We are in March, which means it's Women's History Month, and like many, I'm somewhat enthralled by Martha Stewart's new profile in Harper’s Baazar. It was interesting and made me take a deeper dive into her history and memories of when I was first introduced to her - and here we are.
Let's walk down memory lane first. Growing up, my uncle worked at K-Mart. One of my favorite things about going to visit him aside from using his discount to ball out on stationery and music was looking at all the Martha Stewart Living home decor. Martha's line was everything to me. I was always making suggestions to my mom about pieces that I thought would add to our home. Her deal with K-Mart also got her kicked out of her country club in a bourgeois shoutout.
Martha started her brand after a seven-year stint working as a stockbroker on Wall Street and after the launch of her catering business which she referred to as the most challenging job she had. Martha wanted to create a brand centered on informing and inspiring American Women, and she started the company because, as she said:
I was living two very different lives, and the life of then the homemaker was more interesting to me than the life of Wall Street.
Throughout the years, we have witnessed Martha's career flourish, pause, and shift somewhat due to her prison sentence. I stopped myself from making a "Locked up. They won't let me out" reference right there - I'm working on being less corny in 2021. Now, Martha's brand is still thriving she has almost 100 books under her belt and has now moved into the world of gummies and CBD with her forthcoming CBD skincare line called 86 Elm, named after her childhood address.
But yes, I recommend that you read her profile with Harper’s Baazar because it was a good read and talks about relevant things like the me-too movement, how you have to take your vision into your own hands and other things. Also, here are a few other Martha related articles and videos that I thought were interesting as well:
Read: Martha Stewart, Blissed Out on CBD, Is Doing Just Fine
Watch: Martha Stewart Sits Down With ARod and Barstool Big Cat
In other news, here are a few other things I thought were worth sharing this week:
Did you watch the D’Angelo and Friends Verzuz over the weekend? If you’re like me, you made it through the beginning and fell asleep right after Method Man went off the screen. Here is a great overview of the performance, and here is a YouTube to watch if you missed out.
One of my idols and favorite Oakland girls, Danyel Smith, recently started a new Spotify podcast series called Black Girl Songbook, and it’s great. It’s basically a platform to give homage and celebrate some of our Black icons like Whitney Houston and Sade, and most recently, she did a great episode on Ciara.
Sasha Keable is finally releasing new music. I’m still sad I lost space on my computer and that she made all her old EPs unavailable in the US, but I love her voice so much. Here is her new song, “Exception.”
One of my other favorites from across the pond is Sinead Harnett “Lost Love.”
Remember, you are more than what you do. I like one of the ideas captured here about thinking of your job as a verb vs. a noun.
One of the best pieces of career advice I’ve ever gotten was to think of jobs as verbs, rather than nouns. So, for example: I do journalism, rather than I’m a journalist. Or: I do youth education, rather than I’m a teacher.
This is what it was like to eat with Anthony Bourdain.
One time I met Lupe Fiasco. I won a radio contest, and when we met, he danced behind me, and I argued with him about how to spell my middle name, Ashley, correctly. I now know there are multiple ways you can spell it, but that doesn’t matter. Loved this whole Lupe Fiasco interview series from The Coda Collection.
This story is crazy - what happened to Lim Ji-Hyun?
This was an excellent read about why people need to stop telling women they have imposter syndrome. Honestly, often it’s not imposter syndrome. It could easily be not having things in place to help women thrive.
What’s less explored is why imposter syndrome exists in the first place and what role workplace systems play in fostering and exacerbating it in women. We think there’s room to question imposter syndrome as the reason women may be inclined to distrust their success.
That’s it for this week.