Sisterhood of the Traveling Boxing Gloves

Last year, my friend and blog buddy Ally "battled back" when life knocked her down by styling a cute outfit around some pink boxing gloves she'd found. It was adorable and her incredible readers clamored to follow suit. Ally shipped the gloves around the world, from Canada and the U.S. to Europe and Australia. When they arrived on my doorstep, I felt somewhat humbled.

The idea of the gloves, as Ally puts it, is to celebrate female strength. Bloggers have posed with them in fighting stances, on motorcycles, duking it out with themselves and surfing Pinterest. Female strength means so many things to so many people, and to try to encapsulate my vision of strength in a single shot — while living up to the awesome ladies worldwide who have come before me — was daunting. Of course, the number one thing that empowers me and makes me feel strong is climbing...but you can't really hold on to ANYTHING while you're wearing boxing gloves, so that was out.

What, then, could I draw my strength from? What imagery could encapsulate the power I feel inside me every day? The question plagued me, and it delayed my participation in the project by months. Then, it hit me.

I don't have to draw my strength from anything. It just is; it's a part of me. It's one of the many quirks and traits that make me the person I am, along with stubbornness, whimsy, a love for making things right and a million other things. So I took that idea and ran with it.

To me, strength can be as simple as "doing you." Being the person you are and never apologizing for it. If that means doing a handstand against a wall before a dance class, then so be it. If it means something else entirely, that's fine too. It's more than fine — it's incredible.


Make sure you check out the other glove-wearing badasses who've come before me! And before I forget, a special thanks to my friend and dance instructor guru, Nicole, who took this photo for me.

So there you have it: my vision of strength. Where do you draw yours from?