Amy Poehler is an amazing female role model. Not only is she an accomplished comedian, actress, and writer, but she is also using her influence to have a positive impact on young women. The former Parks and Recreation star and her friend Meredith Walker started Amy’s Smart Girls, an online community dedicated to empowering and celebrating young women. One of the video channels featured on the site is called “Ask Amy,” which is what it sounds like: girls ask Amy for advice on various topics. This is such a great project because young women need a positive role model who can offer them such advice. Her replies are perfectly accurate for the change or uncertainty that we can experience in college. Here are five of her best pieces of advice.
On stress:
“When things start coming at you, just take them one at a time and deal with them individually. Don’t let yourself get weighed down by the enormity of everything.”
On love:
“Vulnerability is the key to happiness. Vulnerable people are powerful people. Opening your heart and sharing it means that you’re going to get so much love in your life.”
On decisions:
“Sometimes the decision to make is to make a decision. Most decisions are 51/49. Very rarely do you go into something feeling 100 percent sure of it. There’s a lot of doubt in every decision that you make. But…we don’t want to be afraid to make a choice because we’re afraid we’re going to make a mistake.”
On courage:
“Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it.”
On negativity:
“Sometimes what we need to do is just try to stop the tape of mean words that we say to ourselves first, and give ourselves a break. Be compassionate with ourselves and then we’ll have compassion for other people.”