As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, I have to share with you someone that I recently learned about and for whom I am extremely grateful. Her name is Beatrix Potter.

I recently saw the movie, Miss Potter, which is all about the life of Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator of the Peter Rabbit books. She has since become my new heroine and role model and here is why. She totally followed her passions and used her talents to create incredible books and products that connected with so many millions of children in so many languages and countries all around the world! And this is all the more extraordinary as she did this in the early 1900's in England where the biggest goal for women at the time was to marry well and run households!

But that is not all that Beatrix Potter did - this is only the beginning! Peter Rabbit was patented and produced as a soft toy in 1903 making Peter the oldest licensed character in existence. Her books and licensed products produced a steady stream of royalties for Miss Potter that allowed her to purchase and conserve large tracts of farmland in the Lake District that had become very dear to her. She eventually moved to the Lake District and became a respected sheep breeder and farmer, buying up land in the area. When she died, she left everything to the National Trust, a conservation organization that has maintained her land as a park for everyone to enjoy. 

Beatrix Potter followed her true passions and was an extremely unconventional woman for her times. She used her talents and imagination to create books that entertained millions, and as a result built her own personal wealth, of which she used to purchase land to be placed in conservation for all future generations to enjoy. She was truly an extraordinary woman and for these reasons she is my new heroine and role model!

So when you ask me what I am thankful for, as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, I am thankful for incredible women like Beatrix Potter, that show and prove what can be done when women follow their heart's desires.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you incredible women!
Wendy