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How a sisterhood of badass women is redefining what it means to be a female athlete.

After her spine and spirit were shattered, Meghan Sekone-Fraser found redemption through a sisterhood of badass women.

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Paramount Pictures Ben Hur

When Meghan Sekone-Fraser's back was shattered in a car accident, her Olympic dreams shattered as well.

Meghan Sekone-Fraser was well on her way to becoming an Olympic rower. She admits she wasn't as tall or naturally powerful as her teammates, but she kept pushing forward and gained exceptional results.

Unfortunately, those exceptional results came at an exceptional price.

Meghan Sekone-Fraser had to reevaluate her life after enduring a devastating accident. Photo from Meghan Sekone-Fraser, used with permission.

"I struggled with overtraining, injury, body image issues, and eating disorders for the entire span of my 10-year rowing career," Sekone-Fraser told Upworthy. "But I was so focused on my goals that I didn’t see the damage being done."

Then, in 2011, her dreams of reaching the London Olympics came crashing down when a car accident severely injured her back. She was in constant emotional and physical pain.

She was afraid she had lost everything.

So Sekone-Fraser changed her course. But she wasn't pleased with what she saw on her path.

Being an Olympic rower wasn't in the cards for Sekone-Fraser, but she wasn't ready to give up on her passion for athletics.

After months of searching, she discovered muay thai as a way to exercise and still exert her toughness.

Muay thai was a great release for Sekone-Fraser after her accident, but it wasn't all good. Photo from Ashley Kress Photography, used with permission.

But there was a problem.

"When I looked into the sea of women's activewear brands, I couldn't help but notice that I am not represented by the current brands and they did not want to be represented by me," she said. "I'm not a yogi, I don't meditate, I don't like green smoothies, and I am definitely not a size four."

She wasn't interested in brands telling her what kind of lifestyle — or body type — she should be striving for. She was looking for something that said, "Right now, in this very moment, you are powerful. You are a fighter."

And just like in her rowing days, she felt she would never fit in — until her husband stumbled upon Society Nine, an apparel company that focuses on women in combat sports.

Once he found Society Nine, Sekone-Fraser instantly knew this was the answer she was looking for. And not just because of the clothes.

"When I saw their manifesto video, I cried," she said. "After seeing images of women of all shapes, sizes, and colors kicking ass, I saw myself in the brand and knew that Society Nine had the ability to really make an impact and shift the way women view themselves."

It meant there were other women like her. Women like Maria Khwaja, a Muslim-American woman battling intolerance. Women like Mildred Apenyo, who fights for women's right to enjoy to their own space without being catcalled or harassed by men.

Powerful women who weren't backing down from major obstacles.

Meet a few of the diverse women of Society Nine. Photo from Society Nine, used with permission.

This kind of message isn't just one brand. It's a movement, with other companies like Machina Boxing and Kali Active getting onboard, too.

Lynn Le, the founder of Society Nine, thinks it's a good thing.

"Women have been told by society to bite our tongues, dress appropriately, look good in a bikini, be an amazing cook, have killer careers, and be amazing daughters and wives," she said. "We fight because we had to fight against the tide of expectations forever. It's time for women to define power on our own terms."

Lynn Le is very passionate about her mission. Photo from Society Nine, used with permission.

Sekone-Fraser fights, still, to repair her fractured relationship with her body. Being part of a new generation of warrior women is just the ammo she needs.

"As a rower, my abilities were defined by what I saw in the mirror," Sekone-Fraser said. "In this new chapter of my life, what I saw in the mirror was defined by my abilities. That shift in my mind was one of the most empowering things that's ever happened in my life."

Sekone-Fraser (seen here with her husband) is all smiles now that she's true to who she is. Photo from Ashley Kress Photography, used with permission.

"It took me 30 years to begin disrupting my internal dialogue of self-doubt and negativity," she admits. "That's a long time to not embrace yourself."

Loving ourselves is something we should fight for every single day.

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ACUVUE launches a new campaign to inspire Gen Z to put down their phones and follow their vision

What will you create on your social media break? Share it at #MyVisionMySight.

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If you’ve always lived in a world with social media, it can be tough to truly understand how it affects your life. One of the best ways to grasp its impact is to take a break to see what life is like without being tethered to your phone and distracted by a constant stream of notifications.

Knowing when to disconnect is becoming increasingly important as younger people are becoming aware of the adverse effects screen time can have on their eyes. According to Eyesafe Nielsen, adults are now spending 13-plus hours a day on their digital devices, a 35% increase from 2019.1. Many of us now spend more time staring at screens on a given day than we do sleeping which can impact our eye health.

Normally, you blink around 15 times per minute, however, focusing your eyes on computer screens or other digital displays have been shown to reduce your blink rate by up to 60%.2 Reduced blinking can destabilize your eyes’ tear film, causing dry, tired eyes and blurred vision.3

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Family

Mom who packs her child a meal when going out to restaurants has parents fired up

Does she have a good point?

via UnbreakableMomma/TikTok

Karlie Smith shows the meal she's bringing to the restaurant for her son.

A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

The video posted by Ohio mom, Karlie Smith (unbreakablemomma on TikTok), has received nearly 600,000 views and has over 1,850 comments.

“Call me cheap, call me whatever, but if we’re going out to a restaurant, I’m packing my kid a meal," Smith, 21, said in her post. "I do this for many reasons. On Friday nights, my family and I get together, and tonight, we’re getting food out. My son is not getting food out.”

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Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
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movies
Joy

18-year-old took her college savings and bought the restaurant where she was a dishwasher

Samantha Frye, the newest owner of Rosalie's restaurant, is proving there's more than one way to invest in your future.

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There are many way to invest in your future

Eighteen year old Samantha Frye has traded college life for entrepreneurship, and she has no regrets.

Frye began working at Rosalie's Restaurant in Strasburg, Ohio at 16 as a dishwasher, working up the ranks as a kitchen prep, server, then line cook. All while working a second job, sometimes third job.

After graduating high school, Frye started college at Ohio State with plans of studying business or environmental engineering. But when she came back to work a shift at Rosalie’s for winter break, an opportunity arose—the owners had planned to sell the restaurant.
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Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

KCEN|YouTube

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

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Joy

12-year-old Texas girl saves her family from carbon monoxide poisoning

She knew something was wrong with her mom and brother, which wound up saving her whole family.

WFAA|YouTube

Fort Worth 12-year-old helps save family from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide is called a silent killer for a reason. Many people don't realize they're experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning before it's too late. The gas is colorless and odorless and tends to have a sedating effect that causes people to sleep through the fatal poisoning. Having carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most effective ways to identify the gas before it's too late to get out of the house, but not every home has one.

A little girl in Fort Worth, Texas, experienced a terrifying encounter with the deadly gas, but her quick actions saved her entire family. Jaziyah Parker is being held up as a hero after she realized something was wrong with her family members and called for help.

The girl called 911 after she noticed her mom pass out. On the call with the dispatcher, Jaziyah says she thinks her mother has died before explaining that there was something now wrong with her baby brother, who was just 5-months-old.

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Pop Culture

In a touching, unscripted moment, Drew Barrymore rushes to comfort a crying audience member

"Are you okay?"

via Eva Rinaldi/Flickr

Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Barrymore has consistently starred in hit films and movies that are rewatchable cable-TV staples, such as “Charlie's Angels” (2000), “Never Been Kissed” (1999), “Scream” (1996), “The Wedding Singer” (1998), “50 First Dates” (2004) and “Fever Pitch” (2005).

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS. So far, the show has been a big success, attracting an average of 1.21 million views per show, and ranks as the #4 talk show in syndication. It was recently renewed through the 2024 season.

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