sunday spotlight: elizabeth
Sunday Spotlight is a series where we profile individuals in the Young Mormon Feminists community to hear their stories and get to know them a little better through Q&A or their personal narratives. This week we talked with Elizabeth.
Who are you and what are you up to?
I was born and raised in Northern Illinois. I have 4 sisters; 6 nephews and 3 nieces. I was raised by a single father. I am a 26 year old BYUH grad working on getting into grad school. Which hopefully means I’ll stop looking at Youtube all day and actually take the GRE soon.
I eat a lot of brownies. I’m not sure what else to say.
What makes you a Mormon?
My family started going to the LDS church when I was sunbeam age. I was raised Mormon, attended BYUH, and am still semi-active.
Though I’m certainly on the outskirts of whatever defines LDS culture and belief, I am certainly still claiming that identity.
I’d say the biggest part of me that I’d call “Mormon” would be that I still believe in a better future for Mormonism.
What makes you a feminist?
Feminism as an identity is something I don’t think you can just put on by yourself. I’d like to think I’m an asset to feminism as a movement. But it’s a work in progress, I suppose.
I try to be a feminist first and foremost because of my father. It wasn’t until I saw and heard the harmful messages of the patriarchy in the outside world that I realized my father raised a daughter and not a son and I had a father and not a mother.
He cooked and did my hair for school. I helped fix the car and played football with the neighborhood boys.
So many children grow up thinking they are limited in who they can be. Who would I be if I let them continue to suffer and be stagnant?
What makes me a feminist? I care.
What makes you a Mormon feminist?
This is going to sound pretentious but I feel I’m a Mormon feminist because I work to be the catalyst for helping Mormonism be better. God is like Santa — he doesn’t know what you want for Christmas/Zion unless you ask for it.
I’m a Mormon feminist because I ask.
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In 10 years I’ll be 36. Jeez….I can’t imagine 36. Ok, so 36 year old Liz looks like a married woman (kids are unsure at this point), I’ll be living in either NYC or LA, doing something kick-ass. Maybe a tattoo by then.
I’m unsure about Mormonism in my future.
Any parting words for us?
FMH introduced me to feminism. YMF shoved real world feminism at me. And I love that.
Young Mormon Feminists 
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