EmPOWERed and On Purpose: How I Turned My Passion into a Movement to Support Young People
- Aug 1
- 3 min read
By Rasheda Kamaria Williams
Fifteen years ago, I answered a calling that had been tugging at my heart for years. I had been volunteering and mentoring girls through a local nonprofit since my senior year in college. And what started as a passion project eventually blossomed into a movement.
Becoming Empowered Flower Girl
I was a mentor before I ever had the title of social entrepreneur or founder.
Growing up in Detroit, I saw firsthand how a lack of support and peer pressure could derail a young person’s dreams. Many young people I grew up with, including my brother, lost their way and ended up in street life.
While I didn’t end up in a gang or selling drugs, I had my own challenges. I was subjected to bullying and harassment on a daily basis in middle school and simultaneously at home, I experienced instability. But with the support of relatives and a dedicated teacher, I was able to move through the drama and eventually used those adverse childhood experiences as motivation to help others.
As a communications professional and youth advocate, I saw a gap in how adults were connecting with and supporting young people — especially our girls and young women. Many were being told to shrink themselves to fit someone else’s narrative and others just didn’t have an outlet to express themselves. I wanted to change that.
In 2010, after a decade of one-on-one and group mentoring, I officially launched Empowered Flower Girl, a social enterprise on a mission to transform the way young people relate to one another, others and themselves. From its early beginnings, Empowered Flower Girl partnered with schools and community organizations to deliver workshops and programs focused on social-emotional learning, youth voice and bullying prevention.
As much as I was doing with Empowered Flower Girl, I felt like something was missing. I felt like we could be reaching more youth.
So in 2016, I took the leap of a lifetime. I left what many would call a "good job" at a university to pursue my purpose and run the company full-time. I had no roadmap, just a vision and an unshakable belief that I was meant for more.
That year, I wrote and self-published Be EmPOWERed: How to Live Above & Beyond Life’s Drama — part memoir, part empowerment guide for teens navigating life’s ups and downs. Writing that book was healing for me. It marked the beginning of what I thought would be a two-year sabbatical. Instead, it became a six-year journey of rest, reinvention and radical alignment.
During that time, I traveled, facilitated workshops for students and educators across the country, and connected with girls and women who, like me, were tired of shrinking. I took naps without guilt. I walked away from perfectionism. And I gave myself permission to live, not just survive. I poured into myself so I could pour into others.
That was the most liberating decision I’ve ever made.
This year, as we celebrate Empowered Flower Girl’s 15th anniversary, I’m proud of how far we’ve come. From our Chica Chat workshops promoting sisterhood and self-worth to our Girl World Peace Academy training for adults who want to uplift girls in their own communities, we’ve impacted thousands. But this work is about more than numbers. It’s truly about igniting purpose.
I encourage you to take that leap you’ve been afraid to take. Don’t let fear (or the illusion of perfection) paralyze your progress. You don’t need all the answers to begin. Start messy. Start scared. Just start. Your community needs you.
So, to every woman reading this who has a dream tucked in the corners of her heart: Be EmPOWERed. The world is waiting for you.
About The Author
Rasheda Kamaria Williams is an award-winning mentor, author, speaker and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of Inspired Life Professionals and chief empowering officer for Empowered Flower Girl. Learn more at www.inspiredlifepros.com.
Connect With Rasheda
Comments