Owning Pink just celebrated the two month anniversary of our online community! Two crazy months ago, Joy, Matt, Tracy, Sarah, Janet, Augie, and I gave birth to Owning Pink (with loads of inspiration from the Mojo Mentors and my Pink Posse). And I wanted to take a moment to express my deep, enduring gratitude for all you Pinkies. When you take a Pleap (Pink leap of faith), you have no idea where you will land. And when you create something, you have no clue whether the Field of Dreams motto “If you build it, they will come” is true. But here you are, Pinkies. You’re reading Owning Pink, you’re commenting on what we write, you’re tweeting on Twitter, you’re posting on Facebook, you’re attending Pink Posse gatherings, you’re signing up for Owning Pink’s workshops, your doing your Mojo exercises on Mojo Mondays, you’re writing your stories about how you Own Pink, you’re collaborating with us, and some of you are even leading Pink-inspired workshops yourselves! You have no idea how excited I am. I feel like a proud Mama, having planted the seeds of a vision that is now bearing fruit.

Where Did Owning Pink Come From?
How did I give birth to Owning Pink, you might ask? It all started more than five years ago, on my thirty-fifth birthday. At my birthday party, my girlfriend Carmen was there with her husband Stephan, and she was 7 months pregnant with her little girl. Stephan started going off about how his daughter was never going to wear pink. Green, yellow, blue, red- she was going to be a feminist. She could be president, even! But she was not going to wear pink.

There I was- decked head to toe in a hot pink dress and pink fur sandals, with my hands on my hips. I remember thinking, what am I? Chopped liver? So I opened up a can of PINK whoop-ass on Stephan, and I said, “You tell your daughter she just has to OWN pink.”

The Owning Pink Art Series Came Spewing Out
Stephan hates it when I tell this story, because he loves women, supports feminists, and has an open, loving, warm spirit. He thinks I make him sound like Scrooge or the Grinch, which is not my intention. I love you, Stephan! If you hadn’t made that comment, I would not have spent the next year painting the most girly, over-the-top chick art, a series I called Owning Pink.

I never meant for the Owning Pink art to get out in the world. I just created this art as a tribute to all the little girls and grown women and feminism and girlytude in the world. I just intended to hang them in my OB/GYN office and maybe have one little show just for friends. But it turns out that Owning Pink wanted to be something bigger than I intended. I was channeling something when I made this art, and the message behind it resonated with people deeply. My art dealers wanted to exhibit this art, which was totally unlike the abstract art I made until this point. One dealer invited every artist in the gallery to interpret the term Owning Pink. And the opening was a Pink gala festival, with men wearing pink bras and women in pink boas and other outlandish pink costumes. Turn out everybody wanted to Own Pink, even the men.

I Tried To Kill Pink, But Owning Pink Refused To Die
But I had poured my heart and soul into this art series and I was done with Owning Pink. I wanted to move on, to express something new with my art (The Woman Inside Project was brewing and I wanted to get started on it). I kept trying to Kill Pink (the name I titled one painting). But Owning Pink wouldn’t die.

What I didn’t know at the time and what it took me three and a half more years to learn was that Owning Pink was more than an art series. Although creating art is ultimately so Pink, it’s too limiting. Owning Pink is a philosophy, a lifestyle, a way to be. Even more than that, Owning Pink is a community. And you Pinkies have made it happen. From the very first week we launched Owning Pink, you’ve been showing up by the droves (we know- we track how many daily hits we get on Google Analytics!) This week, while I was away from the internet and Joy was running the ship without me, readership of Owning Pink did not drop a bit. Which means I've achieved my goal- Owning Pink is bigger than little ol' me. It’s all of you- and you’ve still showing up everyday, even when I’m gone. Thank you, Pinkies! You’ve been supporting Joy and Fred and Marcia and all the other guest posters this week. You have NO idea how much that means to me.

What Is Owning Pink And How Can I Support What It Wants To Be?



Every day you help me clarify what Owning Pink means and what you want it to be. With each comment, email you send me, tweet, and post on our Pink Posse forum or our Facebook page, you offer me feedback- what works, what you like, what inspires you. For this, I am eternally grateful. I wish I could give a huge, real live sloppy kiss and squeeze to each and every one of you. The best part of my day is reading what you write. Honest to JABA (Jesus/Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Athena, etc). So please, keep it coming. Write your story, post comments, keep up the action on our social media sites, and be part of our collective Pink Posse. I personally read every single thing you write, and every single thing you write rejuvenates me.

How Can Owning Pink Serve You More?

This is your chance, Pinkies. What do you want Owning Pink to be? How can we help you get your mojo back? What could we do better? Help us by thinking big for us! What do you want? How can we serve you? We’re only two months old- beyond fetus stage but definitely still an infant. Your input can help us make Owning Pink into what YOU need, want, desire, or crave- to help you get your mojo back. Feel free to be critical. Tell me to quit talking so much about myself and start giving you more chances to be heard, if you want. You won’t hurt my feelings, I swear. Tell it to me straight, Pinkies….How can we help?

With heaps and heaps of gratitude for all of you,

Lissa