Serena Williams Awards InHerShoes: Generations We Catalyze
Photo Credit (L): Serena Williams and daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., 3, star in Stuart Weitzman’s “Footsteps to Follow” campaign captured by Ethan James Green, 2021
Photo Credit (R): Judith Martinez and mother and grandmother in InHerShoes’s “Courage Across Generations” campaign, captured by Alex Harper, 2017
Monday, March 8, 2021
Judith Martinez
CEO & Founder of InHerShoes, Judith is redefining traditional standards of what it looks like to be a successful woman today, particularly at the intersection of entrepreneurship, media, and social impact. Featured in Forbes, NASDAQ, Refinery29, BuzzFeed, and more, Martinez is a sought-after voice as a leader at the intersection of social impact and the future of human capital - emphasis on the human.
What would you do if you were 1% more courageous?
What if I told you, that by answering this one question, your entire life can transform? I say that because it did for me. For those of you coming across InHerShoes for the first time, I want to personally say ‘Welcome’ — we are so glad you’re here. This blog is our new collection of stories at InHerShoes where we are amplifying the courageous Voices that make up our community. My name is Judith and I have the privilege of being InHerShoes’s Founder, working with the most incredible people toward one common mission: catalyzing courage for girls and womxn across the world to live and create a life they love, one act of courage at a time. In short, we are the modern womxn’s community for courage. We are InHerShoes.
Today on this International Womxn’s Day 2021, I am proud and honored to announce InHerShoes has been hand-selected by Serena Williams and Stuart Weitzman as awardees for our impact and work in furthering gender equity and the empowerment of womxn! We are excited to be part of this campaign, Footsteps to Follow, with a very special guest, Alexis “Olympia” Ohanian Jr.
This blog is our new collection of stories at InHerShoes where we are amplifying the courageous Voices that make up our community.
Celebrating catalyzing courage for 7 years this past January, this award marks an exciting new chapter for our organization, and our continued commitment in cultivating a more just, sustainable, and courageously inclusive world. On a personal, human level, this recognition and campaign marks so much to me.
I like to say coming out of the womb my fate was decided for me. The only and youngest daughter of immigrants, I was to become the epitome of success to my parents: a lawyer. And not just any lawyer; a successful, wealthy, corporate lawyer. That was their “American dream”….just not my dream.
In my upbringing I was everything most first-gens can probably resonate with. I was an over-achiever, perfectionist, and eager to make my family proud. I was so busy being everything for everyone else, I had not realized the real person I was never showing up for was myself. Then, something happened my senior year at university: I got the “yes” I was chasing my entire life. A law school acceptance letter. I was in tears, dreading what seemed to be an inevitable future I didn’t want. For the first time I decided to be something I never was: courageous. I said no to law school and traded in the dreams others had for me and decided to create some of my own.
InHerShoes has been hand-selected by Serena Williams and Stuart Weitzman as awardees for our impact and work in furthering gender equity and the empowerment of womxn.
Fast forward several years later, I’m still in tears, just for a different reason. I was with my mother (pictured above) when I learned about the award and as I read it aloud, my mom and I both started crying. As a first-generation student and Filipina American, it felt so surreal and still does. You see, this award not only recognizes the incredible hard work, dedication, and commitment of the stellar humans that make InHerShoes who we are; this award on a personal note also highlights the sacrifices and dreams of the generation of womxn who have come before me. Those who have come before us and have trail-blazed new avenues we are now able to explore. Those who have walked footsteps for us to both follow and go off the beaten path. This award and the Footsteps to Follow campaign means all this and more to me both as a female founder and as a daughter.
This award on a personal note also highlights…those who have come before us and have trail-blazed new avenues we are now able to explore. Those who have walked footsteps for us to both follow and go off the beaten path.
I don't see this award as Serena and Stuart Weitzman choosing me or InHerShoes; they chose my mother, my grandmother, and an entire generation of first-gens striving to do, be, and create better. Whether it is gender equity, to raising your hand in class; racial justice, to perhaps gaining the self-confidence to love who you see in the mirror every day — InHerShoes is about catalyzing courage not just for the big stuff, but the daily moments that ultimately make up our lives. And if we dare to admit it, impacts generations to come.
In 2014 my single act of courage was declining a law school acceptance and instead choosing to create a “silly project”. Today, several years later, that “silly project” is now InHerShoes, an award winning organization, continuing to mobilize a new generation of courageous leaders. One act at a time.
So, what would you do if you were 1% more courageous? And better yet, what are you waiting for?