What would you do if you were 1% more courageous?
That’s the question at the heart of InHerShoes’s beginnings and mission as an organization. And like most stories of courage, it started with one particular moment of fear. At least for InHerShoes Founder, Judith Martinez, it did.
Judith shares what inspired her to start InHerShoes and how she’s encouraging young women to be that 1% more courageous. Read her story below.
You know those things in your life that you’ve always wanted?
Yeah, that thing.
The one that just popped in your head as you read the words to yourself.
Well for me, it was law school. InHerShoes really began when I finally got the thing that I always wanted (or thought I wanted), and realized once I had it, it had nothing to do with what I actually wanted after all.
The sparknotes version; I got accepted to my dream law school after working toward it my entire 20+ years of life. But I declined it. I realized what I really wanted was to be an entrepreneur. I just had never thought I was smart enough, good enough, ready enough, talented enough, old enough, and wealthy enough to actually be it.
Simply, I wasn’t enough.
After doing some major eat, pray love time, I really learned how much of my life wasn’t mine. It was really the Yellow Brick Road my family, friends, and society paved for me.
How could I check all the boxes of what it looked like to be a “successful” educated, first generation, graduating-with-honors young woman – and yet be so unhappy and unfulfilled?
Being a first generation Filipina American; education, let alone success, were not only intertwined, they were non-negotiable.
After declining my law school acceptance, I gave myself the permission to ask: what do I really want to do, despite being afraid to do it? From that moment, InHerShoes was born and our mission to catalyze courage for women everywhere to live and create a life being 1% more courageous at a time became a reality.
And what exactly is InHerShoes?
As an organization, we pride ourselves as being the non-profit of the millennial generation. We provide high school girls the seed grant funding to start their own ventures. These ventures catalyze courage in local communities and activate the new leadership of a generation. For recent college graduates and professional women, we provide community, celebration, and courage to expand what we think is possible.”
– Judith Martinez, InHerShoes Founder
You can learn more about InHerShoes and ways to get involved at www.inhershoesmvmt.org.
OR check them out on Instagram @InHerShoesMvmt and @jud.ithmartinez.
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