As a college student in 2009, I had the gift of working at a women’s health clinic alongside some incredible women: a CEO, a lawyer, a social worker, an accountant, a nurse, and a counselor. I remember sitting there one day and realizing how rich that physical space was because of the presence of each of these women. As I developed friendships with them, I was deeply struck by the varied and beautiful strengths of each one in particular. A seed was planted, and a dream was born. One day, I would tell the stories of these and other women: stories of trial, hope, struggle, confusion, and steadfast courage all wrapped up into one real life. I knew that I was only just beginning to witness the strength of women, and over the past 15 years I have been consistently humbled by the greatness of “ordinary” women, the ones that the world barely knows about because they are too busy taking care of their people: a spouse, their children, an aging parent, their patients, or even a stranger on the street.

What Women Are is intended to be a space for all of us to be encouraged by the hidden potential written into the very normal, and sometimes even mundane, day-to-day living of women. This is a place to listen to the lived-in stories of real flesh and blood women. As these women give voice to their unique areas of experience and expertise, I hope you can lean into the unique power and beauty of your own story.

Here, I am on a mission to reveal—one woman at a time—how deeply valuable and unique is each woman’s place in the world. Not based on the standards that inevitably change with time but based on those eternal truths which never can. Now more than ever, we need to be really and truly present to the lives and hearts of those around us. In other words, at this present time, the world does not need what women have, but it deeply needs what women are.