Originally published in Connections, a La Leche League USWD administrators’ publication, in about 2000
When I was a new Leader in New Mexico, I wrote quite a few articles for their ALL Enchantment. The trouble was my essays and poems for that publication were personal and all about mothering: artwork with children, difficult mothering days, a miscarriage, and a breast infection.
Did my editors send them back with notes saying “Sorry! Not appropriate subject matter for the ALL!� No, as I remember Enchantment’s editors Cathy Tegmeyer, Kathy Hoag, and later Juanita Watt were all encouraging and respectful with my early efforts. So encouraging and respectful that I continued to write for Enchantment and later for Ohio’s The Circle, Texas’ Ten-Gallon-Tidings, Alaska’s Aurora LLLights, Atlantic Canada’s The Beacon, Western Pennsylvania’s PennsyLLL Points West, and now Utah’s The Beeline.
Area Leaders’ Letters are newsletters written for women in their role as La Leche League Leaders. They are also newsletters that struggle for original writing.
NEW BEGINNINGS is LLLI’s national magazine for parents. It is also a place for mothers’ stories. Sometimes a mother/Leader’s story is so involved and focused on her personal breastfeeding experience that sending it to NEW BEGINNINGS’ editors might be preferred. Other magazines such as Welcome Home, Mothering, Redbook, or Parenting might better reflect the audience the writer is speaking to.
There are places for mothering topics in ALLs: poetry, personal introductions, and anecdotes within more general articles all add spice and personality to our writing. However, diary and journal-type articles focus so much space and energy on personal stories that the ALL focus on inspiring, educating, and informing Leaders can be lost.
Editors and administrators don’t want to totally quash writers’ enthusiasm by pointing out that their mothering topic is inappropriate for the ALL. As my example proves, we writers often don’t have the leadership experience yet to step back and look at it from a literary perspective.
By encouraging, helpfully editing, and including a certain amount of mothering and parenting information in the ALL, you are empowering a writer who will eventually produce informative, inspiring, and educational articles more geared towards Leader issues and interests. Don’t give up. Don’t criticize out of hand. Work respectfully with new writers to let their leadership light shine upon the Area, the Division, the world.
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