HEIDI STEVENS TRIBUNE VOICES Column: Amy Boyle set out to tell the stories of 52 phenomenal women. She’s at 100 and counting, boosting her faith in humanity all along the way. By HEIDI STEVENS CHICAGO TRIBUNE | AUG 12, 2020 There’s Hillary Flores, the founding editor of La DePaulia, DePaul University’s Spanish language newspapers. There’s Kimberly Lloyd, a 21-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department who started an organization called We Got You Covered to boost literacy rates among Chicago youth. There’s Rebecca Sankey, who grew up surrounded by violence and addiction and went on to lead the nonprofit Shama Ministries, which helps families recover from incarceration. There’s Kim Leali, a Chicago chef who works to mentor and elevate women in the often-cutthroat culinary industry. Each one is part of Chicago photographer Amy Boyle’s 52 Phenomenal Women project, a documentary series with weekly installments that feature Boyle’s photos alongside the women’s stories, written in their own words. Boyle started the project in 2018 as a lead-up to her 50th birthday. She wanted a celebration that trained her lens outward, that captured the world around her and the women working to improve it. She describes them as a cross between #WomanCrushWednesday and Humans of New York. She figured she’d find a new woman each week for a full year: 52 weeks, hence the name. On Wednesday, she hit 100 consecutive weeks. She thought about stopping at 52, but the project was sustaining her faith in humanity’s willingness to care about and for one another. Plus people told her they looked forward to the weekly posts and didn’t want them to stop. “If you read anything these days, it’s easy to get stuck in the quagmire of everything feeling bad,” Boyle told me. “It helps to look for each individual person making change, even in tiny ways. If you put one foot in front of the other, you’re making progress. You might trip, but you get back up.” Activist Nita Tennyson is Boyle’s 100th subject. Tennyson travels around Chicago, posting her location on social media and inviting people to come drop off diapers, wipes, formula and other supplies. Then she brings the donations to different communities and distributes them to people who need them. She calls it Nita’s Love Train. On Wednesday afternoon, Boyle and Tennyson met under the tracks at the Fullerton Red Line station so Boyle could deliver prints of Tennyson’s portraits. A few hours earlier, Boyle was in Wilmette shooting photos of a mom of two with lung cancer who’s lobbying Congress to fund more research on lung cancers that aren’t caused by tobacco. She’ll probably be week 101. I asked Boyle if she had a favorite subject. “That’s like picking your favorite kiddo,” she said. (She has four kiddos — all sons, ages 17, 19, 22 and 24.) “I’m just grateful to everyone who says yes and agrees to be vulnerable and share their stories.” Boyle asks two things of each woman she profiles: Recommend another woman doing phenomenal things and make a donation to Dress For Success, a nonprofit that provides career training and professional attire for women who need assistance. The project has raised just over $7,000 for Dress For Success, she said. (Full disclosure: Boyle featured me in March 2019. I exaggerate not even a little when I say I feel utterly unworthy of the company.) The coronavirus changed Boyle’s approach a bit. She used to occasionally feature women outside of Illinois and fly to their home states to profile them. No more. She used to go inside people’s homes and offices and other indoor spaces. Now she stays mostly outdoors. But despite the tweaks, she has kept the project going without interruption. “That’s the beauty of the long lens,” she said. The safety of a little distance, but still keeping an eye on what’s good, what’s helping, what needs elevating. One hundred phenomenal women, 100 weeks of training her lens outward, 100 reminders of all the ways people are working and creating and loving a better world into existence. Find Amy Boyle’s full project and her subjects’ full stories at 52phenomenalwomen.com . Join the Heidi Stevens Balancing Act Facebook group, where she continues the conversation around her columns and hosts occasional live chats. hstevens@chicagotribune.com

This episode of Speaking of Phenomenal  originally aired on December 19, 2024. Some careers follow a straight path, but for Delores Morton , life had other plans. From a small-town girl in South Louisiana to a leader in nonprofit work, she never imagined herself as a CEO. And yet, through persistence, mentorship, and a drive to uplift others, she became exactly that. “I sometimes say I am just a girl from the Bayou,” Delores told host Amy Boyle , “but I have lived the dreams that my mother, father, grandparents—generations of my family—had for me that I didn’t even know about.” A Journey Defined by Mentorship Delores spent nearly three decades in nonprofit leadership, working on projects that impacted veterans, students, and families. But for the last five years, her focus has been Step Up , an organization dedicated to mentoring teenage girls and young women. Her own journey was anything but linear. “I didn’t know about internships or networking. I thought getting into college was enough,” she shared. But life took an unexpected turn when she lost a full-ride scholarship after becoming pregnant. “I had to leave college. I went back home with my daughter, and that’s when I found AmeriCorps.” Through the program, she worked, earned a scholarship, and ultimately finished her degree—almost a decade later, while holding her six-month-old son at graduation. Seeing Leadership in Herself Despite her growing leadership, Delores never saw herself as the person in charge—until someone else did. “I thought I was the best number two,” she admitted. “It was a mentor who told me, ‘You are capable of leading in this way.’ She coached me, helped me prepare, even picked out my outfit for the interview.” That push led Delores to become CEO of Step Up, a national nonprofit that now operates in eight cities and supports over 3,000 girls and young women annually . “Education is critical, but I believe mentorship is an accelerator,” she said. “One conversation at the right time can make a tremendous difference.” Bringing Others Along For Delores, success isn’t just about personal achievement—it’s about lifting others up. “Being phenomenal means being authentic, but not doing it alone,” she said. “It’s about making the table bigger so there’s room for more people.” Step Up makes mentorship scalable and accessible through flash mentoring , where one structured conversation can create impact. “Women want to help, but they don’t always have time for a long-term commitment,” Delores explained. “This makes it possible.” How You Can Get Involved Step Up is always looking for mentors, and you don’t need to be in one of their eight cities to help. Their mentorship app  allows volunteers to connect with young women nationwide on their own schedule. Want to support the next generation of leaders? Visit suwn.org  to sign up as a mentor, donate, or learn more. Because sometimes, one conversation is all it takes to change a life.

Most of   Jeanne Sparrow’s  clients hate it when she proposes the following exercise: to look at themselves from the outside, by recording their behavior and reviewing it. She encourages them to pay attention to verbal and nonverbal communication, and ask, “Is what I intended to say what I actually did?” Jeanne is a speaker, consultant, a former broadcast journalist and the author of a new book,   Fearless Authenticity . She focuses on helping people find and bring out their uniqueness and authentic selves, especially when they communicate. “Yes, what you do may not be unique as far as the job title or the deliverables,” she told host Amy Boyle during the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast, “but the way you do it is.” As Amy put it, figuring out what our unique contribution to the world will be is a matter of “finding the why behind your what.” Jeanne spent 30 years in broadcast before writing her book. Throughout her life, she realized success and satisfaction come not necessarily from material achievements or honors, but from being true to who we are. “Who we are is the gift we have to offer the world,” she told Amy. “We don't necessarily have to go looking for our purpose because we were put here to do something, and the truer we are to ourselves, the quicker and more efficiently we will find what we are supposed to do.” Her mantra “live it, tell it, sell it” is about figuring our who we are, sharing it with the world and put it to the service of others. When she thinks about the upcoming changes in the U.S. next year, what comes to her mind is the concept of authentic communication and how we can be a gift for others during exchanges in a meaningful, not transactional way. She has some concrete tips: to focus less on the things we want to say and open our ears and minds to what is being said to us; to consider why people feel a certain way, why they feel a certain path is the right one and whether this path excludes others. For her, “an exchange actually gives energy, and it creates energy between two people.” But the quality of the energy depends on us. We can build a dialogue, or we can build a wall by making the whole conversation about us. The “sell it” part of the equation is to acknowledge our capacity for service and find the courage to make that happen. “A lot of times we focus again so much on ourselves that we forget that there's another person on the part of the exchange that we can be of service to, and it doesn't cost us anything.” And that’s when we build more empathy and find opportunities to collaborate. As the year ends and we think about what we want 2025 to look like, Jeanne suggests a few simple but vital questions: Are you giving time to the things that feed you? Are you giving time to the people and the relationships that are important to you? OFFER: Fearless Authenticity: Lead Better, Sell More, and Speak Sensationally , is available for pre sale now and purchasers will get a free gift.   Find Jeanne on   Facebook ,   X ,   TikTok  and   Instagram . Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

As I sit down to write this, I’m reflecting on the themes we explored in Episode 10 of the Speaking of Phenomenal Podcast .  Gratitude is supposed to be easy, right? You count your blessings—family, friends, a roof over your head—and everything feels lighter. But sometimes, it’s not that simple. Three years ago, I lost my mom. She was my anchor, my north star, and her absence changed how I experience the holidays. Gratitude, which once came naturally, began to feel like an obligation, a list of things to check off without much meaning behind them. Even when surrounded by loved ones, I felt an ache I couldn’t explain. I started to wonder: What if gratitude isn’t about ignoring the hard stuff but making space for it? A New Way to Think About Gratitude One Thanksgiving, instead of forcing myself to feel grateful, I tried something different. I wrote down not just the things I was thankful for but also the things I was grieving—my frustrations, fears, and disappointments. And something shifted. Acknowledging the messy, complicated parts of life didn’t erase the grief, but it gave my gratitude a new depth. It became real—not the kind of gratitude you say to be polite, but the kind that feels like an anchor in the middle of life’s storms. Finding Gratitude in Life’s Messiness Gratitude, I’ve learned, isn’t about perfection. It’s about noticing what steadies you when everything else feels uncertain. It’s the friend who checks in on you, even when you don’t know how to ask for help. It’s the stranger who smiles at you on a hard day. It’s the courage to keep showing up, even when life feels overwhelming. And for me, it’s this community. Each of you who listen to Speaking of Phenomenal  reminds me why connection matters. Sharing our stories isn’t just about being vulnerable—it’s about healing and transformation. An Invitation If you’re struggling to feel grateful this season, don’t force it. Instead, ask yourself: What am I holding onto that I need to let go of? Gratitude doesn’t have to be big or loud. Sometimes, it’s found in the quietest moments—a deep breath, a steady heartbeat, or the smallest flicker of hope. What’s Next? We’ll be back the week of December 9 with the final two episodes of Season 4. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you: What does gratitude look like for you this season? Let’s continue this conversation. Your stories and reflections are what make this community so special. Until next time, stay phenomenal. -Amy

Sarah Harris started writing in January 2012 because she wanted to navigate her relationships, career shifts and her background as a transnational adoptee from South Korea better . She read that one could become an expert after doing 10,000 hours of something. She then calculated that, if she started by writing 365 words every day, she would become a writer by the time her kids were out of high school. Sarah’s writing journey has been one of self-discovery and service. The author of the Makes Me Wander blog , she not only discovered how sharing her thoughts and struggles with others can be healing and revealing but wants to help other people feel the power of connection, too. Sarah recently launched a course focused on writing for stress relief and community-building. During the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast,  Sarah  and host Amy Boyle discussed the importance of sharing and being vulnerable and how writing can empower us by improving self-knowledge and critical thinking. Sarah was adopted to America from South Korea  when she was eight months old and continued to move to many different places as a child. Many times, she struggled as the "new kid" during her first days at different schools, which made her value connections even more as she grew up. Now a midlife single mother to two college-aged children, she tries to teach others how connection can make their lives easier. “I try to give back by trying to reach out to others and help them find how they can pivot into something long purpose that they really find passion in,” she told Amy. “I just try to help them figure out what that passion point is and how they can start today.” Sarah found the connection she needed through writing. She just felt more comfortable sharing things and being 100% herself with strangers online than during in-person interactions. “What brings me down to sit down and write honestly are the strongest emotions, usually the negative ones, because then I just sit and try to purge them,” she told Amy. She likes to write songs using melodies that already exist. And she encourages people to write every day even if it’s for only 10 minutes on their phone. “Just drop everything there and then it's still there. So you can go back to it if you want to, but it helps temporarily at least give you that release.” In her recent 5 week course , Sarah hopes writers use it as an exercise in which they talk to themselves, with privacy and freedom. And of course, connecting with the other participants. Now we want to hear from you: What are your favorite ways to express your emotions, concerns and desires? Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

Here is one of Tina Greenbaum’s favorite sets of questions whenever she speaks to an audience as a psychotherapist and conflict resolution expert: “How many of you have spent years and years and years getting your education?” And hands go up. “And then how many of you have spent years and years taking this education and strategizing how to take it into the world?” Hands up again. “How many of you have spent years and years, an equal amount learning about yourself and kind of mastering these interpersonal skills?” Hands down. “And yet this drives the train,” Tina told host Amy Boyle in the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast. “Who we are, how we operate, how we think, how we communicate with one another has everything to do with the level of success that we have or don't have.” Tina  learned the importance of self-knowledge and -mastery after over 41 years of helping people resolve conflicts as a management consultant, psychotherapist and leadership development specialist. Her passion for helping people come to terms with themselves and others led her to Tina to create the “ Mastery Under Pressure ” program, through which she taught people to be the protagonists of their actions and decisions. “It's great that you could tell me all about your mother, your father, your sister, your brother,” she would say to the participants. “But if you're not changing, what do we need to actually change?” She believes that, instead of being reactive, we all should stop, reframe the situation and choose how we want to act. She eventually took this idea to the business world. Today, considering how diverse teams tend to become, she reminds us how important it is to learn how to talk to each other. Some useful questions: “How do I operate within me? What are the skills that I need to be able to get my point across? When do I know just when to keep my mouth shut?” Among other tips, Tina talked about one specific trait that can help us survive in this world: flexibility. For her, if our expectations are too distant from our reality, we can only find disappointment. She encourages us to ask ourselves, whenever we face a tough situation, “What's in my control? What's out of my control?” And if we cannot control the external, let’s focus on what’s inside. Now, be honest. If Tina asked you  how many years you spent learning about yourself, what would you say? And if you’re feeling curious but don’t know where to begin, Tina’s got you covered! Book a free 30-minute consultation with Tina and dive in deeper. Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

I’ve always loved going to school as a child. Very few of my friends can relate to it. My husband thinks I had some abnormality. But I have such good memories of my school days. I can’t remember how my classroom was because most of the time, we were learning outside, playing in one of the four or five outdoor parks the school had or in the movie-like cottage – which looked like a mansion to me at the time – where one of the school founders had lived years before. That environment, which my parents chose very deliberately, taught me to see – or try to see – the task at hand as something good, something I wanted to do. I won’t say that mindset spared me from all kinds of frustrations as an attorney back in Brazil, where I’m from, or as a new journalist trying to connect with editors or even as a student having to produce high-quality content in a different language. But having touched, as a child, the reality that the world is a place that deserves our attention, love and curiosity, I can move forward with a different openness. As I transition from law to journalism, I realize that curiosity is not enough. As Amy Boyle and I reminded ourselves in the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast , life is not linear, and we must equip ourselves with solid values to chart territories that can be flat, mountainous or look like a tangled serpentine. I never thought I would become a journalist. And when I decided to become one, I had no plans of writing in the first person for a blog or even freelancing. But that’s what I’m doing now, and I couldn’t be more grateful.   If you listen to this podcast regularly, you might remember a few stories that illustrate how certain values can help women and all people move forward. I write for the podcast’s blog, and I can name a few: the patience and perseverance of Carolyn Federman   while launching the Charlie Cart Project to raise awareness about food education; the intentionality Dana Hirt   defended when talking about parenthood but that applies to many other areas of our lives. So yes, curiosity is essential to me as I shift careers. But listening and writing about those women makes me think about all the other factors that we, women, must consider not only to succeed but to be happy, find fulfillment and achieve peace. I want to tell you about another episode that taught me a lot. There is no personal tragedy involved and no abrupt career shift. It’s “just” a woman, Susan Murphy , discussing her job, which involves helping journalists better use their voice to convey their message. Becoming a guest blogger for this podcast and a freelance journalist has given me many opportunities to think about my voice and how personal, assertive and compelling I want my copy to be. It’s been a challenging and rewarding adventure. As usual, I turn to you as I end this post: what are your  tips for embracing uncertainty and the surprises life presents? Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024. You can read more of my work on the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast blog , Block Club Chicago , Poynter , Medill Reports , GREY Journal   and Energy News Network .  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-campos-ruiz-baldin/

Dana Hirt had been teaching children for a while when she realized that, to help them more effectively, she had to change the course of her career. “To really change the system, you have to get to the people who are in charge of the system,” she told host Amy Boyle in the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast. “And the people in charge of the system are the grownups.” Dana has been a   parent coach  for over a decade. She and Amy talked about how to be a more intentional and less reactive parent, the benefits of changing one’s mind when something isn’t working, the importance of family time and setting boundaries with technology and why parents should beware of the “comparison game.” Dana reminds listeners that every kid is different and explains that, in order to parent one or more children, people should know what their core values are. Like safety and health, for example. She explained that having those values clear helps parents make simple and complicated decisions with more confidence and be mindful of each child’s needs. “If we have the core values understood, then it allows us to pivot more easily because we're not reinventing the wheel. We understand what we care about and then we're just adapting it to the reality of the child in front of us.” One of those values can be family time, which is constantly threatened by technology in many homes. For Dana, being able to set boundaries with phones and computers is crucial to transmitting the family-time value to the kids and teaching them how to regulate their use of those devices. “We need to be able to put our phones down,” Dana told Amy. “If we start with ourselves, it will also remind us of how good it feels to not be doing that.” On self-care, Dana encourages all parents to make sure they are “strong and resilient and ready for the storms that lie ahead.” In other words, “we cannot take care of our children at the expense of ourselves.” Also, children learn to take care of themselves by watching their parents' example. For those who are or want to become parents: Do you know what your core values are? What kind of child do you want to see when they turn 18? Are you ready to make your well-being a priority even in the middle of a hectic routine? Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

One day, Kimberly Lloyd came home from her job as a Chicago police officer and as she spoke to her daughter over the phone, they both watched the news of an African-American boy on the South Side of Chicago who had been killed over his shoes.  “At that moment I decided,” she told host Amy Boyle in the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast. “I called everyone I knew…I said, we got to do something. This child today, we don't know, but the next one we may.” What should have been a normal evening in Kim’s life turned out to be the beginning of We Got You Covered, or WGYC , an organization founded by Kim to educate, mentor and care for Black boys.  Besides running WGYC, Dr. Kim, who was initially featured   in the 52 Phenomenal Women Project and the Phenomenal Impact mini documentary, works full-time as a police officer. With a vast background in education, her professional goals have always been tied to literacy, even when dealing more directly with public safety. She earned her Ph.D in educational leadership in 2021. Dr. Kim started her career at a catholic school in Chicago. She has also worked at Chicago Youth Centers on the West Side, eventually took an administrative position with the Chicago Board of Education, then at Molson Elementary School in the Bronzeville community and finally at High Park Career Academy.  “I had a front-row seat that allowed me to see the things that children try to navigate along with the pressures of the outside of where they live, where they go to school, gangs, poverty, subpar teaching…And then they try to navigate being a boy.” She had been concerned about African-American boys in Chicago who struggled academically in the fourth grade. But then she realized it was a national issue. One of her professors texted her an article from the New York Times at two in the morning one day, which prompted Dr. Kim to start doing more research on the subject. The data she gathered was the catalyst she needed to keep going.  During the episode, she shared that U.S. literacy has improved by 17 percent in 142 years . And when it comes to the prison and juvenile systems, 90% of the incarcerated individuals are illiterate and read on a fourth-grade level. At WGYC, Dr. Kim and her team of volunteers organize events like Barbershop Monday and Black Men Speak. Boys receive advice from experienced men who understand the struggles these boys may be facing, like fatherlessness, for example.  They are also planning a book club, where Dr. Kim hopes to assess the boys’ literacy level and talk to them about it. WGYC partnered with DePaul University in Chicago and a local author who wrote a book series that brings narratives the boys can relate to.  As Dr. Kim reminds us, the lack of literacy for young Black boys is a national issue. If you want to help, you can reach out to WGYC to connect, volunteer or donate. A donation recently came in the form of a washer and a dryer to make sure students could have  clean clothes despite their economic abilities. Any help can make a difference in those boys’ lives, even simple things like having an informal chat with them, giving a talk or just stopping by to visit. “We're dealing with what we have in front of us,” Dr. Kim told Amy. “And we do it one step at a time.” Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

Over four years after their last trip together, Amy and her friends Barbara , Alessandra  and Debby  - the BAAD  girls - decided to spend three days in New York City. They wanted to reconnect, remind themselves of what matters in life and soak up the best the city had to offer. That included glimpsing “a promise of color in the air” during a walk through Central Park, a long lunch at iconic Central Park Boathouse, a visit to the MET’s rooftop and watching the Tony award-winning musical SUFFS about the women’s suffrage movement.  Those might sound like busy days in a busy city. But the truth is that, to Amy and her friends, those days replenished their hearts and minds.  Not only were they able to catch up during long walks and meals or get entertained and inspired at SUFFS . They understood in a very practical way the importance of spending time with the people we love, especially when it takes effort. “Friendships like these—the ones that last through years and distance—are truly priceless,” Amy reminds us. “They’re the relationships that keep us grounded, that remind us who we are, and who we want to become. And it’s up to us to make the time for them.” Amy left New York on October 9, what would have been John Lennon’s 84th birthday. She took a last walk through Central Park and, upon reaching Strawberry Field, saw and heard about 100 people singing Lennon’s songs. After spending a few days with close friends, she felt connected to those strangers, too.  When was the last time you reached out to an old friend? Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

Susan Boensch decided to take surfing more seriously after moving from Chicago to the West Coast with her husband and two of their children. They had all been “holiday surfers” for years, and Susan was now finally living close to the ocean. She practiced every day for 20 minutes and took surfing lessons as a refresher. But Susan saw the most significant improvement once she started practicing with women who were way better than her at the sport. Initially intimidated, she ended up realizing learning and receiving feedback from good surfers was the shortest path to success. “I just swallowed my pride and said, these girls are good,” she told host Amy Boyle in the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast . “They've surfed for years. They're California girls. I'm going to paddle out with them and watch what they do and sit with them. And they really took me under their wing.” Susan, who was originally portrayed in the   52 Phenomenal Women project , is currently the director of the LA chapter of   Wahine Kai , a surf club for women passionate about the sport. A practicing minimalist who is also an “enthusiastic experience maximalist,” Susan has been always optimistic about balancing her passions and obligations. “No matter where you are in every phase of your life, and believe me, I've been there with young children, with teenagers that don't want to go with you and do what you do, you could always find some kind of balance where you find the things that they love to do and that you love to do and try and make it work together,” she told Amy. This mindset led her to support “Surf Mamas” at Wahine Kai, where mothers with young children take shifts surfing while other surfing moms watch their children in the sand. “Everyone gets a chance to surf.” Tell us: is there anything stopping you from doing something that is important to you? Maybe shyness and fear of what experienced people will think? Maybe life circumstances that seem to be less than ideal?   Find Susan on   Instagram Wahine Kai surf club:   https://www.wahinekai.org/ Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.

Kelly Cervantes is only 42 years old and has led many different lives. She has been a professional actress, an event planner, and, her least desired yet most fulfilling job, a caregiver for a daughter diagnosed with epilepsy. Adelaide died five days before her fourth birthday. Since then, Kelly’s list of roles has continued to grow despite – or maybe thanks to – her grief. She wrote   Normal Broken: The Grief Companion for When It’s Time to Heal but You’re Not Sure You Want To , created the blog   Inchstones , became the host of the   Seizing Life podcast  and currently sits on the boards of the   Undiagnosed Diseases Network Foundation  and   CURE Epilepsy . She also became an adoptive mother and is currently working on a new book. Kelly and host Amy Boyle inaugurate Season 4 of Speaking of Phenomenal discussing two recurring topics in this podcast: women’s struggles to find the right place and time for their ambitions and our ability to adapt to the new paths life presents us, even amid grief. And as Kelly reminds us, we can live grief in many areas of our life, not only death. “And if we can do a better job of putting a name to what those feelings are, I think we give ourselves a better chance of being able to move through it, to understand it, and to accept it.” For Kelly, who was originally featured   in the 52 Phenomenal Women project, acknowledging the things she has grieved throughout her adult life – including her daughter’s death and her career shifts – enabled her to grieve with less guilt and, at the same time, learn to carry the pain with her when she felt ready to move forward. “I am now in a place where I can move forward with my life and still be grieving as opposed to in the darkest days of my grief where I was treading tar. I was stuck in place; everything else in the world was moving on without me, and I felt like I was just watching the train go by. And now I am in a place where I can carry that grief with me. But I’m on the train.” Only then was she able to make room for her good ambitions: writing, speaking, sharing and even acting again. Part of Kelly’s moving forward includes celebrating “inchstones:” small yet meaningful events that, together, build our lives. “If all we’re focused on is the end game, we’re missing so much joy and happiness along the way.” We, too, have reasons to grieve and celebrate. If we’re stuck in grief, we work towards hopping back on the train of our lives. If good things happen, it’s up to us to celebrate. How we deal with those reasons is our choice. Find Kelly on   Instagram ,   Twitter  and   Facebook Blog:   Inchstones Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the " Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast  blog in March 2024.