Realized I've had 4 different cards over the last 8 years - not bad for a Millenial, right? Here's one of them:
Steel-Toed-Stilettos was a super fun project / group blog written by three amazing women and myself from 2009-11. All four of us were working as engineers, facing conditions in our varied industries that we wanted to talk about - disseminate - and share. I probably benefited the most from the pseudonymous personas we created to blog with, as I had a lot to say but was concerned with exactly how I said it.
The name "Steel-Toed-Stilettos" I liked because it is such a juxtaposition - the cheesy clip art graphics even get this across. In my first internship, I had believed that the shoes I wore would speak on my behalf, communicating my credentials to any disbelievers. But I was worried / afraid to wear any feminine shoes for the mirrored, opposing reason - that they would only communicate my feminine credentials to disbelievers. This tension resulted in me wearing a lot of ugly shoes that I later threw away.
Anyway - starting in 2013, when the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Schlumberger began holding an essay contest for undergraduates "From Stilettos to Steel Toes: How will YOU Blaze Your Own Trail?" "What will kick-start your career?" , I questioned if somehow our little blog square of the internet got picked up by someone at one of these giant organizations - or if they had the same thought process we did?
When we started the blog in 2009 there were nearly no google hits to "steel toe* stilettos" - whereas now, even aside from the SWE essay contents there are awesome blogs and events out there playing with this theme. Funny how these ideas and phrases end up disseminating through the network....