We are family!

Everyone knows I'm a firm feminist- I don't exactly keep my views on the subject of gender equality secret! I'm very open about it. I have also been open about the fact that my mum and one of my sisters don't necessarily choose to identify with the label 'feminist', and how that's often hard for me. 

However, today my mum launched her personal trainer business and a friend tweeted me to congratulate my mum and said "a family of hard working, enterprising women". And I suddenly realised that whilst I'm not necessarily surrounded by women who label themselves feminists, I am definitely surrounded by women who take the opportunities they've been provided thanks to feminism and have begun to pave the way for brilliant futures. 

My parents split up when I was 15 (wow that long ago already?!) and since then I have lived in a house with four women, myself, my mum and two sisters now aged 18 and 13. In the last five years all three of these women have inspired me and, I realise, moulded me into the strong, feisty, stubborn, ambitious and determined woman that I am today. In the last five years my mum has gone from being a size 16 to a size 6, even fitting in my youngest sisters clothing sometimes! She did this all off of her own back, eating less and moving more, working out every day. She loved working out so much that she decided to become a personal trainer in order to help others, which has meant studying whilst working a full time job and running the family home every day too. Now she's a qualified PT who has set up her own business, and I just think that that is absolutely amazing. It proves that it's never too late to give up on your dreams, and if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything.

My younger sister (18) has inspired me with her attitude towards life. She goes with the flow, is so chilled out about everything, knows exactly what she wants and gets it too, is not afraid to be her own person and has pretty much 0 stress in life. She doesn't know exactly what she want's to do with her life and she's made some mistakes, but haven't we all? Every time I hear myself sassing someone, I know that some of that influence has come from her own attitude. 

My youngest sister (13) is a minx. She is is so gobby (much to the disappointment of my mum) following in the steps of me and my other sister but more so. However, she is ambitious, creative, a dreamer and incredibly smart. She is predicted a full set of A*'s for her GCSE's and she wants to be a tattoo artist- with her back up job being a scientist. She wants to work with endangered animals such as dolphins and pandas, she wants to make her own perfumes, she wants to travel the world whilst she works and she wants to adopt children instead of having her own. She's so full of ideas and so full of love and this never fails to inspire me either. 

I am so lucky to have grown up around such inspirational women, and I hope that I act as a source of inspiration for them too. I think I definitely would have grown up differently if I'd had a brother or if I'd lived full time with my dad for the majority of my teenage years, but I'm happy with how I've turned out- and I'm still growing as a person, changing all of the time! As long as I stay a strong, independent woman however, I don't mind how I turn out.

Have you grown up around strong, independent women, family or not? Let me know in the comments below, and how this has impacted upon you! 

Love from,

Florence Grace

Like this? Why not try... The women who made me a feminist | Being the eldest