I knew about Rwanda, saw heart-yanking images and read articles of the 1994 genocide that left a nation scarred. But I didn't really feel the connection until my friend Elizabeth returned from working in the African country, where she'd educated and empwered women to take political stances and position as Rwanda slowly rebuilt. Elizabeth had also founded a nonprofit organization there, Every Child Is My Child, which funds education for children in Rwanda and Burundi.
She invited me to watch a marketing video and give feedback on Every Child's social media strategy, and even as I fed ideas and talked through content tactics, I was churning inside. With a volunteer staff and board, and only a few hundred dollars in donations, the organization provides tuition, uniforms, books and school supplies to enough kids that it the community has shifted. The cost is minimal -- less than my cable and phone bills for the month -- and investment is so critical -- kids having a backpack of what they need to enter a classroom, consider college, think about how to raise up Rwanda even more.
Not me. And I have the equivalent of a bad sunburn on the lower half of my face to prove it.
Years ago, a friend of my mom's had a violent reaction to an inocuous beauty product -- lotion or moisturizer or sunscreen -- and ended up in the emergency room with hives and horribleness. My mom told me the story in warning over the phone, and I swear I could feel the whoosh! of her finger waving past me, even from a miles away.
I've had that stern voice in my head every time I've caught a glance of -- and ignored -- the warnings plastered to the sides of boxes of the many, many products I've slathered on my skin and hair and nails in the years since.
I really should do that 24-hour patch-test thingy, I tell myself guiltily.
And then I rip open the seventeen layers of plastic wrapping and glop it all over my parched/sensitive/super-fair/broken-out/petrie dish lab experiment skin.
I had Wonder Woman Underoos when I was a kid. They had a half-camisole that I pretended was a bra until I really did wear one (freshman year -- shut up). I felt powerful wearing garb like hers. My cup-size and Wonder Woman accessories expanded as my life did. I have a giant gold bracelet that snaps shut with a CLANG! and is so gawdy, it surely hold super-powers. I've had knee-highs and bustiers, not WW-branded but certainly a nod to my favorite high-heel-booted truth-teller with luxurious chestnut locks.
I'm channeling that spirit (and definitely a lasso of truth) with my latest project: A video series for single moms.
It's hosted on Babble.com and is called (oh, you will love this) One-Der Woman: The Single Mom's Guide to Happiness.
Do me a favor and resist the temptation to call it One-Durrrr Woman or similar. And ignore my kid, who said, "If it is about you as a single mom PLUS your child, shouldn't it really be called TWO-DER WOMAN?"
Frankly, he has a point. And as much as I would love the bosom-heaving costumery of making this more TUDOR, I will stick to the bosom=heaving costumery of WONDER.
I will be sharing quick tips and field-tested advice on finding little moments of happiness, health and humor in the craziness of being a single mama. Other parents are welcome to tune in, too, of course. I will be sharing advice twice a month and keep you updated on the ONE-DER here.
So if you see me sailing by, seemingly sitting on air up above, wave quietly. I am probably filming a new episode.
NOT CONVINCED YET?
In the debut episode of One-Der Woman, I do it right — with weird lighting and by showing my panties!
I’m not kidding. I justify the weird lighting because ladies of a certain age often want to crank down the fluorescence when panties are flashed.
So, please, click play. Laugh. Cry. Press play again. Follow my good advice because it works. I’ll bet my star-spangled shorts on it.
What would you like to see me cover? Have advice or questions or hilarious stories? Share them with me at onederwomanshowATgmailDOTcom.
is a single mama in the city, super-savvy editor, writer, video host and shameless shoe whore.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 
