Michelle
in the snow

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Give a Girl a Journal

those 2 on the right... that's my super secret diary from high school. everything was life altering during those years!

My friend Christine shared this project with me called Give a Girl a Journal, organized by Jamie Ridler of Jamie Ridler Studios. The goal of the project is to get journals to young girls and to really empower them to use them and to chronicle their journeys through words and drawings or really by any form their hearts desire. You can read all about the project here. You can also read all about Christine's journal journey here.

I was totally in love with the idea. I LOVE journalling and have since I was a young little thing. Most of my journalling is written, just putting thoughts, ideas, dreams and frustrations to paper. I have at least 4 notebooks on the go at the moment. I carry a bit notebook in my pack with me during the day that is my go to thoughts journal - I usually write out frustrations or maybe thoughts I need to work through. I have a journal for all my ideas, be it things I want to do in life or creative project ideas. I usually work out the idea behind a piece before I ever start sketching. This is my favourite stage really, it's where the ideas truly come to life because they all have some sort of story behind them. I have my doodle book, where I usually spend about 10 minutes just random doodling as an ice breaker between day job work day and me + thunderpeep time. Then I have a notebook for stories. Yes, I write my stories by hand first, they go through editing when I type them into the ol' laptop. I love physically writing stories out. Usually in pencil so I don't feel like I have to commit to anything just yet. I also loving planning anything and everything. My daytimer is more of a journal than a traditional daytimer. I use it to plan out projects for thunderpeep, my freelance work, travelling, meal planning, yoga schedule, blog planner etc... for the month and each week.

I'm also a super nerdy trip planner - this is my giant journal from my trip to Finland in 2010

Journalling can mean so many different things, even to one person. It's an incredible resource for self-exploration and creative expression, and giving girls the opportunity to tune into themselves is truly an amazing gift.

When I started thinking about the post I went digging for the old journal I knew I still had (the one you can see in the top image). The one from my most tragic teenage years. Oh my goodness. Re-reading some of those pages was kind of embarrassing, but I'm never one to turn down the opportunity to laugh at myself!

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