“I never set out to have a nail file company,” says Colleen, the entrepreneur and visionary behind Top Notch Nail Files. “It was totally women’s intuition.” After spying glass nail files for sale, Colleen figured that crystal, being stronger than glass, would make the files even more durable. She promptly went home, came up with a design, located a crystal manufacturer, and spent her rent money on a stash of them.

I Love You

Fate played a hand in Matt and Mandy French’s romance—while working in different cities for the same company (Mandy in Charlotte, Matt in Boston), the couple, who shared the same last name and first initial (but aren’t related), regularly received emails meant for each other. Eventually, their daily correspondence led them to meeting face-to-face, and later, a proposal.

Mandy: “I knew he was the guy before we met. He’s the first person I have ever truly trusted. I just trust him. We have so much in common.”

Matt: “What attracted me to her in the beginning is what attracts me to her now: her sassy attitude. We still make each other laugh fifty times a day.”

“I don’t regret my transition from male to female,” says Paige. Although she lived as a man for most of her 37 years, she always knew she was “different,” she says. And when her grandmother, to whom she was very close, passed away, she decided it was time to start living the life she wanted. “I thought, ‘I can’t live my whole life with a huge regret,’” she says.

Now, Paige describes herself as a sort of accidental activist; she’s not shy about her transformation from male to female, and is thrilled to feel like the woman she presents to the world finally reflects the woman within. She admits, however, that it hasn’t been easy.

“I hate the damage it’s done to family relationships,” she says, but adds she was surprised to find that so many people were willing to accept the new Paige. “It’s been worth every minute,” she says. “Now, I get to be me.”

-Aleigh Acerni

“I don’t regret escaping from an abusive marriage,” Yolanda says. As with most survivors of domestic violence, leaving wasn’t easy; it took 20 years and a few attempts to make the break for good. “It’s almost like you’ve been brainwashed,” she says. But with the support of friends and family, including the teenage sons and adult daughter she had to leave behind, Yolanda fled St. Louis, her hometown, eventually landing in Charlotte.

“I was so free,” she says. Adjusting to life on her own terms wasn’t without its own challenges, but now Yolanda has a degree from Johnson C. Smith University, works as an educator for incarcerated women and youth and a domestic violence counselor, and doesn’t take her life for granted.

“I’m not a quitter,” she says, touching the scars that are an everyday reminder of where she came from. “I do not take life for granted. I love life now.”

-Aleigh Acerni

Amanda’s eclectic style is reflected in every piece she makes for Verabelle, her online shop at Etsy.com. A sewer and crafter, she redesigns and updates vintage clothing, applying her hand-drawn animal appliqués and trims to create a line of clothing that’s a nostalgic mixture of folk art and fashion.

Each piece is thoughtfully planned and executed, and reveals Amanda’s eye for detail: her hand-sewn labels include the words “size doesn’t matter,” (a subtle way of promoting positive body image), and she often incorporates trims made by her many crafty friends into her work. Amanda’s inspiration often comes from the outdoors, and she loves to take walks with her dog, Lola—but when her creativity isn’t flowing she heads to the kitchen to bake a pie (her specialty), or she starts a new piece for a fresh perspective. “I usually have five or six things going at once,” she says. “My dream would be to have a pie shop with a boutique in the back.”

The recent economic downturn hasn’t been kind to pets, and Melissa knows it. She works for Animal Care & Control, and she’s seen how many pets have had to be given up when people lose their jobs or houses, or if they get sick and can’t afford to both feed their furry family members and pay their bills.

One day she had an idea—what if there could be a place where people could go to get free food for their pets? It would help keep pets in their homes, with the people who love them, and out of Animal Control’s kennels. The result, the Pet Food Bank, in partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, has collected more than 120,000 pounds of pet food. To donate, visit www.cmpd.org.

“It’s the community’s program. Personally, it’s probably been the best thing I’ve ever been associated with in my life. It’s a constant learning experience. I think on a personal level…you just meet amazing people by doing this. Not just your coworkers and volunteers; also the people who adopt.”

Lori always wanted to work with less-privileged children, but when two Vietnamese Montagnard refugee children ended up in her elementary school classroom, she found her true calling. Realizing the two boys were experiencing severe culture shock, she took up their cause, and discovered a large group of refugee children in our community that were falling through the cracks. She taught them all English (and eventually their parents as well), and discovered a love for teaching English as a second language. Now she’s working to earn her PhD in Urban Education, will be traveling to Cambodia in January to teach, and dreams of one day opening a school there.

“Educating and advocating provides me with opportunities to develop personal relationships with people from a variety of backgrounds. The positive attitudes and perseverance among students, their families, and other community members is refreshing and contagious.”

Kim wanted to be an accountant. Or at least, she thought she did, until she took a photography class in college and everything changed. “Working as a photographer almost seemed too good to be true. It’s different every day,” she says. “I really enjoy capturing people’s personalities.”

Kim knows firsthand how many people are uncomfortable in front of the camera; she used to be one of them herself. But spending so much time behind the camera, coaxing her subjects into the poses she likes, has made her an expert on what it takes to get a flattering picture. “Everybody, including models, are their own worst critics,” she says.

“Relax, and practice! Look in magazines, look in the mirror. Practice a few poses; that’s what models do. Mindset is important.”

 

Although Meghan’s whole family loves to play golf, she spent most of her time on the course driving the cart instead of wielding a club. It wasn’t until high school, when she started a girls golf team, that she was hooked, eventually being recruited to play for Elon University.

After earning a degree and dabbling in real estate, Meghan returned to the game as a career, landing a job at the exclusive Quail Hollow Club, where she was the first woman golf pro in the club’s fifty-year history. She turned pro November 2007, and tours from April to September, playing hard to become a member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

“(Golf) is all patience and confidence in yourself,” says Meghan. “You don’t have a team to help you out or anything; it’s just you. It’s a personal challenge that you have every day when you tee it up on the first tee.”

Meghan is also passionate about making a difference; she's partnered with the Sbonelo Scholarship Foundation, which providese scholarships for less fortunate children in South Africa to go to high-quality schools, as part of Meghan's Birdies for Education. To get involved, visit Meghan's web site and pledge an amount to donate for every birdie Meghan makes on tour.

Em decided it was past time to get into shape when she got winded running after her toddler stepson. Then at 365 pounds, Em underwent gastric bypass surgery and instituted a major life overhaul that included a healthier diet and lots of exercise; she swam, ran, and biked her way from a size 32 to a size 16.

But even with so much success, it hasn’t been an easy road—in early 2008, she was injured in a car wreck a week before her biggest triathlon, and had to have part of her shoulder replaced, which kept her from training. “I’ve thought about giving up,” she says, “but I don’t want something else to get in the way of the athlete I want to be.”

One way Em has managed to stay motivated is to recruit and train new triathletes—she’s a mentor for Tri It for Life. “Triathlons gave me something else to focus on other than my weight,” she says.

 

Amy is a native of Charlotte, and stylist/owner/Queen Bee at Shine Salon in Plaza Midwood. She thinks a good haircut “should style itself,” loves self-help books and gossip mags, and her favorite thing about her job is mentoring and teaching young stylists. “I have fun at my job every single day,” she says.

My Life List:
Swim a mile a day (like my Grandma Dunn).
Mentor young women on self-esteem.
Meet Ellen DeGeneres.
Stay married to the same man, my husband Brian, for my entire life.
Have a garden full of veggies, a grape vine, and peach trees.
 

“I’m a feminist because everything I have (my rights, my education, my home, my safety) I owe to the women who fought before me. I did not get these rights because men had an attack of consciousness. For my daughter and every girl around the world, I stand on their shoulders, fighting on. I will do so until my last day.” 

“I’ve always been a feminist,” Kelly says. “You can’t have a bossy big brother and not grow up to be a feminist.” A lecturer in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, when she’s not teaching, she’s with her 7-year-old FIT (“feminist-in-training”), her daughter Grace.


 

“I'm a feminist because, as taboo as it is, sexism still runs rampant. I'm a feminist because of the absurd misconceptions about feminists (‘They’re angry man-haters…’) I hope to dispel. Quite simply, I'm a feminist because I believe in fairness and understanding between humans without oppressive stereotypes and gender roles.”

Lindsey is a feminist married to a feminist (he took her last name!), who earns her living as a tea writer, educator, and expert at www.veetea.com. “To me, feminism is rejecting the idea that I have to be perfect in every regard,” she says.

 

Patricia is a teacher, a mother, a feminist, happy, passionate and wickedly intelligent, but above all, undeniably amazing. I am a senior in high school; I attend Pattie’s school. She has been my teacher for five years, and she has transformed my life. She teaches us to “Be what you want the world to be,” and she lives that every day.

~Nominated by Kaitlyn Talbert, Mooresville, NC

At Patricia’s school, Academic Illumination Day School in Cornelius, there are eight students, ranging from ages 13 to 29.  Patricia focuses on promoting “respect-filled individuality,” and her students are a reflection of that philosophy. “We’re just like a family here,” says Patricia.