Someone asked me "Who are your role models?", and to be honest, I had a hard time answering it.  I couldn’t think of very many females of my generation (i.e., in their twenties) who I wanted to aspire to be like.  The person who asked me the question was looking for examples of famous people.

I have had encounters with some famous people who I looked up to when I was a child, but when I met them in person years later, they were unfriendly and standoffish. I lost respect for them as the image they portray in the media is disconnected from the real version of themselves.  There are many people that are the same onscreen as they are in person; those I respect and model after.

I saw the "I am not afraid ... I was born to do this" necklace that Tina Steinberg designed, and it made me think of a message that has been on my heart and mind for quite a while. I started thinking about this topic when I first wrote about it in one of my earliest posts, "Am I Really Free to Be Me? " For me, when I see this necklace, I think: " I am not afraid ... I was born to be me."