What is a Maven?

Simply put, a Maven is an expert in their field who seeks to pass knowledge onto others. This is a term that encompasses all women. Yet it’s a term we don’t often refer to ourselves as.

You see each life experience we have has taught us something, whether it be good or bad, there is a lesson in it. Either something that didn’t make us feel very good, so we learned what to do to avoid that from happening again and with a little self-reflection learned why it had to happen. Or something amazing that happened that taught us more about who we are and to embrace our knowledge and perhaps even show it off!

We are all filled with so much knowledge and we all have so much to share with each other.

Generally speaking though, society has taught us not to be vulnerable with each other, and not to share our secrets. But how are we to grow if we are all so guarded? By being vulnerable with each other and sharing our stories we can realize that we are more alike than we are different. We can learn from others’ mistakes and take the lessons from their lives to better our own.

In saying that, we are all experts, so the term Maven is something that we all have earned, or are working towards. That doesn’t necessarily mean a job title, it could be as a mom, or as a friend. We each have our own story that has made us experts in something.

The trouble is that when knowledge comes easy to us, we don’t really think anything of it, because it must be easy for everyone right? At least that’s how I used to feel. But the truth is what comes easiest to us is what we should be sharing the most. As women we often sweep our own story under the rug and shy away from owning our voice as a maven.

Because it’s easier for us to pick apart the negatives of our lives than to dote on ourselves. Society has shaped us to pick apart our flaws and see them as bad things - yet the flaws we have are there for a reason. They are there to teach us a lesson, to let us grow past the “flaws” we claim we have into who we truly are.

And more importantly - what we see as flaws in ourselves, are often seen by others as qualities.

So as Mavens we need to embrace all aspects of ourselves and our stories and be willing to share that knowledge with other Mavens. This will help us all feel less alone in this world, and help us to learn to embrace all aspects of our story as positive ones!