Gxrl Cooper Gillespie

We stand on the backs of incredible generations of women. I share some thoughts about my grandmother...how we owe it to our foremothers to follow our dreams and how we owe it the world right now to share our gifts.

Keiyana Arnold is a self-care and life coach. It is her mission to help others create happiness in their lives and ultimately have more good days than bad ones. She says, “It brings me so much joy to introduce this journey to the world. Especially with so much going on right now. We need each other, more now than ever, to rise up and power through.”

Keiyana created her business for all the moms that neglect themselves while devoting every ounce of her energy to keeping their households intact. For every LGBTQ+ person who spends their days trying to prove their existence to society. For every Black woman who has been overlooked, even though she is always pouring all of her time and energy into the happiness and expectations of others. Her coaching is for you if you have ever doubted the fact that YOU are the greatest love of your own life. 💫 

Keiyana provides individual and group coaching programs centered around self love, setting and implementing boundaries, life, and self care. One of her most recent programs is called Black Woman Healing, a 7-day group coaching program, designed to help Black women reconnect or deepen the connection with themselves through daily self care activities, group coaching calls, and accountability.

Thais Padilla is a marketing coach who helps female entrepreneurs become wildly in demand and generate consistent income months through proven marketing strategies. After starting her business, Thais was able to go from having one client to being consistently booked out in her serviced-based business within five months. Now she teaches other serviced-based entrepreneurs how they can create sustainable and profitable businesses without having to be glued to their phones all day. Her enthusiasm for helping female entrepreneurs is infectious.

Kelly Fleek is a Spider Fern Maven (the Spider Ferns are her band). A Lo Flux babe (Lo Flux Media is her PR company). A storyteller. And a maker of things who is into witchy shizz. We discuss living your truth, successful queer and creative partnerships, and kicking doors down.

Myriah Marquez is a skateboarder and a filmmaker. She lives with an invisible illness, which impacts her life in a multitude of ways. For instance, she lives in her van because she can’t afford an LA apartment on top of her health expenses, and her illness makes steady work challenging. However, she doesn’t let that stop her from doing amazing things. Her documentary short film, Uncomfortably Comfortable, is a beautiful visual (I think it’s a poem) movie. It’s only 13 minutes, but it’s so powerful. Someone described it as the "ultimate road movie (in 13 minutes)," and she recently won best first-time director at a film festival for her film.

She is a co-founder of GrlSwirl, an all Womxn Skateboarding collective, dedicated to inclusion, philanthropy and female empowerment. She is so giving, and in our conversation, I was struck by how much she cares for other people. That also comes across in her movie. In the film, we witness her processing her life while trying to shift society's standards of compassion.

Jaime Parker Stickle is an author, writer, and actor who holds an MFA in writing from the University of California, Riverside. She is the creator and co-host of the “Make That Paper” podcast, which looks at all the strange side hustles we artists do to support our art, and the new storytelling series “Okay You Guys…” in Los Angeles. Her work has been published in both the 2018 and 2019 Adelaide Literary Anthologies. She is currently in revisions on her novel! And, she is the co-editor of the GXRL blog.

We discuss the importance of trusting your instincts and going after your dreams even when people tell you 'no.'