What does it mean to be confident?

The past few weeks I've been feeling much more confident and to celebrate this sudden and welcome change, I'd like to start a series on my blog to empower women and invite them to feel proud to be confident. After reflecting on why I struggled with this for so long, I realised a lot about how our society views confident and powerful women, and often, it's not in a particularly positive light. 

One time, after I was kind of feeling myself (I promise, a rare occurrence) a boy actually said that I should be careful because men don't like confident women. I think that we as women should just take the time to think about that. This is the world we live in, and we should have the strength to challenge it, if not for ourselves then for our daughters. AND as I post this, it is International Women's Day!

I'm going to hop off my soapbox for now, but for this series, I will be asking different women close to me what their views are on different topics and what these terms mean to them, as women. I want to find out what makes us all different but equally united in our strength, and I want every woman reading this to start, even in small ways, to be unapologetically strong.

To kick off, I asked all the women who I genuinely perceived to be confident what their views are on confidence and what it means to be confident. Here is what some of them said:

Leah Carter-Mays: It's important to remember that no matter how good you are at something, don't let people make you feel that you can't be confident. I've found that all the things I love the most - friends, boyfriend and education, I've had to be confident to achieve it.

Leanne Garner: To me, confidence is going "oh gosh my legs look huge in these leggings" and then going whatever man I'm comfy as hell I'm gonna walk my thick thighs to Greggs because that would make me happy. Surround yourself with people who support your successes and see development in your fails. 

Valentina Arias: To me, confidence is being able to talk to anyone as an equal. Not being nervous in new situations. Asking for help when you need it. Admitting when you are wrong. Taking the lead when it is appropriate. Standing your ground when challenged. Standing up for others when they can't. Making eye contact and smiling on meeting strangers. And lastly, loving yourself for who you are, changing the things you're not so happy with and which you're able to change and accepting the ones you can't.

Cecilia Ruppert: I surround myself with people where I can truly be myself. Through this they will show you, that being confident is making you feel a lot better and you'll just naturally carry that confidence with you at any time.

Kamila Hamarova: I think confidence celebrates our individuality and uniqueness - be it our 'flaws' or quirks or anything about us which makes us different from the next person. Essentially, I found that the 'fake it 'til you make it' approach worked best for me - that is, set your mindset and do everything that your role model would do, despite feeling silly or like an imposter at first. 

Nadira Herbert: I wasn't always confident. I think I just woke up one day and said to myself that in order to be highly successful, you really have to work through it and master the art of being confident. Working in a large US corporation in New York City, I notice that the following works well to establish confidence: be as knowledgeable as you can be about your field, speak loudly, make eye contact, have a good handshake, smile, when in meetings aim to play a leadership role - believe it or not a group of people really appreciate someone stepping in. 

As I kind of mentioned before, I aim to make this into a series dedicated to all the best things that women have to offer. I hope you enjoyed this first post and that you'll stay for the ones to come.