| Cultural Commentate |
| Sarah Stillman and her 'Soul Searching' inspires |
| by Anne Sabagh |
| Literary Bethesda: A weekend-long event series with a focus on reading that took place in Downtown Bethesda, Maryland in late April of 2002. A great series of events: All of them very worthwhile and interesting, but one in particular caught my attention - a question and answer session with a young female author who would be speaking about her book, "Soul Searching: A Young Girls Guide to Finding Herself". |
The small blurb listed in the flyer advertising the events said that the author, Sarah Stillman, was a local area resident and 17 year old high-school student at Georgetown Day School. She had written this book to help young women find out who they truly were through the use of positive means such as journaling, dream analysis and interpretation, meditation and many other beneficial activities.
What intrigued me most about the event was her age: 17 years old, and already so positively self-aware! What a wonderful and so rarely seen attribute in young women - or women at any age for that matter. I was 27 and had just recently gotten to the point where I was starting to feel comfortable with who I was and what I believed. What a blessing it would have been to have received that gift 10 years earlier. And this was just the gift that Sarah was giving to women of all ages, compliments of her book.
When I arrived at her speaking engagement, I saw the small studio packed all the way to the door with as many chairs as it could hold. There was one open chair in the very back row, which I took a seat in. Sarah spoke very articulately in the front, center of the studio. Everyone, including myself, was mesmerized by her. She was a confident, beautiful and very down to earth young woman, whose parents, also in the audience, could not have been prouder of her or more supportive of her already up and coming career as a young writer.
When asked questions by audience members such as, "How does a young writer like yourself go about getting their work published?" she responded by saying that she advocated various writing contests, where winning author’s works would be published, and that information regarding these contests could be found in such annual publications as “Writer's Market” and “Poet's Market”. Both were publications I was familiar with, and being a poet myself, I even had a copy of “Poet's Market” at home.
Sarah was commended by audience members during her presentation for encouraging young women to follow their passions, whatever they may be and to get involved in activities such as writing, dance, theater, art or whatever forms of expression they felt gave them a positive outlet for their feelings and creativity. As well as encouraging these types of positive creative outlets and activities, she also discouraged young women from reading fashion magazines and watching too much television, saying that while this might not win them popularity votes, it would move them towards knowing and being better able to express themselves in a healthy way.
She followed that train of thought with the position that she believed many of the messages television, fashion magazines and other media were selling to young women were extremely detrimental to their self-esteem and that many ads, though claiming to be advocating self-help were actually just capitalizing on young women’s self-hatred. Again, such profound realizations at such an early age just amazed me.
I was grateful to have had the chance to meet Sarah. At the end of her session, she was available to greet audience members, as well as sign and sell her book, which I was now even more eager to purchase and read. When my turn came to meet her, all I could say was, "Wow. I think you are just such an amazing young woman with such positive messages for women of all ages. It is just so wonderful to see someone so self-aware at such a young age." She was very gracious and thanked me for the compliment.
As I turned to go back to my car and continue on my way, I realized that Sarah had affirmed my belief that one person can make a difference in the lives of many. Later on that afternoon, I went home and began reading her book. It was so well written and easy to understand. It held the reader’s attention and was thoroughly engaging. You just wanted to answer, “Yes” to every line and sing praise that someone so young had really hit the proverbial nail right on the head.
Copyright: 2002 Anne Sabagh
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