READING RHOMBUS | DIVERSITY
Four Feisty Females of Medium
Life lessons in creativity, diversity, and education.
In over a year that I have been seriously reading on Medium, I have come across many writers who have captured my attention, but when it came to creating a story to debut my contribution to Reading Rhombus, I wanted to showcase the best Medium has to offer.
Medium has hundreds of thousands of writers, male, female, and trans. I do not know them all. Heck, I only follow about a thousand people on Medium, and not all of them are writers.
I came to Medium to read. There were a few readers I liked and used to read. Then Medium decided to limit my reading pleasure unless I paid. I high-tailed out of here. But a couple of those writers kept writing good shit that I had to read. So, in April of last year, I broke down and anted up.
Then, in late October, I learned that Medium pays the writers if they partnered up to do so. “How cool is that!” I thought. So I joined the program and started reading more. This time, mostly about how to “succeed” on Medium.
Over the last eight months that I have been writing, I found a few people whose writings I enjoyed more and started following them, and scouring the Medium landscape for their stories.
The Four Feisty Females that I’d like to introduce are full of festive fun and fervor. Frankly, they are the finest Medium has to offer.
They represent diversity in age, ethnicity, and experience, as well as variety in content, style, and genre. Of course, my selection represents my biases and my opinions. You may or may not agree with my choices, but they are mine.
You are welcome to share yours.
Helen Cassidy Page
Helen is the Matron of Medium, and I don’t mean matron in its traditional meaning. I mean it more like a dorm mother.
She’ll be 81 years old tomorrow (July 11th), but call her a little old lady at your own risk. She was a feminist long before it was a thing. She is an aging expert and a top writer in health; a white woman who is a top writer in racism.
If you look up the word feisty in a Pictionary, you’ll likely find Helen’s picture there.
Here is a typical story that tells you everything you need to know about Helen and her writing style; humorous, pungent, and profuse.
Dr. Rosenna Bakari aka Rosennab
I was fortunate enough to run into Dr. Bakari during one of my “connect the dot” experiments where I would choose one of my followers at random and visit their profile. From there, I’d randomly click on one of their stories and choose someone who had clapped for it and continue.
Dr. Bakari is a Feisty Fifty-something African American woman living in the Midwest. To say she’s had a challenging life would be an understatement.
She earned her PhD. while raising two children and working full time. Some of her other accomplishments include getting a fourth-degree Black Belt in Tae Kwan Do and being an avid runner who’s run a marathon or two.
Currently, she and her husband are experimenting with living-apart-together so he can pursue his dream while she continues her career. It’s a test of love which COVID-19 has made even tougher than it normally would be.
The beauty of her writing is that she tells stories, but presents them as if she was writing an academic paper, with references neatly included at the end.
Gurpreet Dhariwal
What sets Gurpreet apart from the crowd is that she is a thirty-something Indian woman who is divorced (pending) and has chosen to stay independent. If that’s not Feisty, I don’t know what is. (I am from India, I know.)
She is a survivor of paternal and spousal abuse, yet she is full of love. She has found her solace in poetry as her therapy. She bleeds words and allows her soul to rant, so she can be peaceful. My Soul Rants is not only the title of her book, but it is also her twitter handle.
She also loves to sketch, and in A Letter to My Dear Self, she shares what I believe to be a selfie.
Itxy Lopez
She is the baby of the Feisty Four at 22 years of age, but don’t let the youth fool you. I have said this before; I wish I had her knowledge and wisdom when I was 22.
Itxy lives in Mexico, so English is not her native language, but she has a dream she is pursuing, and unlike most in her generation approaches it with a long-term mindset. (Correction: An oversight on my part, corrected by Itxy. She wrote, “I was born and raised in the US, in California. While Spanish was my first language, I’m fluent in English.”)
She is intelligent and understands that she is not old enough to dish out advice about successful living. She writes about what knows and what she’s learning as she pursues her dream of becoming an author.
Most of her writing is about Medium and personal growth; two genres that command little respect, though popular and profitable. But that’s what she is learning, and that’s where her experience is. She’s been writing on Medium for a couple of years and knows that she has a long way to go to reach her goal.
She has no delusions, and the advice that she dispenses is solid. It is based on what she has learned from her mentors and her personal success here. She’ll get far with her tenacity and determination.
As always, thank you for reading and responding.
Rasheed Hooda is a published author and a regular contributor to ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium where we support each other.
He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship.
