In mainstream Hollywood, certain social topics are almost taboo. They struggle to receive feature film treatment. But writer and director Chyna Robinson’s No Ordinary Love is a powerful reminder that the movie industry shouldn’t shy away from tackling complex and significant subjects. Starring DeAna Davis, Lynn Andrews III, April Hartman, and Eric Hanson, No Ordinary Love centers on two women experiencing betrayal and manipulation by their husbands. Eventually, they begin plotting to find a way out. Robinson delicately captures the slow-burn destruction relationships plagued by domestic abuse experience and how coercive control can be just as damaging as physical attacks. “We very intentionally describe this film as a romantic thriller,” Robinson explains. “It was essential that there be an authenticity to telling the stories of these women and display the emotional roller coasters they’re on as they both experience these relationships with men they love. This film is very different from a documentary in that we’re telling two compelling narrative stories that intertwine. It’s also much more complex than previous Hollywood big-screen treatments where there’s a ‘monster’ physical abuser, and she needs to escape or fight back. Through my research to write this film, I came to understand just how complicated domestic abuse truly is.” Telling Stories at a Young Age Robinson recalls telling stories as a kindergartner and recruiting other kids to be part of different performances for parents. In third grade, she entered and won her first writing competition. While at Texas Christian University, earning a double major in English and RTVF Production, …

Growing up, mixed-media artist Sheila “She” Keene noticed a lack of women leaders in her small town. She did not see female CEOs, politicians, or business owners. A young girl was expected to graduate from high school, marry and start a family or go to college to study nursing or teaching. Years later, this void would inspire Keene to launch A Girl Like Me. Through the platform, she sells mixed-media art that encourages young girls and teens to pursue their dreams and break barriers. “As a child, I had such a narrow view of what I thought I could be or do in this world,” said Keene. “I don’t want girls growing up with those limits nor women remaining trapped by them. I want them to know there are so many possibilities out there.” Engineering to Art It was the mid-1980s when Keene first walked onto the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta. Following graduation (Keene was the first person in her family to earn a college degree), a career was built in robotics programming, software development, and program management. Working in a male-dominated field meant Keene constantly witnessed firsthand how supervisors would treat women very differently than men. “For the first time in my life, I was in the minority, and it felt daunting,” she recalls. “Throughout college and my career, I noticed myself and other women had to work twice as hard as male colleagues to earn half the respect, even though we were more than capable of performing the jobs.” Keene admits it …

Karen C.L. Anderson is a master-certified life coach and international bestselling author of several books, including Overcoming Creative Anxiety: Journal Prompts & Practices for Disarming Your Inner Critic & Allowing Creativity to Flow. Anderson corresponded with Girls That Create via email about her book, our Inner Critic and Inner Advocate, and how it all relates to creativity. Let’s start with the Inner Critic. What is your definition of the Inner Critic, and what impact does it have on creatives? Your Inner Critic is a voice-inside-your-brain that parrots back all the things you’ve ever heard that your brain interpreted as harshly critical or demeaning. If your experience of your Inner Critic is painful enough (i.e., traumatic), your nervous system might perceive it as a threat and send you into one (or more) of the human threat/trauma responses: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. You don’t consciously do this. It is an automatic, natural, and instinctual protection. The reason you might see this as a problem isn’t the nervous system response. It’s the stories you tell yourself, about yourself, as a result: myriad versions of “There’s something wrong with me” and “I’m not good enough.” Left unacknowledged and unquestioned, your Inner Critic will shut you down. You will continue to see it as something happening TO you rather than something happening FOR you by your human nervous system. It’s worth mentioning that the word “trauma” is really misunderstood. We tend to think of it as something physically horrible that happens to someone: being a soldier experiencing combat in …

When it comes to luck, bestselling author Marie Benedict believes having a special someone who can pick out books you’ll cherish is a blessing. For her, that person was an aunt who also happened to be an English teacher and rebellious nun. When Benedict was a high schooler, her aunt gifted her Marion Zimmer Bradley’s book The Mists of Avalon. “That book was groundbreaking for its time and world-changing for me,” Benedict remembers. “I was mesmerized by the story because it was set in the familiar universe of King Arthur, except we now had those stories from the viewpoints of women characters. It really opened my eyes to the fact that in every story, every legend, every piece of history, there were stories from female perspectives I had never heard of.” Lawyer to Writer At Boston College, Benedict studied history and art history. She considered becoming an archeologist but was encouraged by her family to pursue a law degree. Benedict graduated from Boston University School of Law, embracing the financial security working as a lawyer provided. For over a decade, she worked at two of the country’s premier law firms and Fortune 500 companies in New York City. Despite being highly successful, she could not escape the feeling law was not a forever career. Benedict began taking archeology and history classes in the evening at local universities. While considering a Ph.D. program, the idea of a book came to her. Although she’d never taken a creative writing course and found the idea of becoming a …

Images, not words, are how artist Christine Anne Nightingale learned to express herself. Not only are her mother and uncle painters, so was her paternal grandmother. Born in Santiago, Chile, Nightingale moved with her family to the United States at age 14. Throughout high school, she continued pursuing an interest in painting. After marrying a Brazilian, she relocated to Fortaleza, Brazil to study graphic design at the university Devry in Fortaleza. Nightingale recalls that except for Frida Kahlo, very few women artists were mentioned during her training. “I’ve discovered so many talented women since school,” says Nightingale. “I’m in love right now with the Swedish abstract painter Hilma af Klint. She was doing incredible, groundbreaking work before many of the famous male artists people are more familiar with today.” Elements of Spirituality For the next 10 years, Nightingale taught herself to paint with different media, including oil and acrylic. Choosing what to capture on canvas is “always an intimate search” for the artist. The human figure and nature are constant inspirations for her paintings, as is incorporating elements of digital collage. Much like Klint, Nightingale’s work has elements of spirituality. “When someone sees my artwork, I want them to feel something pleasant or maybe make them question themselves on how to achieve that feeling of wellness,” she shares. “Like a way of healing. I believe we see and experience so much negativity in the day-to-day that art has to be a good experience, but with a mix of curiosity and mystery. The feminine figure is …

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, M.J. Fievre moved to the United States in 2002. Fievre’s publishing career began as a teenager in Haiti. At nineteen years-old, she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps, in Haiti, for the publication of a Young Adult book titled La Statuette Maléfique. Since then, Fievre has authored nine books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles. In 2013, One Moore Book released Fievre’s first children’s book, I Am Riding, written in three languages: English, French, and Haitian Creole. In 2015, Beating Windward Press published M.J.’s memoir, A Sky the Color of Chaos, about her childhood in Haiti during the brutal regime of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Fievre is the author of Happy, Okay? (2019), Badass Black Girl (2020), Empowered Black Girl (2021), and Raising Confident Black Kids (2021). She helps others write their way through trauma, build community, and create social change. Fievre works with veterans, disenfranchised youth, cancer patients and survivors, victims of domestic and sexual violence, minorities, the elderly, those with chronic illness or going through transition and any underserved population in need of writing as a form of therapy—even if they don’t realize that they need writing or therapy. She currently writes from Miami and corresponded with Girls That Create via email. Q&A With M.J. Fievre Have you always been drawn to writing? Growing up in Haiti, was there someone who encouraged you to write or was it something you intuitively turned to? Growing up in Haiti, storytelling was a big part of life, …

As a child growing up in London, Zara Stone fell in love with the works of English writer Diana Wynne Jones. Jones wrote fantasy and speculative fiction for children and young adults. Stone reflects that the author “never talked down” to her audience nor questioned whether or not they could understand the intriguing concepts introduced in her books. It is fitting then that Stone’s latest work, The Future of Science is Female: The Brilliant Minds Shaping the 21st Century, takes a similar approach. Each chapter in the book examines a different world problem (such as climate change and the future of work), and then introduces female scientists who are working on solutions. Young readers learn how this diverse group got to where they are and also how they overcame many challenging obstacles. Envision Themselves “I’ve done a lot of work in technology journalism and the gender disparity was always really obvious,” said Stone. “There were more men in the field at all levels, including startups, which in turn creates this never-ending loop. I wrote this book so girls can be introduced to women who are in the early stages of their STEM careers. The more girls hear about amazing people who look and sound like them, the more they can envision themselves in these roles and having similar experiences.” Stone’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Wired magazine, Forbes, The Washington Post, the BBC and more. Before those successes, she was an intern at a British men’s magazine. In the book …

Renee Cox is a photographer, artist, lecturer, and political activist who lives in New York. Born in Jamaica, she is recognized as one of the most important African American artists working today to celebrate Black womanhood. The Boca Raton Museum of Art has graciously shared images of Cox’s work The Signing with Girls That Create. Currently on display at the museum, this witty and dramatic large-scale piece reimagines Howard Chandler Christy’s historical painting Scene at The Signing of the Constitution of the United States. Cox’s contemporary (and glamorous) twist on Christy’s painting shows modern-day women and men of color in the place of the Founding Fathers. Cox’s subjects are all decked out ─ some in current fashions, others in 1700s period clothing, and some wear dazzling African garb. In describing her photography, Cox states: “This work aims to unleash the potential of the ordinary and bring it into a new realm of possibilities. It’s about time we re-imagine our own constitutions.” This is the first time a museum has exhibited The Signing. “The Signing was created on a grand scale and in the tradition of history painting,” said Kathleen Goncharov, the Senior Curator of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. “This is a revisionist look at one of America’s most historic events ─ the founding of the nation. The image brings to light that although people of color did not participate in the signing of the Constitution, they have most certainly played important roles and made vital contributions to the building of this country. Museum visitors are encouraged …

Lameka Weeks is TALL. And proud of it. That’s why the Dallas entrepreneur founded Height Goddess, a clothing company for women 5’9” and taller. Although Weeks does not have formal fashion training, she knew a need existed in the market. Growing up in Alabama, Weeks had a difficult time finding clothing that fit her tall frame and often borrowed items from her father’s closet. “Both of my parents worked in retail,” she said. “My mother was a buyer for the department store Belk and my father was a manager of a retail chain called Martin’s. Because my mom was a buyer, she knew certain brands that came longer. Extra length could be gained by taking out the hems. I was able to get by through college, but then had to start shopping for business clothes. That’s when finding things really became challenging.” The Height Goddess Name Weeks played basketball at Auburn University at Montgomery and graduated with a communications major. Successful in the corporate world at companies such as Black & Decker, Johnson & Johnson and General Electric Company, she was constantly reminded of how few professional pieces were in her closet when dressing for meetings. Weeks wanted more clothing choices for taller women that were both stylish and timeless, much like what exists in the market for petites. She began doodling name ideas for such a business. One day Weeks drove by a sign that said Goddess Boutique. Inspiration struck with Weeks suddenly envisioning the words Height Goddess together. She immediately pulled the car …

Megan Taylor Morrison has studied local dance forms in 16 countries on six different continents. Embracing the title of dance adventurer, Morrison has also designed and co-led international dance retreats and is a certified life and business coach. She recently released her new book Dance Adventures: True Stories About Dancing Abroad. In it, Morrison demonstrates that dance can forge connections between people from different backgrounds, as well as lead to cross-cultural experiences that promote greater understanding of another culture. Dance can also engender tremendous personal growth for travelers. Morrison corresponded with Girls That Create about her book via email. Q&A With Megan Taylor Morrison Have you always been dance-obsessed? What are your earliest memories of dance and the joy it brought you? All throughout my youth, I played soccer. The only real exposure I had to dance was taking some ballet and jazz classes when I was five and learning a couple of East Coast swing dance moves from my brother. When I got to college in 2004, I decided swing dancing would be a great hobby and set out to learn it. Little did I know that Seattle had one of the best scenes in the world for Lindy Hop (the original swing dance created by members of the African American community in Harlem in the late 1920s) at that time. My first experience of true, unbridled passion was the first time I saw talented lindy hoppers social dancing at a holiday party. After the song finished, I went over to the man who …