I’ve known Astrid since I was about 12 years old.  You’d find her hanging out with my brother and their friends at my house almost every day after school.  I recall her always having the greatest personality.  She was friendly and could strike up a conversation with anyone about any topic you threw at her.  And she dominated the room.  She spoke with certainty and determination.  Astrid was motivated and if she set her mind to something, she was going to get it.  The day we had our video interview Astrid was getting ready to meet with country music singer, Craig [...]

When I met Nicole “Nikki” Kasak, one of the first things I asked her was if I should refer to her as a celebrity make-up artist in the blog.  Her response to me was, “No, no, professional make-up artist.  I do make-up for everyone.” Nikki is undeniably beautiful, but her beauty and genuineness runs more than skin deep.  She’s humble, stays grounded and uses her platform to talk to women about hope and purpose. Nikki’s parents were both successful professionals.  She acknowledges they gave her a good life that filled her wants.  She had the nice car, clothes and there were [...]

I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Jamie Burrows yet.  She came into my life a month ago when I was looking for the 10th woman for this project.  Jamie and I have a common friend who told me about her story.  It inspired me, and I immediately knew I wanted her on this panel of amazing women and when I reached out to her the feelings were mutual. Jamie was born and raised in South Jersey.  She had a rough upbringing as she lived with her mother and three younger siblings. Her father left the family and was in and [...]

Think about growing up in an urban area in the 1980’s as the child of immigrant parents from Bangladesh.  You are a minority in the minority group on top of it because there still aren’t too many people who have immigrated over and society doesn’t have much knowledge of the Bangladesh culture.  You grow up knowing that your parents witnessed the genocide of Hindus in their country and your mother had to escape and live in the jungle to stay alive.  Your parents worked hard to give their siblings a better quality of life and managed to save enough money to [...]

Hi everyone and welcome to #YouGotThis: Finding Success and Happiness.  This is a women’s empowerment blog that will be featuring ten women over the course of ten weeks.  My name is Tanvi Mathew.  I’m a licensed therapist and a life coach practicing in NJ.  I’ve been in the mental health field for 16 years now, functioning in various clinical and administrative roles. But my most important and ongoing roles have been as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a WOMAN. I want readers to understand the background and how #YouGotThis: Finding Success and Happiness came to be [...]