Just.Be.Enough. was founded in July of 2011 by Elena Sonnino. The idea for the site came to her as she was swimming laps, training for a triathlon, thinking about the importance of feeling confident and empowered.
It all started when she was reading a blog post about accepting ourselves even with our imperfections which led to a link up on her own blog Ciao Mom asking women to create a Things I Like About Me list. The struggle that followed for many was eye opening. The focus on imperfections and flaws had taken seed and had deep roots that were hard to change. But so many women did. And as a result, they walked taller, felt empowered, and took the internet by storm.
Just.Be.Enough. will share the stories, the voices, the truths of many. Its mission is to empower, inspire, and remind women, parents, and children that that the time has come to celebrate ourselves. We must. We must carry the weight of confidence and empowerment on our shoulders instead of allowing the burden of our flaws and imperfections to push us down.
Founder:
Elena Sonnino
Italian by birth, a mom, a teacher, a wife, a runner & triathlete, and a cancer survivor, Elena has lived in the Washington DC area since 1992 when she started her undergraduate degree at the George Washington University. Being bilingual and growing up believing in travel and foreign languages led to the study of international affairs and Russian studies. Although her degree may not be applicable to her role as an Advanced Academic Resource Teacher in the Virginia suburbs, the time at GW did bind Elena to the DC metro area for all that it has to offer. Being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 23 made Elena a fighter, and provided a perspective that was life altering. Life was no longer about watching, it was about doing. Despite being told that she would never have a biological child, Elena became a mom to a spirited and independent daughter (Principessa) who is now entering first grade and can sing most of the songs from Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables with gusto.
Elena spent the better part of two years writing about her profession to achieve National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification. Throughout that time, it became clear that she needed to share her personal story as well. Elena began writing Ciao Mom in October 2009 to reflect on what it really means to be a cancer survivor, have a child, go through a divorce, fight the running/non running roller coaster, and find herself in love and getting remarried. Writing about the journey, or the chaos depending on the day, morphed into a constant look out for the funny, sarcastic, sometimes even sad moments that each day brings.
Striving to carry the extra weight of empowerment and self-confidence, she started Just.Be.Enough. in the hope of inspiring women, parents, and children to believe in themselves.
Editor:
Robin Farr is a woman, a writer, a wife, a runner, a communications professional, a speaker and a mom. At least that’s the chronological order of her current roles in life. Having undiagnosed postpartum depression after her son was born in 2008 mixed her up philosophically in quite a spectacular way. She started her blog, Farewell, Stranger, as a way of writing herself out of the lingering effects of PPD.
Through writing about her experience, including the hard stuff like issues with rage that nearly ended her marriage and a breakdown that caused her to take four months off work, she discovered she’s not alone in her struggle. The connections she’s made with others through her blog have shown her how brutal honesty and self-acceptance can help others.
A fatalist by nature, Robin’s motto is “live the life you’re meant to.” She found the beauty in her breakdown and believes we all have the ability to not only overcome whatever challenges we face but to create something better as a result. And that’s the perspective she brings to Just.Be.Enough.
Robin lives with her husband and three-year-old son in Victoria, BC.
Contributors:
Tracy Jensen May, also known as “ChiMomWriter,” is a blogger, mother, fundraiser, marathoner, wine drinker and music lover.
She is notorious for doing things the hard way, an approach she has carried with her into motherhood.
In her former life, she has worked in a number of industries – developing textbooks and educational materials, managing circulation for bowling and billiards trade journals, grant writing and ultimately becoming a relentless fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.
Having lost her mother to cancer when she was eight, she struggled with the feeling of being without a compass for much of her life. Although she expected that sensation to ease with age (and wisdom?), she instead found it amplified when she became a mother.
It was then that Tracy created It Builds Character… and other parenting cliches, a group blog where is she is Editor & Contributor. Through her engagement with the blogging and online communities, she has rediscovered the impact of the written word, and how powerful interacting with other determined, active individuals can be.
Now closer to 40 than 30, and older than her mother ever got to be, she is finally understanding the peace that comes with not only accepting but embracing who she is. She believes that life is too short not to own it, and to own it out loud. Since her kids are stuck with her all day, she hopes they will learn from her the value of loving, laughing, cherishing those around them, and the importance of giving back. She also hopes they will learn much sooner than she did that all you have to do is Just.Be.Enough.
Tracy lives with her husband, two kids under three and one mutt outside of Chicago.
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Angela
Angela is a stay-at-home mom by day and a runner, blogger, and book lover by night. Also a wife, a writer, a friend, a daughter, and a lover of high heels, Angela began blogging in 2008. Tiaras and Trucks began as a virtual scrapbook for her daughter and is slowly evolving into a space where she can rediscover her passion for writing and capture the humor and beauty that weave together with the ordinary moments in our lives to create something extraordinary.
A lifetime, or approximately two years, ago, Angela was a middle school teacher. While pursuing her master’s degree, she had the opportunity to mentor middle school girls through GO-GIRL, a program designed to increase the confidence of girls in the areas of math, science, and technology. Working with so many capable, but academically insecure girls made her acutely aware of how their perceptions of their abilities were influencing their futures almost as much as their actual abilities.
Focused on her own imperfections for so many years, Angela knew when she had a daughter that she was modeling her self-deprecating behavior to an impressionable mind. An optimist who can always find the positive aspect of anyone or anything, it is time to turn that optimism inward. It is time to Just. Be. Enough.
Angela lives, loves, and laughs in Michigan, with her husband of six years, her preschooler daughter, and toddler son.
Stephanie Dulli
Stephanie Stearns Dulli used to be an actress on the teevee hocking things like Swiffer, Snapple, and Shout. Mostly things that start with ‘s’. After a stint on a soap opera and the birth of her first son, Steph and her man decided to get the heck outta dodge (Los Angeles) and head to a more wholesome land to raise the kidlet. Then God said HA! The hubs lost his job and they had to move in with his parents. Don’t be jealous of the glamour. A California girl at heart she is still learning how to navigate things like snow and closed toe shoes here on the East Coast. Things she swore she would never deal with again once she left Colorado as a teenager. But love makes you do crazy things. Like live with snow. And your in-laws. The family added a second precious baby boy this summer thus ensuring that Stephanie’s life will be reduced to baseball and bugs.
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Kir was voted MOST OPTIMISTIC in High School; it’s a label she embraced and does her best to emulate by being a “Glass Half Full” kind of girl. She is a book, TV (mostly law shows) and shoe lover who has deep affection for Broadway Musicals, NYC and Romantic Comedies..
Sweaty
Sweaty blogs anonymously at Do Sweat the Small Stuff, a personal blog she started in March 2011, as a way to put down all her random musings and neurotic ramblings for all to see.
An only-child, her parents divorced when she was three years old. Raised by her disciplinarian mother, Sweaty graduated from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, double-majoring in Economics and Psychology, even though her true passion was writing.
After a brief stint in marketing (which she hated), Sweaty got married and became a full-time housewife. Five months after the birth of her daughter in 2004, she was diagnosed with Postpartum Psychosis and was placed under both anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications. Since then she has struggled with depression, but is definitely looking forward to the day she can declare, ‘I survived depression!”
In April 2011, after twelve years together, Sweaty’s husband asked for a divorce. Despite her initial efforts to salvage her marriage, six months later her husband declared his decision final. Hence begins a new chapter in her life, in which she reevaluates and rediscovers herself, learns to practice self-acceptance, and rebuilds her confidence and faith.
Sweaty lives with her seven year-old daughter she nicknamed Miss Chatterbox, somewhere between Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Missy Bedell
Missy Bedell is a woman, a wife, a mother, a writer, a community leader, a blogger, an inactive attorney and a newly inducted member to the 40 and up crowd. She founded The Literal Mom in March of 2011, a blog that encourages parents to think about their parenting. A thoughtful approach to anything we do in life will make us better, and that is especially true with parenting.
In college, Missy majored in English Literature and loved her years of devouring the written word for grades. Somewhere along the way, she thought being a lawyer would be more fun, and lost her love of writing for a time, because motions to suppress and compel just aren’t that as much fun as they seem on TV. Blogging and parenting reawakened her passion for writing and she’s finally learned to “do what you love.”
A lifelong perfectionist, she had no idea of the sometimes negative consequences it could cause until she started seeing her oldest daughter become a perfectionist like her. Just. Be. Enough. is the perfect place to help remind herself and others that there is no such thing as perfect. And hopefully, along the way, she will model the “we’re not perfect, we’re enough” mantra for her girls.
Missy is 40, has been married for 13 years, has two daughters who are 5 years apart, and lives in Columbus, Ohio, where it’s pretty hard not to be a Buckeye fan, even if you didn’t grow up there.
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If you are interested in contributing, please email Elena at
justbeenough@gmail.com
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