On Womanhood

On Womanhood: Connecting and Thriving in Every Season is an intimate and power-packed anthology that offers readers with wisdom, insight, vulnerability and fresh perspectives.

This gift-sized book was produced by 10 members of ​Focused Writers, the online membership community curated by multi-published author and writer mentor Stacy Hawkins Adams and includes an essay penned by Stacy.

During the height of the global health pandemic known as COVID-19, some of the members of Focused Writers embarked on a virtual master class with Stacy that took them from idea stage to published book, over a period of 13 months. The result is this collection of transparent first-hand experiences on topics ranging from caregiving and decision making to family dynamics, self-care and leadership.

The authors are women ages 21 to 72 who are based in Virginia, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and Nevada.

​Readers of all ages will see themselves, or someone they know, highlighted in these essays and come away enlightened, inspired and empowered.

Gathering my thoughts on the concept of womanhood aroused a joy in me — a joy that has accumulated since I entered adulthood experiencing life as a grown woman with my mother’s love, wisdom, and lessons to anchor me. I was shaped early on by her teachings to recognize my individual blessings and strengths and to use them in the pursuit of finding the purpose for my journey through life.

I’ve long heeded her words and have shared them many times over with the women I’ve nurtured, mentored, and befriended. My years of living, loving, modeling, acting, mothering, cooking, sewing, traveling, writing, and more have taught me that only time can reveal the myriad of purposes that one’s journey will manifest. When we’re willing to live into our womanhood, we’ll summon the strength, courage, resilience, and sometimes the sense of adventure required to pursue each leg of the journey with the joy of knowing that we are growing in strength and fortitude.

Contained in this anthology are the experiences of women who have chosen to share how life’s glories and challenges—and lessons and blessings—have shaped their journeys into and through womanhood—journeys that are still unfolding.

You may recognize some similarities between their experiences and yours, and perhaps differences in choices, but what these writers and I hope you’ll appreciate after reading this book is that great value is inherent in our womanhood. We must continue to trust our individual journeys while encouraging our daughters, sisters, nieces, granddaughters, and female friends to recognize their worth and live life to the fullest, daring to accept the power of their womanhood.

Daphne Maxwell Reid

Actress, Author, Photographer