How Jennifer Strickland Found Purpose Beyond the Runway
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Summary
Jennifer Strickland is a former international model, a TED Talk Speaker, an author, a wife, and a mom of three. She is also the founder of You Are More, a nonprofit that helps women and girls discover their value, identity, and purpose in God's eyes.
Transcript
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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Gains for Girls podcast. Thank you for tuning in. Make
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sure you check us out at outkick.com or anywhere where you get your podcasts. We are thrilled you
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are here, especially for today's guest. Today's guest is Jennifer Strickland. She is a former
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international model. She is beautiful. She is a TED Talk speaker. She is an author. She is a wife.
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She's a mom of three. And she's the founder of a nonprofit called You Are More. Of course,
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this is a nonprofit that helps women and girls discover their value, identity, and their purpose.
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But as I said, she was a professional model. She appeared in Vogue and Glamour and walked
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runways in Europe. But she has since left the modeling industry. She has written now many books
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and studies, Bible studies. This is an episode where we will be coming at things from a, of course,
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an objective lens, but a biblical lens, which I think is important in today's society and culture
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as a Christian myself. But Jennifer, she passionately speaks across America, again,
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helping women and girls discover their true worth in God's eyes. So could not be more excited for this
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conversation. She also has a book. I can't wait for you to see the title. But make sure to check out
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the interview here with Jennifer Strickland. Well, Jennifer, I am so glad you're on. Of course,
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I heard about your book. And there was, I was not letting you not talk to me. So really, I just wanted
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to give you the opportunity to tell us a little bit about yourself and the platform that you have.
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So I'm a, I'm a wife and a mom and an author, a speaker. I'm a former model. So I came from the
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media driven industry and became a Christian in my early twenties and started writing books and Bible
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studies, basically for girls to help them with their body image, help them focus on their gifts
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and talents and talents and help them find their identity in Christ. Amazing. It's, um, I can't
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imagine, you know, coming from the world that you came from. Uh, I would imagine again, a world that
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I, I haven't necessarily been in. I see the way culture is going. I see the way that, you know,
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Hollywood as a whole is going. Um, but a world that seems very, very vain, uh, that is more interested
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in instant gratification and, and, you know, monetary gain and different things like that
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than it is about, uh, real virtues and real morality. So I can imagine the shift that you
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have seen, um, you know, since making that transition. Yeah, it's been incredible. You
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know, my first book Girl Perfect came out the month before the selfie became a thing, you know,
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cameras used to point outwards. I could always tell my kids like cameras are meant to capture
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memories with other people, you know, instead of just turn inward. And so I had no idea what was
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coming. Um, when I first wrote that and, and trying to help girls understand that they don't
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get their image from the media and so forth. So there's a lot of lies, the media funnels into
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these girls' minds and it's now it's on steroids. Yeah, that's the truth. Um,
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whether it's, you know, young girls, uh, women, I would say the, the lies, uh, that the media fuels
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to, um, to every single person, humanity, uh, which is why voices like yours are so important,
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important. Uh, but you mentioned becoming a Christian. Uh, what was that like for you? I want
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to ask you kind of like that journey. Um, you know, how did you find yourself first, I guess,
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getting involved with the church and finding your faith? Well, it was just a rock bottom,
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really just a dark time in my life. I was, uh, working on the runway. I was doing the runway shows
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for Giorgio Armani and Milan. And I was anorexic because you have to be anorexic to do that. And I saw
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so much like schmuck behind the scenes, you know, just girls starving themselves for approval. Back
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then anorexia was really the social contagion. And I never thought that would happen to me because I
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had my degree and, you know, I was a straight A student and all of that. But once I was really,
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really immersed in the modeling industry, I saw so much darkness behind the scenes. And basically I cried
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out, uh, to God, to see me and to show me that he was real and to prove that he was real. And after
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that, I started meeting all these strangers would literally stop me in the street and share the gospel
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with me and invite me to church and helped me, helped me realize that I was getting my identity
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from the wrong things. And eventually I just read the word and read the book of Matthew and gave my life
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to Jesus and I left and I'd been in the business since I was like eight years old. So I was 22 at
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that point and I had no idea what my future was going to be, but I knew that Jesus was going to be
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walking with me and that that was enough. It's crazy that it, it takes a rock bottom a lot of times,
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uh, for this realization to occur. Uh, but of course all in his timing and all of the work he does
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is, is for good. Um, but it's, it's wild, you know, the stand that you have taken now, uh, being
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unapologetic, uh, in your defense of, you know, maintaining the innocence of, of young girls and
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women and doing so in such a beautiful light, uh, which I think is important. Uh, you know, we see a
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lot of even, even pastors, uh, and other leaders, but, but it is really surprising to me that spiritual
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leaders, pastors, uh, remain silent on a lot of issues. Uh, I think a big issue that is affecting
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our girls and women in today's society is, is all the gender stuff. Of course, the LGBTQ,
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LB, LGBTQ, I can't even get it right. Plus movement now, um, it's having a big effect. And so,
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you know, why, why is it, do you think that it takes people like you and me to approach this,
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uh, when we have our pastors who won't even do it? You know, I don't know. The wise woman uses her
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voice to stand up against the vulnerable. And, you know, they're in writing my new book, I'm a woman.
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I, I studied the foolish woman and the wise woman. And I saw that the foolish woman, which is basically
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what I see in most of the feminist movement, they're beckoning girls to like follow their lead.
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And that has just been almost like a thought reform movement, uh, in our nation. And people
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are afraid to speak against feminism. People are afraid to speak against the, the pride movement,
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but it's so biblical. It's so black and white. It's absolutely ridiculous that we are created male
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and female. I think pastors, I don't know, they're being quiet because they're afraid they're worried
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about their popularity or whatever. And I just decided that this was a body image issue. This
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was an identity issue. And my ministry was based on body image and identity for girls. I'd studied that
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through and through and, you know, written studies and speaking to girls all these years, I could not
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stand by and just be silent when there's this identity crisis going on in our nation. And they're,
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these kids are believing lies and a lot of the adults are participating in it.
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Of course. I think an identity crisis is, is the most accurate, uh, definition of, of what we're
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seeing. Uh, it's very clear to me, uh, that these people who embrace the gender ideology movement are,
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are desperately trying to put their identity into something. Uh, but what they have ultimately put
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their identity in, uh, they will never be satisfied because the only place you will be satisfied is
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when you put your identity in Christ. Um, and I think that's obvious in the way that, uh, I know
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the attacks that I've faced and I I'm sure you as well, to some extent, right? Uh, these people are
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filled with vitriol a lot of times and violence and hatred. And it's, it breaks my heart really.
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And all, you know, um, I constantly find myself praying for them. Um, but nonetheless, you, we've
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mentioned this book, uh, this book, I am a woman. And so I feel like it is only appropriate if I ask
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you outright the dreaded controversial question of what is a woman. This is so simple and so easy.
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Woman is a life giver, body, soul, and spirit. You know, the language of Genesis, uh, Hebrew is
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called the language of transcendence. So when we see in, in Genesis, God created us male and female,
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he's not just talking about body parts. He's not just talking about chromosomes. And that's why I
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think the church really has the answer to this question because biblically a female is a life
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giver. It means that she brings life to every environment she is in body, soul, and spirit.
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And by the way, I know people argue, well, what if you can't have babies? You're still a life giver.
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Women was still created to bring life to her environment. And the main way she does that
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is with her voice because women set the tone, Riley. And that's where the feminist movement
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set the wrong tone for women. They taught women, girls, their bodies were not created to bring life,
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that their name didn't mean life. But that is, that is the definition of the word woman. Our name
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means life. No, no doubt about that. Yeah. Your book mentions, um, you know, modern feminism and,
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and how it's harmed women. Uh, my understanding, you know, being, being young, I was naive to a lot of
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this stuff before. I've always been a Christian. Uh, there's no doubt about that. But, uh, I think
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I was naive to our society, to the cultural shift, to the feminist movement. Um, but my understanding
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of what it meant to be a feminist, something I had never considered myself. Um, and because,
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not because I didn't believe in women's rights, women's sex-based protections, of course I do.
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Um, but I, I believed that feminists thought that men and women are equal and the same. And that's
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where I found the problem. Yes, I certainly believe that men and women are created equal,
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but I don't believe we are the same. Uh, we're different. Obviously. Yeah, we're different in a
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way that, yeah, go ahead. No, I was just saying we're different in a way that's not inferior. It
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doesn't make one sex women inferior to men. No, but we're different in a way that's, that's
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beautiful, intentional by God's perfect design in a way that compliments one each other, uh,
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one another. And so, you know, I just wanted to, to give you the opportunity to elaborate
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more on, you know, how modern feminism has harmed women in particular.
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Well, my body, my choice, for example, is it's really actually a lie. Like I didn't make my body.
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You didn't make your body. Um, we didn't, we didn't make it. We didn't purchase it. We didn't
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buy it. Like, so it's not something that we own it. This entire movement is a, is an attack on God's
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image. When he says like, I created you purposefully and wonderfully in your mother's womb. I gave you
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purpose before the womb. Okay. That's Jeremiah one five. You know, I called you before the,
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before the womb and this whole argument about when does life begin and when is it okay to kill a child
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in the womb? The feminists lied to girls and told girls that they, that it was not a baby in the womb,
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that children are not, um, important, that children do not have value in the womb, that they don't have
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life. They don't have eternal life and that their bodies weren't really created to bring life. So
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even, even the, um, birth control pill, I mean, that was a huge thing. And all of the girls getting
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on birth control pills instead of teaching girls about self-control to protect their bodies and
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teaching God, you know, boys to be chivalrous and to protect the girls. So children were the problem.
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Men were the enemy. That was the other main message of the feminist movement. And the third
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one is that it was better for women to leave the home and they would find fulfillment outside of the
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home. When the truth is, is the Bible teaches us that we are, the women are the guardians of the home.
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We are the one who protect and set the spiritual tone and the spiritual atmosphere. So there was a
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huge, you know, exodus of women out of the homes. And then we see what happens like divorces on the
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rise, mental health crisis for the young kids. Mom's not present at the home. She doesn't believe
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her role is to bring life, body, soul, and spirit. And so they lied to girls about who they were.
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They lied to them about their identity. And they really lied about men, that men were the enemy,
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men were the problem and being a wife and a mother was a ball in shame. And now here we are in a
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society where we, uh, one, we have weak leaders. We have weak men, uh, men who aren't willing to,
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to have a spine to call out an injustice when they see it, especially men in powerful positions and
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authority, uh, positions with authority who are sitting idly by watching young girls, women, uh,
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children, parental rights, all get stomped on, uh, because they're fearful. They're, they're
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fearful they might lose their job or, or whatever other, uh, scenario that they've imagined in their
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head that has for some reason, um, allowed them to, I guess, become sellouts. I think that's the best
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way, uh, to put it here. And in listening to you, I think it's, it's no surprise to me that we see
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this overall systemic erasure and attack on women. Uh, when you think about it again, looking at this
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from a biblical lens, um, Satan hates women because we're the ones who bring life. We create,
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uh, and Satan hates that. So it's, it's, it should be no surprise, uh, really that, that this is what
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we're seeing play out in real time. Uh, but you, you know, I wanted to ask you, what are the
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consequences if we didn't have people like you, uh, people like again, me, uh, many others who,
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who have been brave and fearless, um, and taking a stand, but, but what are the consequences if we
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continue to have leaders who do nothing? Well, we're going to have guys and girls sports and we're
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going to have men and we're going to have men and women's sports. We're going to have men in women's
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locker rooms. We're going to have men in women's prisons. And we have that right now. I've spent a
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lot of time with women in prison. They, they have a very special place in my heart. I can picture
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their faces. I can hear their stories of all the times I've gone in and spoken in the prison and
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I'm standing up for them. I'm saying absolutely not. Most of those women were sexually assaulted.
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Most of them experienced male violence. So unfortunately this movement, and let me just
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say something about the men, the feminist movement taught men to sit down and shut up. Okay. They
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emasculated men. They said that you don't have any say in the life of my child. I get to choose right
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over the life of your child. And so basically men became fearful to speak, uh, on the,
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issue of women's rights because women, very domineering women. Okay. Flooded our culture
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with these mantras, like sex work is work, smash the patriarchy. These boots are made for stomping.
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So our, our mothers were in, were either part of that movement or in that movement. And now we have
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women in the government that are teaching, you know, that brought gender studies and, you know,
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first it was women's studies. Now it's gender studies into the women's colleges and the men around them
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were taught to sit down and to shut up. And so you and I have to call the men back to their rightful
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place in human history, that they are responsible for protections for women, that we need their voice.
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We need their protections and we need them to stand up side by side because actually male and female
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unity is how we subdue these spirits of gender ideology, sweeping the nation, men, men and women
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together, male and female together. The Bible says we'll be fruitful and we'll multiply, we'll rule and
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subdue. So the feminist movement wanted to put men, you know, women up, you know, higher. The patriarchy
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wanted to say that men were higher, but God says that we're standing side by side. And the only way
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we're going to win this is together. Absolutely. And you mentioned, uh, previously that you're,
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you're a mom, uh, you're a mom of three. Uh, I imagine that's a big part in why, I guess it's kind of
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the, the worldview that you've taken, uh, knowing that you're fighting for them. Um, can you speak to,
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to what that's like? Well, the mama bears are coming out. Okay. And the men, and hopefully the
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fathers more and more fathers will begin to stand up. Look, Riley, I am so proud of you and, and what
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you're doing, but let me tell you something. This is the mom's responsibility. You are being like a
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mother over the daughters, over the girls. You are having that sort of mama bear mentality,
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but this happened in our generation's watch. This happened on our watch. This is our responsibility
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because if we do not stand up for girls protections and sports locker rooms, all these places now,
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and we continue to allow schools to teach children, they can choose their gender, which is
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a lie from the pit of hell. If we do not stand up, our granddaughters are going to be left with the
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fallout. And, and that's serious. And they're going to say, where were, where were our moms?
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Why didn't they stand up at the sporting competition? What's up with all these parents
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standing around with these men on the podium, getting first place medals, like the administrators,
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the coaches, the teachers, the parents should be the ones that are standing up to protect the girls.
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No doubt about that. Yeah. We have to set an example for the next generation when it's time to,
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to actually defy the government, right? They, they, we teach kids obey, you know, follow rules. Okay.
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We also need to teach them when their boundaries are being encroached in their bathrooms, locker room,
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sports and so forth, or, you know, teachers are insisting that they use plural pronouns or whatever
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to identify to people and encroaching on their free speech. We need to teach the girls when it is
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time to stand up the way Rosa Parks stood up in the back of the bus because she was black and she was
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female. And she said, I'm not going to stay, I'm going to stand up in the back of this bus and I'm
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going to sit in the front. The Martin Luther Kings, those kinds of leaders, we need to rise up and teach
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people when the government is lying to them, when it's time to take a stand and use their voice.
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Absolutely. Yeah, no, it's, um, it's a harmful message to send to, to anyone to ignore their gut
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instincts, uh, to let their guards down that that's, that's very, and they do it under the, under the guise of
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progress, but it's, it's deeply regressive is what that is. Um, but you're the founder of a
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nonprofit. It's called You Are More. Um, I want you to, to speak to what this is, what your mission
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is, how you are helping women and girls, uh, discover their value and their identity and their
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purpose. So yeah, we teach the VIP status of every woman and girl, the value, identity, and purpose in
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Christ. Um, and so I create books and Bible studies and I do online Bible studies in person ones. I speak
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at events. Um, my entire goal is to help young women find their identity in who God says they are.
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It's really that simple. It's that simple. And this is a moment in time where the daughters,
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the women, the girls like you, we need more, more girls like you, but they need to know who they are in
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Christ. They, they need to understand first. I am a daughter of God. I'm not first bisexual. I'm not
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first transsexual. I am first a child of God, a daughter of God, a light to this world. I have
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gifts and talents and abilities that give me a purpose. And so this whole sexual identity, gender
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identity, nonsense, it goes against everything, everything that God teaches in his word about who
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we are. We are loved, cherished, chosen daughters first. That is our identity. Our identity is not
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rooted in sexuality. It's in, it's rooted in who God says we are. And this is just, yeah, it's my
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passion, my purpose. So, well, I love it. Um, everyone can check you are more out at you letter,
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you letter are more.org. Uh, you can also find your book there, your new book. Again, it is called,
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I am a woman taking back our name, which I think is just a, a wonderful title. You know,
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for so long we've asked the question, I mean, two years probably now of what is a woman, but I think
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it's time we start telling them. We don't just keep ironically almost asking that question. We tell them
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what a woman is. And so, um, you can expect to find that in her book. Again, I urge everyone to go
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check it out. Um, but Jennifer, we just appreciate you, uh, the stand that you have taken, how you,
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how you're able to, uh, balance both the grace and truth and dealing with these topics. Uh, of course,
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being an exemplar of those things when we're called to be, uh, so we appreciate you, uh, and we will be
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following you along and wish you all the greatest success in the world. Thank you so much, Riley.
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And again, I'm so proud of you. Thank you guys for tuning in today. Uh, make sure you go to
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youaremore.org. That is letter U letter R more.org. Uh, and again, check out her book. Uh, I can't
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wait for it. It is, I am a woman taking back the name, uh, just an incredible title, uh, a title
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that I can't even believe she has to actually write. Uh, but nonetheless, very important. Uh,
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make sure you check us out at outkick.com. Uh, very glad you're here and we will see you again next week.