This Momaraderie feature is the first (besides my mom’s) to share about a woman who doesn’t know she’s being tapped. (I love surprises!) She made such an impression on me in the last 48 hours, and what a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning sharing it with you.
Shakirah Dawud is a mother of a daughter who is two-years-old. We all know what that means; following around the baby, consistent attention and basically doing EVERYTHING for her child. She is also a professional copywriter and book editor, and when you sign on to regularly read her blog at Deliberate Ink, you’ll grasp immediately how she can be an editor…a really good one.
It’s because her writing always knocks it out of the park. ALWAYS. I’ve not had the privilege of working with copywriters (it feels more like an advertising thing), and she’s not fully in the camp of public relations (because she’s sitting just outside the fence) yet I see the possible blend, especially with someone so engaged.
Let me tell you a bit more. I’m learning about her in snips and snaps and this should give you a head start:
** Not sure how I was first introduced to Shakirah, perhaps she just appeared in my stream one day with this terribly long Twitter ID with her full name TaqqiyahShakirah_Dawud, I think. And, then, she shortened it to @ShakirahDawud (yeah) b/c I could remember it better. In my blog comments she was commenting, and I asked her how I ought to address her as there were two first names; she told me Shakirah and that was perfect.
** And, she told me she was shy; and I saw that in comments and could feel her holding back. Now that she’s entirely more comfortable the floodgates have opened and she’s pouring out the content and comments everywhere and engaging her personal brand. It’s marvelous to see.
** Nice segue to the comments; Shakirah is one of the most thoughtful and in-depth commenters I’ve ever had the privilege of having on my blogs. On Friday, I posted a Childhood Obesity and BMI Screening Mandates piece over at The SMB Collective. It was one of the most popular posts ever on that blog (I’m still in test mode trying to figure out what it’s going to be when it grows up), and I thank Shakirah for pushing the conversation. She posed such rich thought which encouraged others to weigh in, too, and keep the stories coming. I will be pulling from comments to do a round two on that topic.
** Around the same day, Shakirah posted a blog at her house about Wet Jeans and Chrysler about her childhood memory of wearing tight, skinny jeans to a water park and getting teased.
I’m so eager to keep learning more; in fact, I’m quite eager to see her lovely face – when do we get an avatar, Lady? Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy getting to know Shakirah as much as I have. Her blog is a wonderfully warm place with equally warm individuals sharing personal anecdotes (how does she do that?). Stop in to find out…again, you can find her over at Deliberate Ink.
