“I respect women and I’m the freak?”

Posted by: gretchen on January 31, 2008 | 3 Comments |

bruce-dickson.jpgAmerican Idol has been my favorite show for a while now, but I am very disappointed in the judging this year. Bruce Dickson, a very talented vocalist from Bastrop, Texas was given the boot by the judges after professing that he has never kissed a girl and that he is saving that first kiss for his wedding day. While it may sound too good to be true, there still are guys out there who are saving themselves for marriage. Yes, Hollywood, it can be done.

Bruce’s audition turned into quite the hot topic after the judges remarks aired last week as well as some parting comments by Ryan Seacrest who spouted off “Maybe next year he’ll come back less a boy and more a man.” Anyone with half a brain can see that Bruce is more of a man than Ryan could ever hope to be. Bruce’s response to Ryan’s comments were nothing short of brilliant, “A real man would rather wait than just do whatever with whoever.”

Check out Bruce’s interview and audition…

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Ladies Rock Out WinterJam

Posted by: gretchen on January 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment |

BarlowGirl Concert PhotoLast Thursday, my family and I attended the WinterJam concert in our area. What a powerhouse of a tour and the best part of the show were the women rockers! The highlights (for me) were seeing Mandisa, BarlowGirl and Skillet and I’ve been chomping at the bit to get this review out of my head and onto the web, so here goes…

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Girls Can’t WHAT? on SheUnlimited

Posted by: gretchen on January 28, 2008 | 3 Comments |

More than you ever needed to know about me… I was podcasted by SheUnlimited.

Weekly Challenge: Non-Celebrity Role Models

Posted by: gretchen on January 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment |

This is it!  Your chance to honor the women in your life that have made a difference in who you are today.  I don’t want to hear about celebrities.  I want to hear real stories about real people.  Give me names, post  links, share your thoughts or write a thank you note to them.  If you have your own blog, post a story and link it back to here.  I don’t think we can ever get enough inspiration and I much prefer my influence come from “everyday” people than bloated hollywood hype, don’t you?

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Girls Can’t Play Tennis

Posted by: gretchen on January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment |

Growing up I adored the game of tennis. We had no local organizations so I did my best to persuade friends to indulge me in a set or two and occasionally I could talk my mom or dad into riding our bikes down to the park to bat the ball around. During the late eighties and early nineties, I don’t think I missed a single match of Wimbledon.  I had a poster of Chris Evert on my bedroom wall and I knew the strengths and weaknesses of most of the women’s tennis players of that era.

We have Billy Jean King, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Jennifer Capriati, Venus and Serena Williams among many others to thank for bringing women’s tennis to the level it is today. The Girls Can’t WHAT? Tennis design was created to honor their perseverance in this amazing sport.

Girls Can’t WHAT? Tennis Design

I would love to hear your feedback and experiences with the game of tennis. What challenges have you faced and what did you do to rise above them? Please feel free to post your stories and share your experiences in the comments below or join us in the Girl Talk forums.

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Girls Can’t Wrestle

Posted by: gretchen on January 18, 2008 | 10 Comments |

Wrestling is not a sport I know much about. It’s been a popular design request here lately so I bumped it to the top of my list. :)

Girls Can’t WHAT? Wrestling Design

I attempted to Google up some good women’s wrestling resources to go along with this article and it was honestly a bit more challenging than I’d hoped. Seems trying to find info on “women’s wrestling” or “girls wrestling” can lead you to some…um…interesting sites to say the least. It’s too bad some people have to pervert a perfectly healthy sport like this, but sadly that’s the culture we live in.

That aside, I did locate some safe sites for women’s wrestling information: Read more

Weekly Challenge: Interviews Wanted

Posted by: gretchen on January 14, 2008 | 1 Comment |

This week’s challenge is to help me find some interesting and amazing women to interview for Girls Can’t WHAT? during 2008.  There are no limitations, and if you’d like to submit an interview yourself, please contact me and I’ll help you get it posted.  You can leave suggestions and web link in the comments.

Here’s a list of past interviews to give you some ideas.  Please do not post anyone’s email address, phone number or other personal info.  You can submit those items to me privately.  Thanks.  ;)

Meet Detective Heather Reyda

Posted by: gretchen on January 10, 2008 | 6 Comments |

img_0672.JPGMeet Heather Reyda, a mother of four (two boys and two girls) who lives life to the fullest. Heather loves photography, reading, music, and sports. She also enjoys watching her daughters play the piano and sing, and to her sons playing soccer.

Oh - and did I mention this? Heather is also a Detective for the Major Crimes Division in Knoxville, TN. She was gracious enough to let Girls Can’t WHAT? interview her about the challenges she faced as a female in her law enforcement career.

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Girls Can’t Be Funny

Posted by: gretchen on January 9, 2008 | 4 Comments |

This headline caught my attention from gmail this afternoon: Women Writers Scarce in Hollywood.  The Writers Guild of America is reporting that women make up 27 percent of television writers and only 19 percent of feature film writers.  Ok - I can buy into the numbers, but the explanations from the men had me laughing hysterically.  Sarah McLaughlin, a writer for That 70’s Show, commented “I’ve worked with male writers who say flat out, women aren’t funny.”  You’ve got to be kidding me!?!

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Book Review: The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business

Posted by: gretchen on January 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment |

Looking for some recreational reading over the holidays, I picked up this fantastic book by Susan Wilson Solovic called “The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business”.  The information is current and geared for all types of women, but I think what struck me the most about the book was the amount of resources mentioned.  This guide is full of web sites, books and organizations available to help career women with everything from networking to venture capital.  In fact, the entire last chapter is dedicated to describing many of those organizations in detail.

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Girls Can’t Be Divers

Posted by: gretchen on January 8, 2008 | 1 Comment |

AllisonToday is my niece Allison’s birthday. Allison has been one of my biggest fans since I started this site, but there was always one design missing from the mix and Alli has reminded me of that on several occasions.

Alli has a fascination with sharks. I’m not sure when it started, but it has been going strong for several years. She’s seen every Discovery channel episode of “shark week” and family vacations have been planned around visits to aquariums and shark feedings, which Allison has participated in. We her family have just accepted that it’s not a phase for her and that someday Allison will have a career that involves sharks in some fashion or another.

One of Allison’s biggest goals is to get to swim with sharks. I’m not sure I’m all on board with doing that, but I can understand her desire to do some snorkeling and visiting the underwater creatures that we don’t have here in the land-locked state of Illinois. So to honor Alli’s 9th birthday, I created the Girls Can’t WHAT? diver design, complete with a shark swimming nonchalantly through the waters.

Girls Can’t WHAT? Diver Design

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Hollywood Not Immune to the Wage Gap

Posted by: gretchen on January 6, 2008 | 1 Comment |

Randomly surfing the Internet this afternoon, I came across Forbes’ list of the “20 Richest Women in Entertainment“.

The richest actress on the list is Julia Roberts, who built her estimated $140 million fortune film by film. The Pretty Woman star was the first actress in Hollywood to command a $20 million-per-film paycheck, a fairly common salary for male superstars like Will Smith and Johnny Depp.

I knew Julia was the first to earn that amount of cash for a film, but I had no idea that men were already making that much for a flick. I guess Hollywood is not immune to the wage gap.

Why is Baseball Sacred Territory?

Posted by: gretchen on January 5, 2008 | 2 Comments |

My kids are both in intermediate school, which in our district means grades 3rd-5th. We are in a very “small-town” type of district, but I have been quite pleased with the activities offered to my kids both in academics and sports. My children have been able to participate in every sport they fancied until now.

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Girls Can’t Play the Flute

Posted by: gretchen on January 4, 2008 | 2 Comments |

As I promised a while back, I am planning on adding several more musicians to the mix of Girl’s Can’t WHAT? designs. In fact, once I get the keyboard player finished I’m going to do a “girl band” design as well. :) The flute player was high on my list of instrumentalists to draw, so here she is:

Girls Can’t WHAT? Flute Player

Since my best friend Kelli plays the flute, I drafted this one using her favorite color (RED) and then sent her a copy to make sure the flute looked ok. Flute is one instrument I don’t know how to play, so I relied on her expertise to make sure it looked ok. How’d I do? Read more

How to Look Good Naked

Posted by: gretchen on January 3, 2008 | 6 Comments |

The title of this post is not meant to be shocking.  “How to Look Good Naked” is the name of a new show debuting tomorrow, January 4th at 9pm/8c on Lifetime.  The purpose of the show is to teach average-sized women how to be comfortable with their bodies by finding clothes that flatter, applying better makeup techniques and changing their hairstyle, etc.  In other words, a makeover without dieting or plastic surgery.

I was granted the privilege of viewing an advanced screening of the first episode in it’s entirety in hopes that I would promote the show on my blog.  I watched it, thought about it and polled a couple of my closest friends to see what they thought about it.  I sent them the link to the screening so they could see for themselves.  To be quite honest, I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Read more

Why Am I Doing This?

Posted by: gretchen on January 2, 2008 | 2 Comments |

Ever ask yourself this question?  Pay attention to your response because your honest answer is critical.  This little question can be so pivotal in removing stress from your life and helping you to focus on your goals.  To ask “why am I doing this?” is such a simple exercise that you can do it anywhere at any time and get instant results.  Give it a try…

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