Mother Daughter Archives - Kathleen Hassan

One Small Step For a Girl

I can't believe it's been fifty years since the Apollo 11 lunar landing. What's even more incredible is that, because there is no atmosphere on the moon, the astronauts' footprints are still up there, perfectly preserved exactly as they were that day. On July 20, 1969, an estimated 450 million people around the world sat transfixed, listening to radios or watching their television sets, as the Apollo Lunar Module touched down on the moon. We held our breath and didn’t exhale until Neil Armstrong announced to Mission Control, “The Eagle has landed.” A collective cheer was heard around the world as he stepped off the ladder, put his foot down onto the lunar surface and spoke these legendary words, “That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” The significance of that day has been burned into my memory, but not for the obvious, historical achievement for [...]

By Kathleen| 2019-09-13T16:17:09-05:00 July 19th, 2019|

What Are You Waiting For?

What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for your big break? A book deal? A financial breakthrough? A promotion? Your house to sell? The love of your life to come and sweep you off your feet? Your daughter to respect you? For her to love and accept herself? To lose twenty pounds? For your roots to grow out? To get all your ducks in a row? The legendary Tom Petty sang, “And the waiting is the hardest part.” No one likes to wait. We live in a world of instant gratification and quick fixes. In today’s society, entitlement has replaced empowerment and as a result, our kids are suffering with depression and anxiety. We need to teach them persistence and resiliency skills, how to stop looking to everyone else for their sense of self-worth and how to stop being so damn afraid to fail. There’s a worship song we sing at [...]

By Kathleen| 2018-05-01T01:30:25-05:00 May 1st, 2018|

Need help? Hire a Girl!

My business naturally yields itself to working with girls. Let’s face it, my business is girls! But even if you’re not specifically in the female empowering biz, hiring a girl might be the best thing you could do for your company, and will probably be the best thing that could happen to a girl too. This past summer, I hired an intern for some special projects, one of which was getting organized and clearing out all old files from my desk and computer. While transferring files onto a external memory drive, I came across a series of audio files that I had created years ago while mentoring a group of girls at GirlTalk Radio, a station run by girls in Boston. All the girls had cool DJ names and they dubbed me “DJ Kat.” I created twenty short audio clips/confidence tips that they could play regularly on air as girl empowerment [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-12-24T14:47:04-05:00 December 24th, 2017|

One More Trip to the Mall is Not Going to Solve Your Daughter’s Self-Esteem Problem

“The only time my daughter wants to hang out with me is when it involves spending money and most often that means another trip to the mall.” Sound familiar? I've heard this over and over again from so many moms who keep caving in and resorting to the only strategy that seems to work. But does it really? There’s even a book, dedicated to beleaguered parents of teens called, “Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall.!” It may sound amusingly tongue in cheek, but the reality is that this is an all too familiar scenario for most mothers of teen girls. One mother, who’s daughter suffers from body anxiety and who was having full blown panic attacks each morning as she was getting dressed for school, readily admitted, “My current solution of ‘let’s go shopping’ has become an exhausting, monotonous, vicious [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:34:37-05:00 October 3rd, 2016|

Let’s Hear It for the Girls! Favorite Moments from the #StateofWomen Summit

Last week I was honored to attend the United State of Women Summit in Washington, DC. Five thousand women gathered in our nation’s capital to celebrate the progress made throughout the Obama administration to improve the lives of women and girls here and around the world, and showcase innovative solutions to the obstacles women and girls still face. The invitation-only guest list was a who’s who of activists, academics, journalists, public officials and business leaders who are all change-makers dedicated to building a better world. I cannot tell you how grateful and humbled I was to be among them. I was invited to attend the Summit by Jess Weiner, CEO of Talk to Jess, a consulting and strategy firm that acts as a thought partner for companies who seek to change their messaging toward women and girls. Jess moderated a panel on Revolutionizing Gender Norms with Amy Poehler and Juliana Chugg, EVP [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:39:41-05:00 June 22nd, 2016|

Create Dangerously: As If Someone’s Life Depends On It

The other day on Facebook I read the transcript of a speech delivered by a girl from York PA. Her name is her name is Devon Hornberger and she gave the Valedictorian Commencement Address at her high school graduation ceremony. I was blown away by her speech that began by recounting the abduction of 276 girls from their dormitories in Chibok, Nigeria. They were kidnapped because their abductors believe that girls should not be educated. Her message to her fellow classmates was about the privilege of their education and how young people around the world are risking their lives for that same right. In her speech, she also sited a quote by Edwidge Danicat, an award-winning Haitian-American author: “Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. This is what I’ve always thought it meant to be a writer. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:44:34-05:00 June 2nd, 2016|

One Mother’s Advice is the Answer to ALL Your Problems

The Monday morning after Mother's Day I crawled into yoga with an emotional hangover. It had been a long trying day and I was ready to put it behind me. “Hey Kat… How was your Mother’s Day?” asked Laurie, my yoga instructor. “Ugh,” was about all I could muster. After my less than enthusiastic response, Laurie moved on to the two women on the mats next to me — a mother and daughter who were taking the class together. “So how was your Mother’s Day?” she inquired. In unison, they both raved about what a wonderful day it was. Four generations had gathered together to celebrate and the grandmother was 92 and still going strong. I turned to both of them, bowed and jokingly said, “Namaste Bitches!” My own mother died when I was sixteen so Mother’s Day has always been a little tough. But this year, my sons were [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:45:46-05:00 May 18th, 2016|

I Got My Daughter Back!

“I got my daughter back!” Those are the very words I heard this week from a client who hired me to coach her daughter that had lost her way and was in crisis. Nothing brings me more joy than to see a girl begin to really understand her own worth and power while helping both the mother and daughter learn how to communicate more effectively while creating a relationship based on trust and mutual respect. I can’t think of a more perfect Mother’s Day gift than this. Today I am honoring and celebrating this most sacred relationship and over the next few months will be sharing some of the strategies I used to coach this amazing turnaround. Just two months ago, I received an email from a distraught mother, begging for help. Her fifteen year old daughter had been sneaking out of the house and getting into all kinds of [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:48:29-05:00 May 8th, 2016|

Mommy, I found your music box!

Happy Mother's Day! The word mother conjures up a vast array of reactions and emotions. For some, mother is synonomous with nurturing and uncondional love and for others (like me) the very mention of that word stirs up a deep longing for what we never got. One thing is certain, the relationship we have (or had) with our mothers has more than any other, shaped us into who we are today and affects every other relationship we have - most importantly - the one we have with ourselves. I never really understood my mother and she died when I was sixteen - long before I had enough life experience or insight to be able to see things from her perspective. But this past year I received a gift - a miracle that was 48 years in the making. We often think of miracles as something huge that happens to us, that is [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T12:23:14-05:00 May 9th, 2014|

Raising Teen Girls in a Social Media World

Social media is everywhere and a huge part of how teens communicate. By the time you finish reading this article, how likely are you to have received a text from your teen? A 2012 Common Sense Media study found that 75 percent of teens have a profile on a social networking site like Facebook; 68 percent text every day and 23 percent use at least two types of social media every day. Those are some pretty significant statistics. But just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s good. The same study found that: 57 percent of girls sometimes feel left out after seeing photos of others online 45 percent of girls are concerned about other people posting photos of them 28 percent of girls have edited photos of themselves before posting them Like Dickens’ famous line from A Tale of Two Cities, technology has created both both the best of times [...]

By Kathleen| 2014-05-07T20:11:55-05:00 May 7th, 2014|