The F-Word, standing for female, is a newly created collaborative blog formed by Brooke Shapiro, junior, focusing on female empowerment. Beginning as an individual endeavor, the blog was initially titled “Girl Meets Complicated World” and provided a personal outlet for Shapiro, until she decided to bring it to a more collective level.
“All I’ve ever wanted for my blog was for it to inspire others. I wanted it to be powerful and influential,” Shapiro said. “I knew that the best way to do that was by incorporating the voices and perspectives of other females. So I asked some of my friends who I knew enjoyed writing and had unique ways of seeing the world to be a part of my ‘blog squad’ and thus The F-Word was born.”
Promoting equality and self-expression, it now features Jordan Buzzet, Kristina Biglete, Sara Eisman, Leigh Gabriely, Macie Lavender, Maddie Robinson, Maggie Musco, Maren Scharf, Margaret Proudfoot, Morgan Tankersley and Savannah Lowry, all juniors, all as writers and collaborators.
“I think this is an era of a very specific social reform and I believe that feminism is an important and pretty active movement,” Leigh Gabriey, one of the authors said. “It’s beginning to be associated with radical beliefs and even toward inequality. At the same time, this is a movement that is necessary as it has always been, women need to be empowered and feel confident being women, not in a sense of how one looks- even though that definitely plays a role- but more in a sense of what one feels they can do.”
The blog embraces and advocates for the feminist movement and seeks to promote individuality and self-confidence.
“Female empowerment is all about girls finding themselves and high school is a time for doing exactly that,” Shapiro said. “Female empowerment is also about teaching tolerance and respect and I think that is a lesson that is beneficial to all high school students of both genders.”
While the blog does promote a female point of view, it is open to all who can relate to topics discussed, such as culture, school and music, to name a few.
“I want to emphasize the humanistic approach,” Gabriely said. “As Brooke often says, this is not a blog that degrades men, we believe in equality. I, personally, identify as a feminist but a much more passionate humanist and this is a perfect way for me to channel and express that along with writing things I get excited about and feel that will inspire/benefit others.”
A range of subjects are to be covered and written about and are meant to showcase each individual writers interests. Touching on ideas relevant to the authors themselves, it allows for self-expression under many themes.
“I’d like my blog to cover a broad span of topics, but with a focus on advocacy, current issues and personal issues,” Shapiro said. “My mail goal for my blog is to just teach other females to be aware of their surroundings and feel comfortable discussing the issues and topics that matter most to them.”
The F-Word combines stories pertinent to high schoolers and female empowerment and seeks to reach out to many people with a variety of interests and opinions.
“I hope that people will find a little bit of themselves in each and every blog post,” Shapiro said. “That’s part of the reason I made my blog collaborative- I wanted my blog to be something that everyone could feel a part of. We try to write about topics that matter to not only us but what we think matters to other people, so hopefully readers will feel that the things we write about are relevant to their lives, which I think is even more probably with a variety of voices and the broad span of topics we cover.”