Inspirational women to discover this International Women’s Day

On March 8th of each year, we come together to celebrate the sisterhood. We celebrate the obstacles women overcome worldwide. There are rights we have secured throughout the decades, there are rights we still need to fight for and standards we no longer need to conform to.

For this International Women’s Day, I want to share the current female influences that make my social media feeds that bit more positive, the reading material that has enhanced my way of thinking and the inspiration that will fill you with motivation for life’s journey.

Harriet Hall

Harriet Hall is an award winning journalist, author and Lifestyle Editor of The Independent UK. In 2018 she embarked on a literature journey, researching and curating a book to showcase the profiles of women throughout history, in the present, and the ones time forgot. These women were bold and brave enough to contribute to and have an impact on society. With a page dedicated to each woman, accompanied by a gorgeous full page illustration of them, SHE, is a book worth owning and gifting. There are strong female figures that you will already know, and women that you will learn to love. It is an inspirational read for anyone, young and old alike.

Molly Parsons

Molly Parsons is a 22 year old podcaster from Dublin who started her show in late 2018. Providing both audio and visual episodes, Molly interviews and chats to other young Irish creatives, business and sports people about their career and life journeys to date. There have been episodes on how social media can boost a creative career, to life struggles with more thought provoking topics of grief and mental health. I like Molly’s podcast for that fact it’s one that’s catered – but not solely exclusive – to young Irish people. It’s unique in that way and refreshing to hear.

Justine Ezarik (iJustine)

Starting her YouTube channel in 2006, Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine, is what you could call the original YouTuber. Her passions include technology, gaming and social media, and at a time where being a female in those industries could have been difficult or problematic, she kept working hard, creating content that she loved and never let anyone convince her otherwise. Over the years she has built a loyal following with her channel subscriber count now standing at 5.7 million and steadily growing. She is everything she might have been told she could not be and is now one of the most popular new media celebrities worldwide.

Aoife Dooley

Aoife Dooley is the creator of the social media hit and RTE Player animation, Your One Nikita. She also happens to be an author of two books and both a successful comedian and illustrator. In 2018, after many years of struggling with life, she found out she was autistic, at the age of 27 years old. Aoife is now very open about being autistic on her social media sites and continues to raise awareness through her creative work. She has previously said that when she was attending school, the teachers would repeatedly tell her that she would do nothing with her life because they had no understanding of what she was going through. However, Aoife would go on to prove them wrong and shows us that no matter what differences or struggles you have in life, you can and will be successful. 

Joanne McNally

Joanne McNally is a stand up comedian and writer. Having once had a day job in PR, she started acting in a comedic play which would see her delving into the world of stand-up and supporting comedian PJ Gallagher on his 2015 tour. Not long into her comedy career, Joanne opened up about her mental health and eating disorder, making it the focus of her one woman show that received rave reviews on it’s run at the Dublin and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. She has since signed with Off The Kerb, one of the top comedy agencies in the UK and continues to tour extensively around Ireland and the UK.

There are women the world over who are achieving the impossible. I hope they inspire you to do the same. Happy International Women’s Day!