I love listening to Eve Ensler. Actually, I always cry when I hear her speak. I adore what she has to say and maybe that's because I don't get to hear this kind of stuff enough. Even if lots of us believe in the value of girls, the value of compassion, empathy, and vulnerability, the value of being emotional, we don't generally operate in a framework that admires it. It's not embedded in mainstream social mores. I think it may not even pervade the psyche of many women and men who are feminists. It's something we have to reteach ourselves, again and again. We may intellectually accept these ideas, but our consciousness is not necessarily submerged in practicing it.

For a moment, when I began writing, I was hesitant to admit that I cry when I listen to Eve Ensler. It seems silly that I hesitated, but it was there. That's the reteaching that happens in the hesitation. The belief system that is believed, but not perfunctory. And why did I feel a temporary embarrassment when I began to cry, alone in my kitchen, listening to Ensler's speech? Same thing.

This evening I found Eve Ensler's newest talk on TED called, "Embrace Your Inner Girl," and wanted to share it with you. It's about 20 minutes.