What’s the scariest thing you’ve done today? This week? This year? The women in the Spring 2010 issue are setting a fearless example: Kim Coats moved to Rwanda to change lives with bicycles; Emily Miller and Wendy Fisher are, as I write, gearing up to navigate Moroccan sand dunes for nine days; and Veronica Eagan and an army of white-haired ladies are standing up to protect our wilderness. The scariest thing I’ve done this year is take over as editor-in-chief of Women’s Adventure. But fear is a powerful motivator for me and it’s only ever inspired me to do one thing: conquer it.
Michelle has passed the torch of Women’s Adventure into my trembling hands, and I’m shaking as much from the fear of filling her shoes as I am from the excitement and opportunity of it. I’m in the same tentative and upward-bound era in life as she was when she founded the magazine. I’m equally humbled by the stories I hear about women pushing every imaginable boundary. And I share her streak of determination and passion for sharing these stories with you. My goal, like Michelle’s, is to inspire you to create your own tales of adventure, near and far.
So why am I scared? Michelle also has a flare for rallying communities and building businesses—two skills I’m still learning. The key to Women’s Adventure’s continued success is closely linked with our business model and our community, and it’s partly my responsibility to strengthen them both.
My strategy: First, build a better website. You may have already noticed, but we’ve updated womensadventuremagazine.com to provide a better structure for interactive content, and we’re sharing inspiration online through our blog, our Facebook page, and our Twitter account. Second, provide better service. For this issue we dragged six categories of gear though the hills and we’ve printed the specs of our absolute favorites in our Editor’s Choice Awards feature. We posted in-depth reviews of everything else on our website, so you can cull the experience of two dozen testers before you hit our online store. Third, fourth, and fifth: Work as hard as I can to find people, stories, and information that will inspire and inform your next adventure.
Yours,
Kristy Holland
