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015: Strong women who inspire us with Eliora Dogbey - Boss Lady Jr
57 Plays9 months ago
This International Women's Day I am sharing a special episode that I recorded with my 8 year old daughter Eliora Dogbey aka ELYD aka Boss Lady Jr (her pick). We had a really beautiful unscripted conversation on who inspires her, she also got to ask me a few questions as well. The Government of Canada's theme for International Women's Day 2024 is "Invest in women: Accelerate progress" and I can't think of a more important generation to invest than the young girls who are coming up. We talked about strong women who inspire us including Michelle Obama, her aunties, her family and she surprised me with her thoughts on my decision to scale back on commitments to focus on family. My takeaway is that our daughters are watching and are taking in all that we do AND representation matters! Will have to bring her on again because this convo was fire! Enjoy!
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Transcript
Introduction to Curiously Talks Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Curiously Talks podcast. My name is Brenda Dobwe, and in this podcast we center Black Canadian voices and African diaspora, but of course anybody and everybody is welcome to follow and enjoy the podcast.
Eliora's Perspective on International Women's Day
00:00:17
Speaker
So today I'm really excited because I have my daughter here with me and we're going to have a neat conversation around National Women's Day and what it means to be a young girl.
00:00:32
Speaker
Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself? Hi, everybody. I am Eliora Dovey, as you all know. I'm my mom's daughter, and I'm very excited to inspire young girls to keep going, even though they're going to tough situations.
Eliora's Interests and Cultural Pride
00:00:50
Speaker
Just know that you can do whatever you want to do if you put your mind into it.
00:01:00
Speaker
Okay, so Eliora, how old are you? I am 8 years old. That's how I'm turning. Okay, so you're just turning 8. What do you like to do for fun? What I like to do for fun? I like to do gymnastics. I like to help people. It's like being a nice person is a good thing.
00:01:24
Speaker
questions for you. And then I know you also have a couple of questions for me, so we're going to get to you. So what does International Women's Day mean to you? And what do you think it means to be a woman? I think it's like you can follow your passion, you can do a lot of things and like you can do whatever you want if you put your mind into it.
00:01:51
Speaker
And what do you think it means to be an African woman? Is that different? And if it's different, how is it? To be honest right now, it's like a privilege. Because I love African stuff. You cook so well. They really know how to use it.
00:02:15
Speaker
I just love it. Do you consider yourself an African woman? Definitely. If you are 100% Kenyan, I'm 50% Kenyan and I just... What's the other 50%? Totally. That is totally. And what's the... Do you have another idea?
Mixed Heritage and Identity
00:02:44
Speaker
I mean, it's good things, you want like new things, like there's different kind of recipes, like here you can make mac and cheese, you can make chicken, you can make rice, but, and like, I forgot it's kind of different, you can make mac and cheese, all those stuff, but you can also make like, kind of like, for food, you can make, um, top of least food, like, I didn't know,
00:03:13
Speaker
How about Kenyan food? You got it. Okay. And the rice. What do you call the rice? Do you remember? That's right. That's right. Oh, nice. Okay.
Brenda on Women's Power and Potential
00:03:38
Speaker
And so, and so you just said you're 50%
00:03:41
Speaker
Kenyan, you're 50% Togolese, but you're 100% Canadian, but I just consider being 50% Togolese, 50% Kenyan, like mixed together. I still think it's like 100% like Togolese. But you're also 100% Canadian.
00:04:11
Speaker
200%. So you got extra stuff going on. Love it. Okay, so your turn. You get to ask me questions. So what questions do you have for me? So I have the same question as you. My first question is, what does the International Women's Day mean to you?
00:04:33
Speaker
Okay, good question. I would say International Women's Day for me, it means celebrating exactly what you mentioned, celebrating our identity. And because it's international, I mean, we're celebrating all of our identities. So like, all of it together is like, it's really fun. And like, you know, exactly. And so it means women do a lot.
00:05:04
Speaker
work, with family. And so International Women's Day for me is celebrating who we are as women, but it's also celebrating your generation.
Empowerment and Advice for Young Girls
00:05:16
Speaker
So the younger women that are coming up, the girls who are going to become women in the future. Exactly. So that's what International Women's Day means for me.
00:05:28
Speaker
looking to the future and be excited about the young girls like yourself who are coming up. Next question from you. My next question will probably be, what do you think the women are capable of? What kind of benefits do you think there is for women?
00:05:49
Speaker
Good question. So before I answer that, I want to hear your perspective. Like, what are the benefits of being a woman? Because I have some ideas, but I really want to actually hear what your answer is. So let's, let's hear from you and then I'll answer. Okay. For example, like you start the engine and like it's, it's completely down. You go get your tools and like start fixing the car or anything.
00:06:18
Speaker
And like, some people just don't think you can do it, but if you do it, you don't have to, they're just like, they pay you some money that you don't want. You just think for help, right?
00:06:29
Speaker
So for me I think some of the benefits of being a woman is that you get to have girl power, you get to have sisterhood, so you get to have friends with other women who are strong and beautiful. Women are also
00:06:49
Speaker
mothers, right? So the fact that you are able to carry a baby and sometimes they're not. I love that. So not all women are mothers, but that doesn't take anything away from you in terms of being a woman. And there's the beauty of being able to bring life into the world, but also be an aunt, be a friend, being a sister. So there are many, many beautiful things.
00:07:17
Speaker
The other question I have for you is, what words do you have to inspire young girls out there? So what message do you have for young girls? What's my message? Okay, that's really, really hard. But it would probably be that young girls, if people are like, booing and really
00:07:43
Speaker
Don't be scared to just, like, defend yourself or do anything with your, like, movement or anything. And another one for lessons is that, like, you wanna, your passion is, like, you can have any passion in the world. People think you cannot do it, but don't let that stop you. You can do whatever
Messages of Resilience and Inspiration
00:08:04
Speaker
you want. If you put your mind to it, you work hard. And especially, just don't do it for the money. You can also do it for love.
00:08:13
Speaker
That's a powerful, powerful message. Love that. And then what message do you have for older women? So for aunties, for mothers, for the older cousins, what's your message for them? That's a good message. I was actually going to tell a message to Maya that we're going to see tonight.
00:08:36
Speaker
But it will probably be that like you're in a tough situation, you can handle it. Just stay bright. God can put a light up on you, any single template. He is a miracle worker. Just anything you have could be a blessing in disguise.
00:08:58
Speaker
Like your apartment, your house, your room, a pillow, the clothes. Anything could be a blessing in disguise.
00:09:09
Speaker
Our God could make any miracle, she's a miracle worker so God could just put a light on you and one day just you'll be making millions of dollars and you'll remember that you just listened to a young girl scroll and you just kept going on, yeah.
00:09:33
Speaker
Wow, that is so inspiring, so powerful. So, can you think about the women in your life and who are some of the strong women who inspire you? The one that might inspire me the most needs to be Michelle Obama. Wow, okay. And what about her inspires you? She is very passionate. She doesn't take her
00:10:01
Speaker
career like that seriously she spends time with her kids the same time of doing like interviews doing that this is this that that that with her family and like it's very inspiring it just shows that you can do a lot of things at the same time like take care of your family get a job get another job yeah so basically
00:10:27
Speaker
Okay. And any other strong women in our lives who inspire you? Uh-huh. Like two or three. Okay, let's do it. My aunt. Auntie Tayo. Auntie Tayo? Okay. I'm gonna go see this tonight. Okay. What inspires you about her? What inspires me about her is like, I like your attitude. I like the way she can manage stuff.
00:10:55
Speaker
She doesn't always go like West Africa Magic on every team. So what does it mean to go West Africa Magic? Can you elaborate? It's like going like, no, you can't do this, replace it or don't think we're right. Like you go harder than a person. Yeah. Okay. So she does not do that all the time. She doesn't do that all the time. It's like serious situations where people just like, no, no, no, no, no. This is not working right now. Yeah.
00:11:27
Speaker
okay um she's just like my style really elaborate on that so we have a lot of things in common like we don't really like soccer but we still play soccer um we love messy buns and we love spending time together we love playing dolls together and like
00:11:52
Speaker
I just really love her attitude, the way she deals with everything. And in case y'all know her, she's actually a teacher.
00:12:11
Speaker
I just really
Family Bonds and Influences
00:12:12
Speaker
love it. Yay. Oh, I love her too. Like you said, one of my closest friends, we've been friends for years and like 12 years or something. More than that, I think we were friends over 20 years, 21 years we've been friends. So it's a strong relationship. That is a strong relationship. You can say that again. Yeah. Um, so you mentioned Auntie Tawela. So let's hear one more and then we're going to close it.
00:12:42
Speaker
For all the other grandmas, I'm sorry I didn't choose you, but it probably needs to be... Let's see, your mom. My mom! Okay, it's all good. So what about grandma inspires you? I really like the way like she's...
00:13:04
Speaker
She's very passionate about herself. She can do prayers. I love her. I really love her. Like, if we get her, like, a toe over booting, she has, like, a little song for us, a bedtime song. Like, she's just so inspiring. I think she's super inspiring.
00:13:34
Speaker
Well, they don't know. So, um, probably it's because you're famous. How am I famous? You have like a thousand subscribers even more. So anyways, so, um, I like the way you stopped content and just stopped your podcast, your things.
00:13:58
Speaker
Okay, I need to stop, I need to spend time with my family, take a kind of tiny break, spend time with them, cook with them. And yeah, I just really like the way you manage it all because you work for the Government of Canada, you do content, you do podcasts, you post me. So that's an international dollar state that I really love. But the same time, you,
00:14:28
Speaker
love, love, love calling your friend, especially with your mom. Like every weekend, you cannot even do like two days without calling here on weekends. Like Saturday and Sunday, it's unity. Like, yeah. Oh my God, you're gonna make me cry. Oh, you're literally gonna make me cry. So. It's like, you guys are long distance. She sees you guys like two times in a year. I'm like, I get to see you guys like,
00:14:58
Speaker
every single day like okay she's for real like she's actually gonna make me cry like i just feel bad for you though no no no i've got i've got you i get to see you every single day and that's the best best best best best part of my life
00:15:15
Speaker
because I get to literally see you and I get to be your
Empowerment Message for Women
00:15:18
Speaker
mom. Well you actually gotta cry. I am actually gonna cry like because this is so unexpected and it's not I didn't know that this is what I think they're gonna cry. But what I'm gonna say is I love being your mom. Eliora is intelligent, she is the kindest person I know like literally
00:15:38
Speaker
her heart is gold on the inside. And she is, she's brilliant. She's daring. She's so open to try new things. Hello, we're doing podcasts together. She's funny. She's got the best jokes. She's a good.
00:15:56
Speaker
No, it's all no, no, no. Listen, you know, you're in the 90s, girl. You're in the 90s. So she's just she's just full of life. And I prayed for a daughter.
00:16:10
Speaker
We talk about this all the time. I did pray, and she's 10 times the daughter that I would have hoped that she could be. So, honestly, there's no way about this conversation who's gonna go. She's gonna be starting her baking business. Yes. Right? Yes. Because she loves to bake, and so I'm just here to support her. And I think we're gonna have a bath in the podcast, because this was pretty amazing. No, by the way, I'm a twin. She's a twin. I have a twin brother. Yes.
00:16:40
Speaker
Your dad is? A 22 and we had the same birthday. Amazing. I think our message to you today is happy to batch a women's day. Stay beautiful. What else are we gonna say just as a closing message? As a closing message, just one last time. I know I've said it like three million times already.
00:17:02
Speaker
But I just want to remind all women that you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. If you work hard, you don't just do it for your money, but for the love, you can help people. Don't eat to the home or the shelter. You can do whatever.
00:17:18
Speaker
Whatever you want, if you put your mind into it. Never forget that, guys. Oh my gosh! Okay, so this was, I think this was great. Honestly, this was not scripted. We just wanted to have a conversation and we're gonna close it. We wanted to do this for like a year. I know. So we're gonna say Happy International Women's Day. Can we say Happy International Women's Day!
00:17:46
Speaker
Peace out! Love you!