Woman Crush Wednesday is social media users' weekly opportunity to flatter their girlfriends, compliment their friends who happen to be girls, make their unrequited crushes deeply uncomfortable, and broadly publicize their love for a female celebrity. More commonly referred to as simply #wcw, and not to be confused with World Championship Wrestling, Woman Crush Wednesday serves as a celebration of admirable women in our personal and cultural lives. Whether it's used to praise a woman's beauty, comment on the amazing person who she is, highlight the important work that she has done, or, God forbid, all of the above, #wcw can be an effective tool for the empowerment of women. Here are some particularly incredible women to include in your next Woman Crush Wednesday.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
You may know her as the speaker in Beyoncé's song "Flawless," but Adichie is remarkable for so much more. Award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet, and TEDx speaker, Adichie's is a powerful and important voice that demands to be heard. Some of her critically-acclaimed works include her first novel, "Purple Hibiscus," her second novel, "Half of a Yellow Sun," her collection of short stories, "The Thing Around Your Neck," and her third novel, "Americanah." In December 2012, Adichie spoke at TECxEuston about being a feminist in a speech titled, "We Should All Be Feminists."
Inspirational quote: "Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change. But I am also hopeful, because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to remake themselves for the better."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Currently serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ginsburg is the second woman to be appointed as a Justice and one of three women currently serving on the Supreme Court. In 1999, Ginsburg was diagnosed with colon cancer, undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, all the while never missing a day of work. At 82, she is the oldest member of Supreme Court, but has repeatedly refuted rumors that she would retire due to her age. In 2009, Forbesnamed her on their list of "100 Most Powerful Women," and in 2015, Timenamed her as an icon as part of their "Times 100."
Inspirational quote: "So now the perception is, yes, women are here to stay. And when I'm sometimes asked, 'When will there be enough [women on the supreme court]?' And I say, 'When there are nine.' People are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that."
Amandla Stenberg
Known by many for playing Rue in "The Hunger Games," Stenberg has recently become a prominent young voice on the topic of cultural appropriation. Her school project video, "Don't Cash Crop on My Cornrows," went viral after it was posted on her Tumblr in 2014 and in July 2015 she famously responded to Kylie Jenner concerning her Instagram post featuring Jenner in cornrows with the caption #whitegirlsdoitbetter. Both her video and her Instagram comments garnered much attention and since then Stenberg used her various social media platforms both to educate her followers about cultural appropriation and to empower various women of color. She recently co-authored a comic book titled "Niobe: She is Life" in November 2015.
Inspirational quote: "I want to see more black creators. I want a place for black girls to exist within art and fashion an all components of pop culture. Black kids need to be told that they're capable of so much."
Sandra Cisneros
Most famous for her book "The House on Mango Street," Cisneros is a Latina American author known for writing about the Latina experience in the United States. Cisneros' work spans a wide range of forms, including three books of poetry, "Bad Boys," "My Wicked Wicked Ways," and "Loose Woman," a collection of stories, "Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories," a children's book, "Hairs/Pelitos." She has also written a "picture book for grown-ups" titled "Have You Seen Marie?" and two novels: "The House on Mango Street" and "Caramelo." In addition to writing, Cisneros founded both the Macondo Foundation, an association for socially engaged writers located in the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation, a grant-giving institution serving Texas writers.
Inspirational quote: "I am a woman, and I am Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power."
Brené Brown
A research professor at the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work, Brown is best known for her 2010 TEDx Houston talk, "The Power of Vulnerability," one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world. Brown is the founder and CEO of The Daring Way and COURAGEworks, which offer online courses and resources designed to help individuals and organizations in loving, living, and leading more bravely. Brown has also published three #1 New York Times Bestsellers: "Rising Strong," "Daring Greatly," and "The Gifts of Imperfection." Her research on vulnerability and courage is groundbreaking and deeply moving.
Inspirational quote: "Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy--the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light."
Margaret Atwood
One of Canada's most famous authors, Atwood has won more than 55 awards in Canada and internationally, including the Booker Prize in 2000 and the Governor General's Award in 1966 and 1985. She has an impressive canon with fifteen novels, eight short works of fiction, eight children's books, twenty-four books of poetry, ten works of nonfiction, and three television scripts. In 2004 she came up with the idea of the LongPen, a remote robotic writing technology that would allow her to do book tours without being physically present. She then founded a company, Unotchit Inc., to produce her new technologies. Her company has since been renamed Syngrafii Inc.
Inspirational quote: "A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible."
Sarah Kay
Best known for her slam poetry videos circulating YouTube, Kay is a poet whose voice exudes strength and wittiness. Kay is not only a poetry writer and reader, but also a spoken word poetry teacher, documentary filmmaker, best-selling author, and editor. Kay founded and co-directs Project V.O.I.C.E., a group dedicated to using spoken word as an educational and inspirational tool. Arguably her most famous work is a poem titled "B," which was made into a hardcover book with the same title. It was this poem that Kay performed at a TED talk in 2011 as part of their "Beauty, Imagination, Enchantment" series.
Inspirational quote: "Life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air."