Angelia White Stone is the publisher, president and CEO of Hope for Women magazine, a quarterly publication with a circulation of 200K. A Ball State University Black Alumni Award of Achievement recipient, Stone has overcome a background of discouragement and now spends her life encouraging other women to step into their full potential and share their inspiring stories. Stone recently penned the book Yes Sisters, to do just that: encourage women to surround themselves with women who affirm, encourage and challenge them to be their best selves.
We spoke with Stone to learn more about her book.
Why did you decide to write this book?
My story has a lot of moving parts and the best way for me to share [that] was to include the sisters and women [who] helped me navigate through the past 15 years. For most of my life, I woke up, did what others expected of me, went to bed, and repeated the sequence the next day. I loved my family and did my best to obey what I heard from the church pulpit. I have always valued kindness, both as the giver and the recipient.
But I was functioning on empty. The fact is, too often my needs for love and security and kindness remained unfilled. I went through the motions of living. My spirit, however, had dried up from unkind, unsafe input from others, even people I trusted to love me. Childhood trauma had crippled my expectations for myself, and adulthood reflected those early wounds.
I did daily life. I was stuck. I yearned for a safe church community with believers who acted in love instead of slinging hurtful rumors about me. I longed to feel beautiful and cherished. And I wanted to make a difference for someone else.
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