Why I Created SassyChicGeek
Homeschool Yo Kids! Expo in Maryland, May 2024.
I love reflecting on my life and experiences. For me, it feels so good to look back on different moments in my life – those that happened a few minutes ago and those that happened a few decades ago. I reflect on family, friendships, relationships, work, things that I read or have seen and so on. I even reflect on my journey to starting SassyChicGeek. Well, I thought that I did. I think about the highs and lows as well as the different experiences that I had creating this community. But the one thing that I never reflected on, fully at least, is the reason why I created SCG in the first place.
I mean, I think about SCG all the time. I think about the many amazing people that I met because of SCG as well as the many tools, resources and educational programs that I created. I’m always thinking about how I improve the products and services that I offer. I even think about how much I changed since starting on this journey. Yet, I never really asked myself the W-H-Y. It may sound crazy, but I think that entrepreneurial, creative minds are inspired to act on ideas without always thinking deeply about the things that motivated them to pursue their passions in the first place.
And when I did start to really reflect on the reasons I created SCG, soooo much stuff came up for me. I have a million-and-one reasons that I created SCG but many of them fit into overarching themes. So, I had to gather myself and my thoughts in a coherent way. I did it as much for myself as for others that wonder what this community is really about beyond Sasstopia, the Sassnistas and poppin’ conversations for women and girls. So here goes…
As women, I believe we still have a long way to go.
While so many women have accomplished the most amazing things, a lot are still struggling to live full lives and achieve their goals. I want SassyChicGeek to be one of the many resources that women and girls can take on the journey to achieving your goals, regardless of where you are on that journey. Also, I love being a woman. A Black woman!! And although this space centers the experiences of women and girls, we welcome anyone as long as they are respectful of the community we created. Not every space that is created is done so to exclude people with other identities. And while spaces for specific groups of people can feel isolating to others, we live in a time where we all have the ability to find our people. If not, we have so many tools at our disposal to create them for ourselves. And creating communities doesn’t mean that we stay in those echo chambers only interacting with like-minds all of the time. There are so many dimensions to our personality and this is just one space to go to have a sassy good time! Ok, rant over!
I think women and girls need more safe spaces.
None of us are perfect human beings and we need spaces that we can go to show up authentically without judgement or ridicule so that we can get the things we need to live our best lives. For me, I have been in places and spaces that didn’t feel safe, even when people had good intentions. I want SassyChicGeek to be a place for women and girls to feel comfortable coming to discuss the many ways that they want to show up in the world. And here’s the thing, you may have had similar experiences and are hesitant about being a part of another community. And I don’t blame you! All I can say is that I don’t have a problem working hard to earn your trust.
I like to have poppin’ conversations!
I love having rich, deep soulful conversations with people that go beyond exchanging pleasantries. I love talking about a little bit of everything. And I love learning from others. I think that there’s so much that we can learn from each other if we are willing to be open to listening and having real conversations. I can speak, firsthand, about the impact that these types of conversations had on my life. Not only does hearing the perspectives of others help me get to know them better, it helps me to be more open-minded to differences. Our society needs to be much more tolerant of people that are different from ourselves.
I enjoy creating resources, tools and educational material.
My professional background started in marketing and I worked for a few magazine publishers. I spent a lot of time creating marketing material to gain new subscribers and advertisers. I transitioned into the public sector and worked in a lot of program and project management roles where I was constantly creating resources, training material, content for social media, etc. For my all of my nonprofit and government girlies, I’m sure you can relate to being in roles where you had to be the Jaqueline of all trades. I say all of that to say that I love creating engaging content to share with others.
I want to help young women and girls build a strong foundation.
As the first person in my family to finish college, there was no blueprint laid out for my life. I had to figure a lot of things out on my own. I am most grateful to my parents for allowing me to live a life without limitations. They didn’t really tell me that I couldn’t do things. Well, they did, I just didn’t listen to them!! Through trial-and-error (lots of errors), I went on a journey of self-discovery to figure out where I belonged. I moved around a lot in my early twenties into my thirties. I had a lot of different types of jobs and moved from working in Corporate America to working in the public sector because I wanted to change the world. These along with so many other things helped me gain a better understanding of myself as well as how I showed up in the world. I was searching for a sense of belonging and I discovered that everything that we want and desire not only comes from within, but it comes when you let go of all of the preconceived ways that you are expected to show up in the world. And I especially want to help girls start their journey with more tools and resources than I had so that they can begin their journey of self-reflection, self-discovery and self-love with a solid foundation as they also work to pursue their goals.
I want to help women and girls fully participate in our modern society.
I think that technology has made us more accessible to one another. But I think we as humans have not fully caught up with the benefits of what this digital age provides. I’m talking about the ways that we show up for ourselves; how we show up in school or work; and how we use these tech tools to bridge the divide in our society. We are all navigating this digital era together! I want women and girls to utilize every resource at their disposal to do things like:
Pursue your dreams without limitations.
Spark your curiosity.
Experience new people, places and things.
Work smarter not harder.
Show up as your full, authentic self.
Make the world a little bit better than you found it.
I look forward to exploring this and so much more with you all! Charise Liggins-Walker is the Founder of SassyChicGeek. At SassyChicGeek, we offer both in-person and virtual enrichment programs for teens that want to be more intentional about how they show up to and for the world, lead and create the change that they want to see. Check out some of our upcoming virtual programs at Sasstopia University. Let’s get it poppin’!