Ep 04: Taking Center Stage as a Go Girl! with Lynn Johnson and Allison Kenny

In this episode, I’m honored to have a conversation with two amazing mothers to their 8 year old daughter, Oakland-based life and business partners Lynn Johnson and Allison Kenny.

They are the co-founders of Spotlight: Girls, which celebrates and activates girls and women through multi-media learning experiences and products. Through their Go Girls! summer camps, after-school, and school break programs, elementary and middle school girls build social/emotional skills through acting, music, media, dance and visual arts activities.

Lynn, the CEO of Spotlight: Girls, has over 25 years experience as a teaching artist working in diverse communities all over the United States.  She is a sought-after facilitator and speaker and serves on the National Advisory Board of Teaching Artists Guild and the Board of Directors of the How Kids Learn Foundation.

Allison is a writer, blogger, and actor.  She is the author of Starring Celia - a chapter book about a 4th grade girl who goes from being bullied to becoming a Go Girl! and Go Squirrel! - a series of coloring books aimed at teaching young readers complex social/emotional lessons through social stories. In her own words, Allison shares the “adventures of their queer, multi-racial, adoptive family” on her blog RaisingaGoGirl.com.

In this conversation, Lynn and Allison talk about how their mothers, each in different ways, instilled the value of community that influenced the creation of Spotlight: Girls. We explore how they are making a difference beyond their family by igniting a Compassion Revolution with their programs, inspiring belief in the power of girls and women to be changemakers in the world, to take center stage in their lives, and to make brave and bold choices. And how the Go Girls! 5 point Culture Code, like the Mother’s Quest E.P.I.C. framework, provides a powerful guide that Lynn, Allison and their daughter have fully integrated into their lives.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. I was struck by how powerful a metaphor theater and the arts can be for how to live your live. I hope you will leave the conversation, as I did, inspired to think about the ways in which you can “take center stage” to live a Go Girl! and E.P.I.C. life.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• The importance of community and how Lynn and Allison’s mothers both instilled this value
• How Lynn and Allison’s vision of making interesting art sparked the beginning of their business and family life
• How the election results impacted them and how they started to heal by following one of the Go Girls’ teachings of going fully into your feelings
• How Lynn and Allison bring mindful, therapeutic parenting and social play to their daughter
• How the Go Girl’s! 5 point Culture Code can help us and our children to take center stage in our lives and see confidence as a verb
• How parents should care for themselves the same way they care for their children

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Lynn and Allison’s business, Spotlight: Girl, http://www.spotlightgirls.com
• Allison’s blog, Raising a Go Girl, http://www.raisingagogirl.com  and the specific blog post she mentions http://www.raisingagogirl.com/if-i-took-care-of-myself-like-i-took-care-of-my-daughter/
• The Go Girls! 5 point Culture Code, http://gogirlscamp.com/methodology/
• Go Girls! Camp, http://www.gogirls.com
• The Art of Raising Peaceful & Powerful Girls, http://go.spotlightgirls.com/raising-peaceful-and-powerful-girls-free-e-book

The Mother’s Quest Facebook group - join http://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest

 

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Mother's Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.

Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, engaging mindfully with their children (E), passionately and purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), investing in themselves (I), and connecting to a strong support network (C).

Learn More at www.mothersquest.com

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