Women Rising Strong

Stories and reflections about women, life, and becoming who we are.

I’m glad you’re here

I'm S.A. Sterling, a writer, teacher, and endlessly curious woman who has always been interested in other women's lives.

I created Women Rising Strong because I wanted a place to tell their stories—and, eventually, some of my own.

I'm interested in the big things: courage, change, identity, relationships, aging, starting over. But I'm just as interested in the smaller things. The choices we make without telling anyone. The roles we fall into. The things we carry for years before we realize we're carrying them.

You'll find stories of remarkable women here, but you won't find many perfect ones. I'm much more interested in what happens when life gets complicated and we have to figure out who we are now.

I don't have everything figured out either. That's part of why I write.

So have a look around. Read something. Stay awhile. And if something here makes you stop and think, then Women Rising Strong is doing what I hoped it would do.

What’s here for you

Stories, reflections, books, and ideas about women's lives—what we go through, what we learn, what we question, and how we change.

Some are about extraordinary women. Some are about ordinary moments. Often, the line between the two isn't as clear as we think.

Read & Explore

Stories and reflections about women, life, change, and the questions we sometimes carry with us.

Explore the Blog

Stay in Touch

Join me for Thursday Reflections, new writing, book news, and the occasional note from Women Rising Strong.

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Read My Books

My books explore women, identity, change, resilience, and the complicated ways we become ourselves.

Explore My Books

  • “I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”

    Frida Kahlo turned her own body, identity, pain and experience into art, refusing to look away from herself.

  • “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

    Audre Lorde was a poet and activist whose work explored identity, injustice, difference and the power of speaking for ourselves.

  • “I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear.”

    Rosa Parks became an enduring symbol of courage and resistance through an act that helped change the course of the American civil rights movement.

  • “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

    Through Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë gave us a woman insisting on her freedom, dignity and right to choose her own life.

  • “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”

    Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and spent her career challenging who was allowed a seat at the table.

  • “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

    Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose writing explores women’s lives, identity, resilience, and the importance of recognizing our own agency.

Stay a little longer

If you enjoy what you find here, Thursday Reflections is a way to stay connected. I write about women, life, change, and the things I'm still trying to understand too.

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