We're just days away from the Midwest Retreat! We're so excited to see everyone.

Program Schedule:
Conference Schedule  Day One: 
9:00am-9:30am – Registration / Meet & Greet.
9:30am-10:30am – Group Discussion & Ice Breaker
10:30am-11:30am – Rae Reed, Writer & Editor, presents a Writing   Workshop: Writing for Wellbeing
11:30am-1:00pm – Lunch
1:00pm-2:00pm – Self Care Hour! Join us in the conference room for   coloring books and/or a stitch’n’bitch, or feel free to take a nap or
2:00pm-3:00pm – Pauline Campos, Writer, on Body Image:   Ourselves & Our Children
3:00pm-4:00pm – Veronica Arreola, Professional Feminist, on   Feminist Theory & the 365 Selfie Project
4:00pm-4:15pm – Break – change your clothes before DDPP if you   wish, or grab a snack for energy!
4:15pm-5:15pm – “Girl Power” DDPP (Dance Dance Party Party)  with DJs  Soozapalooza and Hanna Bananahammock
6:00pm-8:00pm – Dinner as a group - Sidebar

Day Two:  
9:00am-9:30am – Wake up session
9:30am-10:30am – Elizabeth Hawksworth, Writer, on Native Rights:   A Feminist Point of View
10:30am-12:00pm – Offsite at Phoenix Rising Printmaking   Cooperative (243 S 5th St, #140):  Amanda Farler, Printmaker, on   Women’s Leadership and Fellowship in the Visual Arts
12:00-1:30 – Group lunch – Milestone 229

There is still space available if you wish to join us. Simply register! But please do note that lunch on Saturday has already been ordered.

Special thanks to all of our generous sponsors, donors, vendors, speakers, and conference organizers. In no particular order and with warm gratitude extended equally to all: Bitch Magazine, Veronica Arreola, Rae Reed, Cinnamon Cooper / Poise, Pauline Campos, Joyful Girl Bakery, Sand Steel Designs, Alison Biggs, Terri Roberts, Shannon Hillinger, Amy Battagglia, Hanna Wheeler, Suzanne Jangda, Andrea Plante, Alexis Thompson, Cara Laird, Elizabeth Hawksworth, Amy Rhime, Amanda Farler / Phoenix Rising Printmaking Coop, Jennifer Subsavage, Melissa Carden, Amanda McIntosh, Diane Bonham, Diva Cup, Mahasin Ameen, Tamara Harris, Jorje Axline, Sckoon Cup, Laura Kazak, Ulysses Press, all of our silent auction bidders, and everyone else who supported us via our Booster t-shirt, zazzle.com, and Jamberry fundraisers!

Conference Committee: Veronica Arreola, Shannon Hillinger, Cara Laird, Amy Rhime

Can you believe we're less than a month away?!

Things to note:
  • The hotel can no longer honor the conference rate on the retreat page. 
  • Please register by Sunday, October 25th to be included in group meals. 
  • After you register, fill out our poll for group meals
  • Anyone who supports feminism and selfies can attend this retreat. You don't have to have been actively participating in any of the #365FeministSelfie communities. 
Have additional questions? Just leave them in the comments!

See you in a few weeks!
In order to make sure that our upcoming retreat is as low-cost as possible, we are holding an online auction. There is a great assortment of fab things to bid on. Get an early holiday gift or treat yo self!

Check out some of our fab items!

#365FeministSelfie Auction items

There's an adorable bat shirt for the smallest caped crusader, $100 gift certificate to Poise.cc, an autographed copy OR audio book of Tamara Winfrey Harris' "The Sisters Are Alright," One-year subscription to Bitch magazine, three different handmade bookmarks from Pauline Campos, two hand crafted infinity scarves with a secret pocket, your choice of a Diva Cup, and a beautiful print of the Tulsa skyline.

#365FeministSelfie Auction items
For those in Tuscon, Arizona, a Yoga Therapy Session with Lydni Rivers, also for Tuscon residents a gift certificate for your choice of either 24 cupcakes or one 8" 2-layer cake from  Cara of Joyful Girl Bakery (she also runs this auction!), a horsehair raku vase, your choice of a Sckoon Cup Mentrual Cup and a teddy bear made from your favorite piece of clothing.

The auction ends on September 7th so get those bids in now!

Thanks for helping us hold a retreat that is as affordable as possible.

We're gearing up for the #365FeministSelfie Midwest Retreat!

Reminder that we will be meeting in Columbus, OH on November 7 and 8, 2015.

And we have hotel information for you:

The Holiday Inn® Hotel Columbus Downtown - Capitol Square
175 E. Town Street Columbus, OH 43215
614.221.3281  <<< Ask for reservations

Rate: $109+17.5% tax.

Rooms must be reserved by October 6th. 

Key Amenities:
  • On-site parking for a $10 nightly fee 
  • Complimentary airport shuttle between 7:00am and 11:00pm.
  • Gym
  • Indoor Pool
If you even 60% or more sure you will be attending, please RSVP via our Facebook event page until we have our registration page up and running. Plus it will be great to connect on Facebook!
Thanks to Beth of Vibrant Nation for writing about discovering #365FeministSelfie at Blogher 2015 and how she's joining the community.

As she now knows, some days we tackle the hard issues like fighting the patriarchy and on others we simply support each other when our coffee makers decide to call in sick. #TheStruggleisReal


I can't believe it has been two weeks since Blogher 2015! I still feel like I am catching my breath. But I owe you all a short update:
  • Friday's keynote was amazing! I was super nervous, but once I got up on stage talking about this project I was good to go. I did go off script so I failed to mention a few things I did want to say. Especially about how the people who have been most active in #365FeministSelfie are not famous feminists. The hashtag is often their refuge in a world where being a feminist can feel lonely if you do not have a local feminist gang to support you. 
  • While I felt like everywhere I went people were telling me how amazing the project sounded, two people stood out among the well wishers. Marian came to find me once my 10x10 was over and I sat down for lunch. She has a blog to countdown to her 70th birthday. Marian told me that she recently realized how few pictures she had of her life, but would start to use selfies to leave some great pics behind for her children & grandchildren. Then there was Lorne who runs Raising Sienna, his blog about being a dad with depression. He wrote me a note that said he wanted to take a lot of what I had said in my talk home to his daughter for future use. Lorne, as many men have & still do, struggles with his own body image and thinks that incorporating more selfies into his routine with his daughter will benefit both of them.
  •  #365FeministSelfie was mentioned in a few Blogher 2015 round up posts! Thanks to Bella & to Blogher founder, Jory Des Jardins.
  • November Retreat: We are still working on all the fine details, but we do plan to hold a retreat in Columbus, Ohio the weekend of November 6th.  
    • The Portland retreat's schedule was Friday dinner (optional), Saturday all day programming, Sunday morning programming. I hope to stick to that formula. 
  • AUCTION!! We are putting together an auction that should launch in the next few weeks to help cover the expenses of the retreat. The Portland retreat raised enough money that it was a no cost (but bare bones) retreat. 
I have a lot to still dig out from due to Blogher, so thanks for being patient!
There it is...our logo.

What's the first thing we did? Slapped it on a t-shirt and put them up to raise money for the upcoming retreat in Columbus, OH (tentatively scheduled for Nov 7 & 8). So go grab a shirt! They are $20 and any profits go towards making sure everyone who wants to attend can. We have just over a week to hit our goal of 100 shirts. So grab two!
Go read it now! And thanks to everyone who submitted a selfie with their mom.

Oh...and please share the link to your friends & family.
Apologies for falling off the theme wagon, but life got hectic.

This week's theme is #MyHero. Who are the heroes in your life?

And in the spirit of a colleague of mine in the human rights world, perhaps your hero is actually a group of people working collectively? Looking forward to learning who is your hero.




Here’s my recap of our first 365 Feminist Conference. Veronica wrote one too but I am so happy with how it turned out, I wanted to document my experience!

I flew into Portland on Friday evening. The lovely Sarah picked me up from the airport, along with her girls, which was a great welcome. J I checked into the hotel; they had free cookies at the front desk. Free. Cookies. It was not the fanciest hotel but how bad could it be? It was clean, cozy, and did I mention the free cookies?

Those of us who were in town early enough met at Alberta Street Pub for dinner. It was maybe about half of our group of attendees. Food and beer were had, and so much great conversation. And hugs! Then back to the hotel for more conversation, with even more of our sisters as they came into town and checked in. We hung out in one of the lounge areas until midnight or so, chatting away. I was completely exhausted but still after I went to bed, Alison and I stayed up for at least another hour talking in the dark. Did I mention my three very closest friends attended this conference, and I roomed with one of them? Destined to be a fab weekend.

Saturday morning, I got up early enough to ensure the hotel would have our meeting room ready by 9. Ate some free breakfast, and went into the meeting room to set up. I made conference programs and also bookmarks as keepsakes, with all of the attendees photos (selfies of course!) included, so I set all of those out as the hotel staff brought in our coffee and tea service. The first hour was our meet and greet time; we said hello and exchanged lots more hugs to the ladies who had checked in super late and we hadn’t seen the night before. 

At 10, we sat down with our first speaker of the day, Caitlin from In Our Words, a Portland bookstore and feminist community center. Caitlin spoke about running a feminist non-profit and the history of her organization, but for the main discussion she chose the topic of self care. True to form, we all opened up and had an amazing, intimate discussion on this topic. Given how our online group operates, I shouldn’t have been surprised, but truly everyone showed up and shared and listened and supported and encouraged. We cried and laughed and I personally deeply enjoyed experiencing the dynamic of our amazing online community in live action.

Our next speaker was group member Iaia, who studied international relations and diplomacy. Her topic was “Feminism in International Relations.” She spoke passionately about her own history and awakening to feminism, her education, and her drive toward diplomacy as her calling. She shared with us stories of specific women and communities around the world and why feminism is important to them, what rights they are fighting for and need us as more privileged feminists to help them fight for. I so appreciated the energy and visible passion she shared with us – very inspiring!

Next we went for lunch. That sounds so simple, but I admit I learned the hard way how difficult it is to get 16 people out the door and to the same restaurant within a reasonable time frame. LOL. That was my mistake in planning, but eventually we ended up at Vita on Alberta Street, which served a good variety of food including tons of vegan options. It was DELICIOUS. I enjoyed my lunch, and tasted several sisters’ lunches too. ;)

We were a bit late getting back to the hotel; fortunately our next presenter is a 365 member and was so very understanding and kind. Arwyn (LMT) led us in an amazing workshop about body love / acceptance. I was very impressed, she brought amazing materials and was so organized and prepared. Arwyn was full of energy and fun, which was nice when considering a topic that can be difficult or triggering for some people. We talked about our relationship with our bodies, with food, with other women. One thing she said that still resonates with me is that I can see a beautiful or sexy or smart or insert adjective here and I can say, “She is beautiful, and that is not a threat to me.” I also found the activity about our relationship with food to be insightful and helpful. There was much more to be taken away from this two hour workshop, if you ever have a chance to attend it with Arwyn of Holding Space Massage, I recommend it!

Our last speaker of the day was Veronica. Can I just again yell out a “THANK YOU!” to the woman who started this amazing 365 challenge? Thank you, thank you, thank you. It was surreal to spend the weekend with her and get to hear her speak about this project and her experiences with it the last year (+). I kinda felt like I was meeting a celebrity!

After that full day of education and female community, we had a bit of a break to relax and freshen up. We decided on Deschutes for dinner, a downtown brewery, partly chosen due to its nearness to Powell’s City of Books. ;) We have a lot of bookworms in this group! We were seated surprisingly fast for a large group on a busy Saturday night. The food was amazeballs, as was the beer, but of course the company was the best part. Afterward we walked to Powell’s and gave ourselves a strict 45 minute shopping time – which is laughable considering the size of Powell’s, but it was already late and we had one more stop on our agenda! But 45 min was definitely better than nothing, even if I didn’t leave the first floor. Just being surrounded by so many books made me happy. I picked out a book for each of my boys.

Afterward, it was Voodoo Donut time. We learned the hard way that there are TWO Voodoo locations within a mile of each other (wtf, Voodoo?) and half of us went to one and half to the other, oops! The line was out the door but it moved quickly. The donuts were pretty darn yummy! If you like spicy, I recommend the Mexican Hot Chocolate cake donut.

Back at the hotel we munched donuts and chatted in a lounge area until, I don’t know.. way too late again. ;)
Sunday morning, the cofounder and director of Bitch Magazine, Andi, came to speak. This lady is pretty amazing, as is the zine! We learned about the history and mission of the magazine, as well as the challenges of running a feminist media outlet. Andi brought copies of some of the first editions of the zine as well as more recent copies, and gave us so much food for thought on how most media depicts women and how Bitch goes against that main stream. Andi is truly inspirational and I loved sitting in discussion with her.

The last agenda item was a simple sit down discussion for the organizers to gather feedback. I know how I thought the weekend went but I wanted every else’s perspective as we headed into planning the conference in the Midwest this fall. We had really useful discussion and several sisters had some fantastic ideas about workshops and speakers for us to try to incorporate in the next one. I am so grateful for every single attendee – your support, your attendance, and your feedback at the end of the conference. It was a dream come true to meet many of you and to be reunited with some friends I don’t get to see often.

Hotel check out time was noon and I had one more thing to do, not conference related: go check out Sarah’s house and chickens! She, Megan, and I stopped at Foodlandia (a bunch of awesome food trucks) to grab lunch and took it to Sarah’s house. I got to see her girls again, say hi to her husband, and you guys. I GOT TO HOLD TWO OF HER CHICKENS. And Megan and I collected eggs!!! Megan got to take some home; Sarah thought I could probably sneak some onto the plane but I wasn’t feeling that adventurous. ;) Then, Sarah dropped me at the airport and I was homeward bound. Exhausted but also incredibly happy and fulfilled and inspired. <3

One more giant shout out to everyone who helped us put this together, whether you donated auction items or bid on auction items or donated money or helped to plan or all of the above! Now let's do it all over again but even better in Columbus, OH this November!

- Cara

Friday March 13th

Pre-Conference Dinner for those who come into town early enough!
Children / partners welcome. Gluten free & vegan friendly menu.
Meet in hotel lobby at 6:30pm, or meet at restaurant at 7:00pm
Alberta Street Pub
1036 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211
(503) 284-7665
http://www.albertastreetpub.com/

Saturday March 14th

(complimentary breakfast buffet for hotel guests starts at 7am)

9:00am-10:00am --Registration / Meet & Greet. Coffee / tea service.
10:00am-11:00am -- Speaker from In Other Words: Feminist Community Center. http://inotherwords.org/
11:00am-11:15am - - Break.
11:15am-12:15pm -- Speaker:
Xakuia Cortês (B.A. in International Relations, Diplomacy) on "Feminism in International Relations"
12:15pm-2:00pm -- lunch – hopefully carpool to Alberta Art District for lunch, art galleries, shops etc. (two miles away)
2:00pm-3:30pm -- Body Love Workshop with  Arwyn Daemyir  (owner of Holding Space Massage)
3:45pm-4:45pm -- Speaker: Veronica Arreola
4:45pm-5:45pm -- Break / freshen up
5:45pm-7:00pm -- Happy hour at the hotel restaurant (has a full bar)
7:00pm-8:30pm -- Dinner as a group (at hotel restaurant, or off site??)

Sunday March 15th

(complimentary breakfast buffet for hotel guests starts at 7am)

9:00am-10:00am -- Speaker: Andi Zeisler, cofounder/director from Bitch Magazine (http://bitchmagazine.org/andi-zeisler ) on “Feminist Media Making and Creating” (coffee / tea service)
10:00am-10:15am -- Break
10:15am-11:00am -- Brainstorming / feedback /discussion panel. Ideas for next conference? Open discussion about the 365 project, how it has affected each of us, etc?
11:00am - 12:00pm -- Group lunch (off site)

Valentine's Day is over! Time to celebrate YOU!

This week's theme is body love. What is your favorite part of your body? How do you show yourself love despite flaws you see in the mirror?

Oops! I'm late in posting this week's theme!

To piggy back on Valentine's Day, our theme is LOVE!

What do you love? Who do you love? What does love mean to you? How do you show love?

And if you live on the West Coast, don't forget to join us in Portland on March 14th and 15th. Don't worry there is a Midwest retreat in the making.

We have opened registration for the Portland, OR feminist conference to anyone who has participated in Veronica's 365 selfie project via any social media platform. The conference is 1.5 days: it starts at 9am on March 14th and ends midday on Sunday the 15th. Spaces are limited, so register now by visiting our Portland conference page: Register Here! The first link on the page takes you to a google form where you provide your basic info. You do not need a google account to register.

For those traveling and staying in the hotel, room reservations must be made by February 20th. Please see the above link for details and please try to register by the 20th. The registration form will be taken down when we reach our max of 40 participants.

This conference will be a lovely blend of speakers, workshops, and amazing community. Join us!



Starting this week, I will post a weekly theme for selfies.

One concern I heard last year was that people often had trouble thinking of new ideas for selfies or getting bored with their selfies.

THEME: Persistence. 

As we enter into February many of us might be struggling with or already gave up on our New Year's resolutions. Why not restart? While the struggle is real, it can always use a shake up. Now get out there and kick some ass.

The #365FeministSelfie challenge and site has grown bigger than a hashtag can contain.

We started this site as a central location for information on the project and the planned retreats.