Joyful Women Network

07/30/2026

Dr. Mae Jemison is a doctor, engineer, physicist, and astronaut who became the first African American woman to travel into space in 1992. She studied at Stanford University and Cornell Medical School, served in the Peace Corps, and later joined NASA. After leaving NASA, she founded a consulting company, taught environmental studies at Dartmouth, received numerous awards, and continues to promote science and space exploration through the 100 Year Starship Project.

07/28/2026

07/27/2026

Keep rising, the world needs what only you can give.

07/23/2026

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education. When the Islamic Taliban movement took control of the valley in 2008, girls’ schools were burned down. Malala kept a diary of the events, which was published in 2009 by BBC Urdu. In her diary she spoke out against the Taliban’s terrorist regime.
It was not long before the Taliban threatened her life. In October 2012, a gunman shot her and two other girls as they were coming home from school. Malala survived the attack and went on to publish the autobiography I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. In 2013, she founded the Malala Foundation to champion every girls’ right to education, and in 2014, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.

07/23/2026

Shilah is living with Uncombable Hair Syndrome, a rare condition that affects more than just her hair. She also experiences complications such as brittle bones, teeth and fingernails.

07/23/2026

“At this stage in my life, I’ve realized I’m afraid of the things that shouldn’t hold so much power over me, while the things that truly deserve my attention no longer seem to scare me. Maybe it’s time to rethink what I give my fear to.”

07/21/2026

This is so precious and beautiful!! This makes your heart happy. Congratulations to this beautiful couple 🤍🤍

07/21/2026

I wrote this poem after leaving university and starting my first full-time job. Adulthood was nothing like I had expected. It was lonelier, more stressful, and though you were surrounded by people all day, it was even more alienating to interact with people and perform the role you have to play at work.

I felt disillusioned and confused. This is what I’d been working towards my entire life, really. I wanted to make my parents proud. I feel like I owe it to them, knowing how difficult life has been for them. I cannot even begin to imagine life for them—immigrating to an entirely different place where they speak a language that confuses you, where you are treated as an outsider, and you have very little security in your most basic survival needs, like a roof over your head and food on the table.

I know that I have not had to experience any of that, and I owe it to them. My struggles have been there, surely, but wildly, wildly different.

What does success mean to me? Am I spoiled by the privilege I have to even ask for more than the baseline of economic security? I seek art, fulfilment, spiritual awakening. I am not good with all these career things or money things. Everyone always seems to know better than me what is going on. I just want to write and make beautiful things.

I don’t really know what this means, or how the time flew by so quickly, but, yeah. I suppose I’m a lady now. I’m all grown up now.

Thank you for reading my preamble. Poem by ❤️🥰

07/15/2026

A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everyone else.