Posted on by Stephanie's Corner · 2 Comments

The Only Period I Talk About Online Is A Punctuation Mark

According to PlanInternational UK on Twitter, they think it’s time we had a #PeriodEmoji. Um, what? My answer to this simply this: Of all that is holy, no! Hell no! Saying in a tweet that we don’t talk about periods enough…. blah, blah, blah. Um, has it ever occurred to people that not everything needs to be on social media? Has it ever occurred to PlanInternationalUK, that as a woman, we talk about periods enough and we talk about them in private with our closest friends? Has it ever occurred to people that don’t need #emojis for everything we do in life?

Yes, having your period is normal if you are a woman. But what one woman said to me in response to this crazy post was that it’s about “reproduction.” My answer to that is no, it’s not. Not every woman can reproduce. The fact that a woman is menstruating doesn’t necessarily mean that she can conceive and carry a baby to term. Some women continue to have periods but don’t ovulate at all. This medical condition is known as anovulation. You’re born with a fixed number of eggs but the number and health of your eggs declines as you get older. Infertility affects approximately 6.7 million women in the United States. Maybe that is something we should be talking about. Maybe we should be talking about adoption and making the process a lot easier than it is for those women who wish to be moms. But to adopt these days, you need to be a celebrity and have an abundance of money. There are probably a lot of children who don’t have a home that would have one if it wasn’t for this ridiculously insane high cost. But I will say that it is possible to find ways to arrange a private newborn adoption for $6,000 to $8,000; and not the $30,000 price tag of some adoptions. A lot of the price depends on two major factors, the lawyer fees and if the adoptive family is helping pay for medical expenses. And as I am in the process of writing my book, “The Road To Adoption,” there are many hurdles for couples and single moms/dads, especially if you try to adopt using the foster care system.

Again, as a social media expert I am telling everyone out there that not everything we do in life or experience in life needs to be on social media. It’s called social media for us to be social, it’s not a place where we should, let alone, need to share private things that happen in our lives. And seeing how some people are using personal Facebook pages as a business tool, which is a no-no for so many reasons, you will eventually kill your own brand by oversharing information with the public.

It’s normal to have our periods but tell me why on Earth we need to let everyone online know it? That’s ridiculous! What’s next? Are we going to have emjolis to let everyone know we are having wet dreams, having sex, or that we have sexual diseases?

Enough is enough. The topics we should be discussing we ignore and the things we don’t need to discuss we do. The social media generation needs to learn how to distinguish between what should be public and what should be private. Remember, once you push the send button that’s all it takes for your posts to stay online forever. Be wary and careful as to what you put online- it can bite you later on.

Posted on by Stephanie's Corner

5 DIY Ideas For Planning A Wedding

Planning a wedding can totally consume you with excitement, yet it can very quickly become very stressful. Any way you look at it, DIY (Do It Yourself) started way before someone came up with the actual concept and marketed it. Today, DIY weddings are all the rage and the main purpose of doing a DIY wedding, is to add some beauty without breaking the bank. Here are 5 things that you can do on your own,instead of spending money on.

5. Framed Blackboard Wedding Program

One of the reasons to do this is because paper programs are often thrown away. Having a chalkboard in the lobby, at the door of the church, or reception, adds fun, charm, and it’s a great communication tool.

4. Ribbon-Tied Chairs

You don’t need to break the bank on having all the chairs in the reception or ceremony decorated. With the selection at a craft store to chose from, all you need to do is purchase colors that your bridal party of wearing and tie the ribbon to each chair where the ribbon will flow in the back of each chair.

3. Place Cards

Today, place cards don’t need to be so fancy. You create the template, and you create the style in which you would like to use. For example, it can be as simple as a cardstock piece of paper, or as creative as using Instagram photos of your guests. The point is, it’s up to you to get creative and you can save money on this part of the budget.

2. Welcome Bags

Whether you have out of townees or family/bridal party staying over at the hotel, the welcome bags are easy to make and won’t cost you an arm and a leg to make either! You can chose from paper gift bags, to cloth bags, to even plastic tote bags, the choices are endless. With dollar stores springing up everywhere, picking up soap, shampoo, advil, etc, to fill the bags won’t cost you a bunch either.

1. Photo Albums

There is no need for you to have photographer put together the photo albums for your parents, in-laws, and your memories anymore. With sites online such as, Shutterfly, Smugmug, and Snapfish, putting together the priceless moments, has become easy, painless, and less costly.

Posted on by Stephanie's Corner

Why A Day Without A Woman Is A Joke

The first official National Woman’s Day, held in New York City was on February 28, 1909. (The organizers, members of the Socialist Party of America, wanted it to be on a Sunday so that working women could participate.) Thousands of people showed up to various events uniting the suffragist and socialist causes, whose goals had often been at odds. Women were demanding voting rights, better pay and shorter working hours. Labor organizer Leonora O’Reilly and others addressed the crowd at the main meeting in the Murray Hill Lyceum, at 34th Street and Third Avenue. In Brooklyn, writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (of “The Yellow Wall-paper” fame) told the congregation of the Parkside Church: “It is true that a woman’s duty is centered in her home and motherhood…[but] home should mean the whole country, and not be confined to three or four rooms or a city or a state.”

On March 19, 1911 (the 40th anniversary of the Paris Commune, a radical socialist government that briefly ruled France in 1871), the first International Woman’s Day was held, drawing more than 1 million people to rallies worldwide. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, most attempts at social reform ground to a halt, but women continued to march and demonstrate on International Woman’s Day.

Most dramatically, a massive demonstration led by Russian feminist Alexandra Kollontai that began on February 23, 1917 (according to Russia’s Gregorian calendar; it was March 8 in the West) proved to be a link in the chain of events that led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution. After the czar’s abdication, the provisional government formed until a constituent assembly could be elected became the first government of a major power to grant women the right to vote.

In 1975, recognized as International Women’s Year, the United Nations General Assembly began celebrating March 8th as International Women’s Day.

(Courtesy of The History Channel)

In 2017, the official theme for International Women’s Day is #BeBoldforChange, a campaign that calls on its supporters “to help forge a better working world—a more gender inclusive world.”

the organizers of the Woman’s March and the planned International Women’s Strike are asking women to go even further: take the day off from paid and unpaid labor, refrain from shopping and wear red in solidarity.

Just once I would like to see the women in the United States of America march/protest for the women in countries where the women don’t have any rights, let alone, don’t have the same freedoms that they do. But they won’t. I can guarantee that some of these liberal women will be marching/protesting against Trump like the sheep that they are.

“A day without a woman” sounds silly to me. Yes, women do a lot to make the world go around. Hell, we are the ones who carry the children and give birth. Some women are the bread and butter of their families. And some women are single moms and do it all. How come we can’t just celebrate womanhood? Can women actually march/protest seriously? What do I mean by seriously? I mean, can women actually march/protest without wearing pussy hats or V-jay hats, ( what ever you wish to call them), costumes of private parts, carry signs that are pointless and screaming vulgar things?

Ironically, women want to be taken seriously but then look like children having a tantrum doing marches/protests as this. None of this marching and protesting is helping to do anything but further divide an already seriously divided country. (And these women are blind to this since they think this stuff actually helps)

What ever happened to actually being proactive? Now we march, protest and look like fools for everything. International Women’s Day has now lost it’s value. How about having luncheons, ladies night out, donating to women charities, or helping out women-based businesses? You want to be proactive, I just gave you four suggestions.

You want equal pay? Taking a day off doesn’t help your case, actually it hurts it. And remember, a paycheck doesn’t show appreciation, which is what we should be celebrating today; appreciation for women. Yes, equal pay is important, but once again, women are going about that the wrong way.

I’m proud to be a woman and I don’t need a pussy hat, wear red, hold a protest sign, shout obscenities or some stupid chant that all the sheep are screaming to be a proud woman. I look back and see just how far we have come and I am proud of that. I instead decide to out work ’em, out read ’em, out last’em, Show up. Something today’s woman could and should take note. When you focus on problems, you will have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you will have more opportunities. Life is all about – Choices. Options. Opportunities. And today’s woman in the USA can make many of her own choices, has many different options presented to her and is given many opportunities to shine.

So to all the women who feel that they are oppressed because of our government, name me one of your rights that was taken away, that you no longer have since January 19th. Don’t worry, I’ll wait, while you try to come up with one.