comments!