Your Voice Can Change Everything: Write for Us!
I want to start this piece by introducing myself. My name is Carmen and I’m a little bit of everything: a bold woman of color entering her third year of college at the sometimes-awesome sometimes-frustrating usually-radical Washington, DC campus known as American University. I’m an activist involved with NOW and multiple student organizations, an advocate who is professionally tied to a plethora of women’s groups, and a free spirit who loves to indulge in v-necks, frozen yogurt, and anything unusual. I have an afro and I’m addicted to the internet, and on the weekends you can find me giggling in my living room.
I’m also the newest editor here at Where Is Your Line?, a blog close to my own heart: I was with Nancy as an intern just last year when she created this website, this program, and this movement. She’s one of my biggest inspirations, and I was unable to leave the project behind in any capacity- I’m still here, across state lines, reading entries and emails and begging her for any tasks possible to tackle online.
My goals for this project are yours, too. I want our message to become everyone’s conversation, our project vision achieved in bedrooms across the country. Imagine it: a world of discussion and freedom instead of shame and silence. We can do it, and projects and movements like this one are an integral piece.
So I wrote scathing reviews of journalism and personal pieces on my own turbulent times with hookup culture, interviewed my biggest she-ro (aside from Hillary Clinton, of course), and then used the experience I had gotten by starting a smaller-focus campaign specific to my campus in an effort to stop rape culture at its roots in dorm rooms all over AU. I know the power of the individual is small, and I know that collective voices have the strongest and most beautiful resonance. I know that openness, affirmation, conversation, and diversity are important, and I want to incorporate every voice, background, lifestyle, experience, opinion, and being into the movement to end violence in relationships, families, and our own lives.
And that’s where you come in.
This is an open call for voices. I am looking for anyone interested in submitting pieces for this campaign as a credited blogger, and there are no requirements- unless you consider it unfair to expect passion, heart, and effort in everything you do. You’ll be an invaluable piece of this movement and the challenge to end violence everywhere.
You can contact me at thelinemovie [at] gmail [dot] com. I’m looking forward to hearing from you- believe me, I’m always excited to talk. Just add “ATTN Carmen Rios” into the subject line to make sure it gets to me.
Your voice can end violence. Your voice can change everything.
[...] new interns, bloggers, and submissions- and I’m hoping you’ll help us out! I’ve spoken out before about the importance of our voices in shaping this movement and creating real, impactful change, [...]