GRRRLTALK With Anneliese Spence

Hey everyone!  GRRRL Clothing is nothing without you. The history of this amazing brand starts with your personal GRRRL story! I am making it my mission to share your stories by featuring one special GRRRL every few weeks!  Lets see what Anneliese had to say in this edition of #GRRRLTALK.   SPUNKY: How did you discover GRRRL? ANNELIESE: I discovered GRRRL online, I saw a video of KO on the street taking the GRRRL pledge with folks and admired her boldness and willingness to defy cultural narratives aggressively and publicly. SPUNKY: What was the first thing you wore? ANNELIESE: The first thing I wore was the  RUN LIKE A GRRRL shirt. SPUNKY: How did finding GRRRL change your life and what made you want to become part of this movement? ANNELIESE: Background on me,I have been deep into weightlifting and strength and conditioning since I was 13 years old and now I am set to graduate with a degree in Kinesiology and a minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies from Kansas State University in the spring semester. As a gay woman and as someone who presents more masculine of center most of the time, I found the norms in the social cultures in bodybuilding and in weightlifting disturbing and unwelcoming on a lot of levels. Homophobia, harmful gender stereotypes, misunderstandings about race, and blatant self absorbed vanity seemed to abound. I was left feeling isolated from a training community that I desperately wanted. I knew there had to be others like myself, others who just wanted to be strong, who wanted other women to rise up, who wanted to see disabled folks, and queers, and all the freak outcasts of the world become empowered and be warriors, and who wanted to dismantle the beliefs and norms that poison our world, but I wasn't sure if a cohesive community existed. Finding GRRRL showed me that this community was real. GRRRL is filled with so many women of all shapes, sizes, races, abilities, ages, etc... and I love that because it is liberating. GRRRL changed my life because it gives me encouragement and hope about where this community can head and the types of effective change it can create in people at one on one level, a community level, and on a global level. SPUNKY: What would you say to other women out there right now, what do you think they need to hear? ANNELIESE: If I were to tell women one thing right now, it would be to take time to investigate all the inner workings of her person and to get to know her and to love her through belief and action, and it would be to stay encouraged and to stay connected because I believe that together we are strong.   Keep talking that GRRRLTALK love you all Spunky