International Women’s Day & Women’s History Month are about acknowledging the achievements of women and bringing awareness to help fight bias, discrimination & inequality. Beyond the month of March, we must continue to celebrate women, empower women, and support women-owned businesses to bring real, positive change to the world as we know it.

Let’s imagine for a second the world without the touch of a woman.

What do you see? What exists? What doesn’t exist? Now imagine a gender-equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge this better world!

Here are 10 ideas to support women near you and afar, helping you to play a role in supporting women’s rights and participation in political and economic arenas ✊

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

International Women’s Day is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8th as a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. It’s an opportunity to call out inequality, celebrate women, and forge a gender-equal world.

Do you want to help?

💡 HERE’S AN IDEA . . .

🅂upport women-owned businesses!

🅄ltimately, you owe us.

🄿regnancy, remember?

🄿ushed ya out da vagina!

🄾h, not to mention . . .

🅁eally, really important . . .

🅃he truth is:

🅆omen need your support!

🄾UR RIGHTS

🄼ATTER!

🄴quality matters! Don’t you agree?

🄽ow, what are ya going to do about it?

HERE’S A BOOBIE-POINT LIST OF IDEAS WE CAN HELP WITH ON EXPLORINGNOTBORING.COM:

•• Support women-led experiences!

•• Buy products handmade by women!

•• Provide Women’s Empowerment Workshops: Offer workshops focused on women’s empowerment and personal development, such as self-care, mindfulness, and resilience training.

10 IDEAS TO SUPPORT WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES!

We’re celebrating a handful of the trailblazin’ women that we support on exploringnotboring.com in this International Women’s Day & Women’s History Month-inspired article.

Here’s how you can support these women too:

1. Follow @cadburyllama & learn how to draw cute llamas + koalas 👇

Noeline Cassettari began her career drawing Scooby-Doo and the Berenstain Bears for Hanna-Barbera. Notably, she also animated Winnie the pooh for Walt Disney, and has illustrated over 80 children’s books featuring animals.

Maybe you’re catching the theme here—Noeline has a great love for animals, which shows not only in her work and lifestyle, but also in her passion to teach others how to draw animals.

Noeline lives on a farm near Sydney Australia, with some very cute and clever animals. Beanie the sheep and Rose the miniature horse are the only non-dogs in the world to have earned their Grand Champion trick titles.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Aside from teaching her furry friends cool tricks, Noeline spends her time teaching people easy ways to draw animals, so everyone has success. The most popular animals to learn how to draw: llamas & koalas 🐨

2. Follow @papillonskies & purchase her empowering art 👇

Andrea G. Hardeman, M.S. is a black female artist, poet & author who, at the core of her endeavors, is creating a space that allows others to feel seen and see themselves more clearly.

Andrea’s art and poetry are at the intersection of creativity and mental well-being. With a deep belief that art can heal individuals and bring new life into a space, it’s in this spirit that Andrea developed her “Healing Through Art” workshops that help others find grounding and tap into their creative flow.

“Have you ever experienced a happy accident? Well, that’s what painting was for me. I bought a few canvas panels, acrylic paint, and brushes in 2020 to process everything that was happening. I never dreamed my art would be meaningful to anyone but me. I’ve watched strangers cry, feel visible relief, and have lightning-like joy experiencing my art and the stories behind each piece. And I’m glad you’re here and excited to share my art and heart with you.” —Andrea G. Hardeman, M.S.

3. Follow @mariaesthergalban & buy her handmade clay wall pockets 👇

María Esther Galbán is a talented Venezuelan artist and tastemaker who lost everything when she was forced to flee from the violence in Venezuela. Leaving behind her safety net and beautiful art studio, she landed in the United States with only her bare hands. Turning grief into beauty, María Esther founded Barehands, a company as poised, charming, and sophisticated as she is, which aims to bring vibrancy to everyday life with unique clay creations.

We appreciate her whimsical approach to adding life to everyday tasks and her passion for meaning & vibrancy.

4. Follow @casanova_guided_tours & go on a Wolf Tour 👇

Tauni Huddleston, the founder of Casanova Guided Tours, has spent many years photographing wildlife in numerous areas of the world, but the one place that has always had her heart is Yellowstone National Park.

The first time she ever saw a wolf (four to be precise), Tauni felt pure excitement, joy, and relatedness, amongst many other feelings that stirred up inside of her. Without a doubt, she had discovered a hidden passion.

Soon after, she began returning so often to Yellowstone that the park became her second home. Year after year, she traveled to Yellowstone to conduct research on the wolf packs as an enthusiast, monitoring their behaviors and patterns, and inevitably, continuing to fall more and more in love with the wildlife and landscape of the park.

Nowadays, Tauni shares this passion and the knowledge gained from all her years of researching, observing, and studying Yellowstone’s wildlife, with all the curious explorers who want to see Yellowstone’s hidden gems.

“My mission is to show a different side of the world and to help gain a better & deeper understanding of the sites, destinations, and animals”

—Tauni Huddleston, Founder of Casanova Guided Tours

Thanks to Casanova Guided Tours and Tauni’s expert guidance, we saw our first wild grizzly bear & wolves in Yellowstone National Park. It was such an epic, memorable experience, and Tauni is an incredible guide!!

Hands down, we wouldn’t have known where to go or where to look without Tauni’s expertise. She is extremely versed in the world of wolves, and can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about Yellowstone & the wildlife that lives there. If you’re looking for a local tour guide to see parts of the park most visitors miss, like some of its most notable species, then Tauni is your guide for the challenge.

Check out this fun video of our Yellowstone Tour with Tauni @ Casanova Guided Tours:

5. Follow @travelbuddies.mangolia & learn Mongolian nomadic culture 👇

Local Mongolian tour guide, Zol Enkhtaivan, is an expert in living a traceless way of life, living off the land, respecting and conserving nature. Nowadays, Zol teaches others about her Mongolian nomadic culture from Yurt construction and arrangement to exploring the daily life of locals in Mongolia.

When you experience her LIVE online tour, you’ll learn nomadic life customs, including welcoming a visitor with a snuff bottle (pictured above), how to play with knuckle bones, how to cook milk tea and deep-fried meat pie called “khuushuur,” PLUS learn about the traditional musical instrument (fiddle with horse head “morin khuur”) and traditional clothes (“deel”) of Mongolia. Zol is passionate about sharing her way of life with the world.

Check out this wildly unique video of our virtual meeting with Zol to learn about her Mongolian tour:

6. Follow @aiyanasempiredg & join her Goat Yoga Classes 👇

Growing up, Emily Morgan always wanted to become a large animal veterinarian. So, she went to a high school with a fabulous pre-vet program, which required students to pick a year-long project. As Emily calls it, her “flour baby” project was a goat. This is how Emily got her first goat—Aiyana—and where she began to fall in love with the entire dairy process and industry.

As time went on, Emily interned with Florida International University’s Agroecology Program to learn sustainable agricultural practices, both in an urban and agrarian setting. Now as a senior at FIU studying under the Agroecology Program, she incorporates the practices she learns in her classes to her goat herd. With this comes Goat Yoga.

One of the important factors of sustainable urban agriculture is agricultural education as most people in an urban environment feel removed from where their food comes from. With Goat Yoga, Emily strives to educate people on their power as consumers to drive the agricultural industry in the direction they want it to go.

Goat Yoga is also largely for the goats, who are “working animals” and have jobs to do every day such as making sustainable, tasty goat milk products for customers. With Goat Yoga, they get to take a break from their work and just be goats. Like humans, goats enjoy hugs from lovely people and simply frolicking around.

Goat Yoga is also about giving people an opportunity to go outside their comfort zone with fitness events without the idea that they are not “flexible enough,” “skinny enough,” or many other ideals that hold them back. With the goats, that initial awkwardness of doing something new & scary fades away. 

Something that started as a fundraiser for her University’s Pre-Vet club, Emily’s Goat Yoga classes have since become an official business that still fundraises for this club and other community organizations such as Redland Rockpit Abandoned Dog Project, Yoga4Change, and Felix Varela Senior High School. 

“This experience is unique not only because there are goats (haha), but also because there is a learning experience as well. It is not just a yoga class and leave, but it also allows for a social hour at the end where our participants often hang out in the sun to enjoy their goats and meeting new people. It truly is a safe space to enjoy a relaxing yet educational time. I hope people walk away understanding their power as consumers in agriculture and how with small steps they too can help save this planet.” —Emily Morgan 

7. Follow @mixluzolivos & learn Spanish, dance, meditation + much more 👇

Luz Olivos is a holistic and mystic practitioner in Mancora, Peru. From traditional ayahuasca ceremonies to Aqua Zumba, Spanish classes, dance classes, cardio classes, Hatha Yoga, meditation, and yoga classes on the beach, Luz does it all, always in an environment of respect for your physical and energetic body.

Promoting the… “happiness quartet”, made up of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, Luz is a multifaceted medicine woman, mom of two kids, and advocate for holistic health.

8. Follow @origami_tokyo_mana & learn how to make origami 👇

Having grown up in a historic part of Tokyo city, Manami has always been very interested in Japanese traditional culture since she was a small girl. Eventually, Manami went to school to study how to protect these old sites and traditions, ultimately earning her Ph.D. in Cultural Heritage Studies from the University of Tsukuba.

After spending some time in Europe studying and completing an internship, Manami was inspired to help others learn about her culture by sharing teachings in English. One way to do this was to teach others how to make origami.

When she was 7, Manami and her family lived abroad and since they were isolated without any internet or smartphones (it was early 1990’s), as a family, they played many games including making origami. That’s how origami became an intimate part of her life.  Now, Manami’s teaches others how to make origami in her online experience. Manami’s Origami Experience is more than learning skills, you get to learn the history, meanings, and stories behind traditional origami, and Manami will also teach you about Japanese culture.

9. Follow @beradiantreiki & start healing with energy work 👇

Deanna Jaromay is a lightworker, an energy practitioner, a mother, and a person who loves life and has also felt the exhaustion that comes from the complexity of being human.

For years, Deanna felt disconnected from her intuition, broken emotionally, spiritually, and physically. The process of healing began when she discovered how to connect to her inner wisdom through mediation, journaling, and feminine yoga. During this process, Deanna felt strongly drawn to Reiki and how it could assist her healing journey. 

“There are no accidents or coincidences…Reiki came into my life as a way to work through the deep-held beliefs and blockages that had manifested physically in my body as chronic pain and sickness. This deep inner work tore off the band-aids that I had been using to hide my scars. I was left feeling exposed, open, and raw.  Reiki became the salve I needed for healing. ” —Deanna Jaromay

Healing did not happen overnight but it did happen. 

After many months of tending to her wounds, Deanna woke with a deep feeling of connection to herself and to everything in the world. As she continued to heal, she allowed herself to feel happier, more compassionate, and able to see the beauty and love all around her. 

“My life has shifted, my relationships are more authentic, my work life has improved and I love myself and my body like never before. With this healing came the intuitive sense to honor the call to become a Reiki Master and immerse myself in the teachings of Theta Healing, Angelic Reiki, Intuition Medicine and Sound Therapy.” 

—Deanna Jaromay

Deanna loves this work because of the transformations she gets to witness. It isn’t her doing the healing. It’s the person allowing the healing to manifest. Deanna is only a conduit for their healing. She uses her energetic knowledge, intuitive wisdom, and all that she has learned to connect people with their inner wisdom.

“I lovingly hold sacred space and support one through their transformational journey and cultivate a sense of peace, calm and balance.” —Deanna Jaromay 

10. Follow @MexicanSalsas & learn to make Mexican salsa 👇

Four years ago, Natalia and her hilarious sidekick, Jazz, inspired by their love for Mexican food and almost 8 years of experience in the Hotel and travel industry, started teaching others how to make traditional Mexican Salsa in Mexico City.

Natalia & Jazz turn Salsa Making into a joyful dance, sometimes literally. In their Mexico City kitchen, they provide a hands-on, highly musical master class. You will make three different authentic salsas, but you won’t just be learning recipes, you will be absorbing an approach that will last a lifetime.

WARNING: after your perfectly charred tomatillo, you will never go back to the jar.

“We hope our guests walk away with new knowledge about Mexican Culture and  confidence in recreating Mexican cuisine with their families and friends.” —Natalia Luna

LEARN MORE @ EXPLORINGNOTBORING.COM